We don’t know why porn stars should not teach children, why it’s okay to watch porn but not be in it, why we should have to hide our involvement in pornography, or why we should be ashamed of it. These arguments apply, in differing degrees, to sex itself. All of these fumblings and misunderstandings are symptoms of a world coming to terms with new openness and connectivity. What could once be private can no longer be. The line between porn consumer and performer should not be so stark; it is only so because we still hide away our sexual feelings. Being open is part of being honest.
—Porn actor/writing teacher Conner Habib on the Kevin Hogan controversy, in The Advocate.
Cam
Well in all honesty, there is something I find really disturbing.
The Movie Ratings Board that handles movie ratings are not public people, in fact their identities are hidden.
They will give a movie like Saw an R rating, but a movie that shows a flash of a penis, or a couple having sex gets an NC 17.
Just curious. How many people are likely to be kidnapped and carved up by a maniac compared to how many people, at sometime in their life will have sex?
Yet that board seems terrified of something that everybody will do and yet things that extreme violence is somehow more normal.
People are nuts.
Marie Cohn
Well, Irish-Arab nom du porn guy, the line is pretty stark between performer and consumer because most of the performers and most of the consumers don’t look like each other.
iDavid
When you take into consideration that the very people (the bible based fantasy world) that fire porn stars for teaching children, are financially supporting and masturbating to (in the “real” authentic world) the very porn movies the porn stars star in, well, here-ye to the double standard. Typical puritanical bible based hypocrisy strikes again. Honesty? “God forbid”!
Either we drop the whole subject and not fire anyone, or we should be firing porn stars and the people that support and watch them. But then for the latter, teaching staff might be all but gone.
My oh my, what in the world shall we do?
Authenticity is upon us, I suggest all hypocrites yield asap for the good of humanity and it’s true sexual self making the unseen, seen.
bagooka
Interesting article.
Karl
Porn should be as mainstream to the general public as tv shows and movies, as in no-one should be ashamed of it.
lurz
@jason: Couldn’t agree more.
cynthialee
@jason:
So we all should be held to your standards of morality? There is NOTHING moraly, socialy or intrinsicaly wrong about sex for money when all parties are consenting.
OMG!!! It might even be fun for some of the people involved.
Not all sex needs to be a spiritual conection that takes it to the next level.
Sometimes it is perfectly ok to just rut like a beast and have some base hedonistic fun.
wingfield
I’m glad people do porn! but the problem is …at the end of the day I don’t think you should be able to know what your teachers look like naked… let alone what they look like having sex. It’s a huge distraction… I think it’s simple… if you think one day you might teach… don’t do porn!
cynthialee
the better answer is simple:
if you are likely to be distracted by the fact someone you know is in porn…don’t watch porn
A person should not have to alter their (legal) behavior just because it might make someone else uncomfortable.
iDavid
Hmmm did “Jason” have his comment removed? I don’t see a Jason on my screen.
Jeff
I agree with the porn guy’s editorial, the fact that you’re in porn or have done porn, or even prostitution should not be a big deal.
Wingfield
@cynthialee: Not exactly… if people find out he/she is in porn, those pictures will be passed around to people whether they “watch porn” or not. I think you are right, someone who does porn doesn’t have to “alter” their behavior or stop doing porn… they just shouldn’t be surprised when people feel uncomfortable with them giving instruction and guidance to their kids.
scott ny'er
@Cam: Good point. I’d rather have a teacher who did porn than some teacher who went around killing people. (Or I’d take the teach who advocates porn vs. one who advocates violence to be a fair comparison.)
Seriously, the logic is questionable in this country due to religious and other types of brainwashing. It’s just sex and nudity. Which are glorious things.
Mike in Asheville
@iDavid: Wondered the same thing. I love reading jason’s comments — they are always full of such great gems as: all women are whores; all straight men are at least bi and afraid to admit it; all gays are actually bi not afraid of pussy; all porn is prostitution, etc. etc. etc.
My favorites are those “I have been in sex clubs and baths, and they are disgusting, full of men engaging in all sorts of hedonistic sex. I have stood by listening and it is just gross what they do…” Oh, the irony, he is so disgusted yet he keeps on going to them.
Oh well, missed the joke this time.
the other Greg
It’s so entertaining how guys who are addicted to porn and spend a fortune every year on porn convince themselves that “all men” are as into porn as they are! Believe it or not, some men have actual grown-up sex lives.
Jaroslaw
There’s a lot to say here. I think a great porn star who’s name escapes me said porn is a lot more honest as a business than most. I think people who sell genetically modified seeds to the third world which do not reproduce when they are collected from the grown crop should be ashamed. Crops which only respond to the fertizilizer and weed killer sold by the corporation. We’re talking about desperately poor people here vs. extremeely wealthy companys and individuals…..Etc. etc. etc. Pick your own unethical disgusting billionare person or corporation.
However, I don’t think all prostitution and porn is “victimless” and I’m not talking about children. There should never be circumstances where people feel they have no choice. But this is as much pie in the sky, I realize as saying “I’d rather have a teacher who did porn than kill someone.” (I’m not making fun of the sentiment, just that it is not an either/or question).
jason
Men who watch porn tend to be anti-social. Men (and women) who do porn tend to be drug addicts. Nuff said.
David Gervais
@ Jason
You are in the wrong place if you think ignorant stereotyping gets a free pass. “Nuff said.”
kylew
The issue is not whether or not porn is morally acceptable – in any impartial, sane morality it is PERFECTLY acceptable. The issue is, hypocricy aside, the mindset of someone who participates in porn; given that it is socially frowned upon, is more likely to be one that does not conform to rules, and is thus likely to be one that pursues other undesirable practices such as drug taking or prostitution. It’s like the argument that says taking soft drugs lead to taking hard drugs.
I’m sure if you did comparative charts between porn stars and porn consumers, there would be a greater propensity per capita, amongst the performers, towards criminal behaviour.
If porn was widely socially accepted, I would not expect this to be the case to such a pronounced degree.
B
No. 16 · Jaroslaw wrote, “There’s a lot to say here. I think a great porn star who’s name escapes me said porn is a lot more honest as a business than most.”
I probably posted a similar comment elsewhere (not sure if it was about porn or something else), as a literary reference to the Pirates of Penzance, where the Pirate King says (more or less), “compared to respectability, it [piracy] is a relatively honest living.” That’s the earliest reference to such a statement that I know of. It would be fun to trace it back further if someone has the time, but back to Gilbert and Sullivan is a good start!
Alas, I can’t take credit for being a “great porn star,” or even a minor one, for that matter. In fact, not even for being an “extra”. Guess some of us have led sheltered lives.
B
No. 8 · wingfield wrote, “I’m glad people do porn! but the problem is …at the end of the day I don’t think you should be able to know what your teachers look like naked… let alone what they look like having sex. It’s a huge distraction… I think it’s simple… if you think one day you might teach… don’t do porn!”
Interestingly, they’ll blame a teacher who once did porn, but not the person who made it possible for the kiddies to get hold of the porn in the first place, whether willfully or accidentally.
Ken S
This folds handily into an argument I’ve made for a while now about “public morals” in the “information age” and with social networking; every time some politician nowadays tries to shame one of his rivals or someone he wants to put out of a job by gnashing his teeth over some dirty picture they tweeted or un-PC remark they made with an iPhone in the room, I wonder who our ‘leaders’ will be 10 or 20 or 30 years from now. Certainly not any human being I know. At the supposedly ‘epidemic’ rates of teens sexting nowadays, and with all the ‘incriminating’ remarks made on facebook or embarrassing videos on youtube, it seems like the only way we’ll be able to find anyone to run for public office will be to start drafting the Amish. Unless we adjust our ‘standards’ to bring our expectations more in-line with realistic behaviour, they’ll have to scrap elections and fill the halls of power with conscripted luddites who’ve never owned a cellphone or been online.
Allen D.
I still haven’t made up my mind on this topic. I lean towards the side of “kids don’t give a damn about what their teachers do in the spare time. When you leave the classroom, your teachers might as well not even exist”.
And, as someone pointed out above, there should be more scrutiny on the parents whose children are able to access porn so easily.
As for the argument idea of “if you think you might want to teach – don’t do porn” – where do we draw the line? Should the bus driver or the guy working at the candy store be fired for doing porn (couldn’t think of better examples, but you get what I mean)? ANY person who interacts with children should be fired for doing porn?
The hypocrisy of these sanctimonious parents, school board members, etc coming down on someone for doing porn, while watching it & jacking themselves stupid is astounding.
I’ve hung out with porn stars. They don’t come off as better or worse than anyone else. People are people (cue the Depeche Mode). Besides, if it wasn’t for these people — we wouldn’t have the porn that we enjoy pleasuring ourselves to.
Hmmm. Maybe I DO know where I stand on this after all. Heheh.
Akula
This whole our kids seeing the teacher naked argument is such a joke. I swear our country has more in common with Islamic countries then other Western countries. Kids see naked adults all the time in European countries, they are not hung up on “naked is bad” like in this country. My gawd in the Asian countries whole families bath together at public bath houses, so I’m sure the kids there have seen their teachers, doctors, firemen, policemen etc etc naked by the time they are in school, so please come up with a better argument.
prohomo
@Karl: No way. Straight porn is everything shameful and I don’t want that mindset to be the common rule in society, especially for heterosexuals. Yuck.
iDavid
@Provoking
Hmm gay porn has no shame, why should str8 porn. There is no-shame porn donchyaknow. It’s produced by Leave Your Judgements At The Door Video. It’s awesome, specially the Orgie scenes.
iDavid
@Prohomo above ……..
Wingfield
Trust me as a college student I CERTAINLY wouldn’t mind if my professor did porn… i’d probably like it. But the reality is in America we are prudish (which I kind of like) and we do have standards when it comes to education. Yes selling your body on camera for money might not be as bad as selling drugs or other things but we hold those in authority to certain standards. In this day and age people know that if they do porn, they could be discovered and asked to leave their jobs.
SIDE NOTE* It isn’t just in America, queerty did an article 2 years ago about teacher Sam Handley who was fired at a school in Britain for filming a j/0 scene.
B
No. 24 · Akula wrote, “My gawd in the Asian countries whole families bath together at public bath houses, so I’m sure the kids there have seen their teachers, doctors, firemen, policemen etc etc naked by the time they are in school, so please come up with a better argument.”
Nudity in Asian countries under these circumstances is not considered to be sexual.
The problem in the U.S. is that some people have an Asian/European view of the matter whereas others are basically the “Talibush” – religious puritans or people with similar hangups who want to force their conventions on everyone else. As an example, some years ago I showed my parents some pictures taken in the Sierra Nevada range of some people skinny dipping, using a very discrete camera angle – no “objectionable” part of anyone’s anatomy in view. My father said, rather shocked, “You mean they do that in mixed company [meaning both genders]?” Other people from a similar part of the U.S. (East Coast) were similarly shocked. I thought the reaction was rather parochial.
There’s some research indicating that the differences between liberals and conservatives are related to features in their brains. According to http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/07/brain-structure-differs-in-liberals-conservatives-study : ““We found that greater liberalism was associated with increased gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, whereas greater conservatism was associated with increased volume of the right amygdala,” the study said,” and ‘People with a large amygdala are “more sensitive to disgust” and tend to “respond to threatening situations with more aggression than do liberals and are more sensitive to threatening facial expressions,” the study said.
Liberals are linked to larger anterior cingulate cortexes, a region that “monitor(s) uncertainty and conflicts,” it said.’
prohomo
@iDavid: Straight smut clearly has disrespect/ hatred toward women. Such gender imbalance is almost non-existant in gay porn.
prohomo
@iDavid: Straight smut clearly has disrespect/ hatred toward women. Such gender imbalance is almost non-existent in gay porn.
iDavid
Prohomo,
The fact you call it smut and shameful ques me that you are most likely quite puritanical in your views to start with, which from my perspective, rules you out as an unbiased objective observer. There are many women execs in the industry n recent years and women are more respected in the industry with the likes of Jenna James raising a flag. You may have been correct 10 years ago but things have changed dramatically and the mistreatment of women is a hard call, especially if you are a responsible adult and don’t do victimhood. Women are 33% of the porn consumers, and tho the hate tween men and women will always be an issue, the industry is far more female oriented now and therefore looking out for each other. I don’t hear any foul calls from women in str8 porn and I’ve watched it and see no abuse.
jason
Straight porn is much worse than gay porn. With gay porn, you at least get what it says it is: gay porn. With straight porn, you get lesbianism combined with straight acts. This combination of female homosexuality and heterosexuality – and its marketing as “straight” – is truly a distortion of human sexuality. Anyone who participates in straight porn needs to be hounded and confronted for agreeing to this distortion.
I don’t care if I offend the lesbians and bisexual women on this board: if you or your sisters, subscribe to this paradgim, you are vile and should not be included in the gay rights movement.
jason
Any woman who subscribes to the bisexual double standard of straight porn is a vile creature, basically.
prohomo
And straight porn is mostly vile.
prohomo
@iDavid:Me, superstitiously puritanical?! No, but careful about sex and sexuality, definitely. I navigate carefully. Gay porn has it’s crap, but straight smut blows respect out of the water with it’s harsh male dominance, name-calling degradation of women(calling them bitches, sluts,etc., choking), dangerous sex practices(barebacking,mouth to anus,etc.) Disgusting. And NO ONE calls them out on it. Not to mention their homophobia-complete disregard of bi, gay men. Fuck them. They are not our friends.
the other Greg
At this point Kevin Hogan hasn’t even been fired, just suspended so far. But the point was not that he did porn; the point was that he lied about it.
Going forward, the lawyers for every public school district will remember to put in a line or two about this in the hiring policy.
The interview will go something like, “Have you ever done porn?” “Yes.” “Sorry, we can’t hire you.”
Or, “No.” “Of course if you’re lying about that, you realize your signature here will mean your immediate termination?”
The only reason no school district ever thought to do this before was that until recently, it never crossed anyone’s mind that a porn actor would be crazy enough to apply for a job as a teacher.
Still, this is suburban Boston we’re talking about. I’m sure Kevin Hogan’s career has not been ruined at all. He will probably get hired by one of the private schools in the area, run by Volvo-driving vegan “trustafarian” parents with more money than brains, who’ll be thrilled to have a porn star teaching their precious little monsters.
Blaming the mean, awful reporter for “ruining Hogan’s career,” simply by reporting a FACT about his (very recent!) past that was bound to come out eventually anyway, makes no more sense than Herman Cain’s endless self-pity and whining about how the supposedly “liberal” media were trying to ruin him by reporting FACTS about his past.
arbiter
I think, for the most part, he’s right. We come from a cultural backdrop that has demonized sex and sexuality way beyond similar disdain for violence and crime. And the stigma attached to porn in recent years seems to be dwindling as more and more admit to usage, as it becomes more mainstream, and unfair attitudes towards those that participate are lingering. Think about it… if everyone who does porn is mixed up in drugs or worse, how do we account for well-educated, respected, licensed and well-credentialed people like Kevin Hogan (or his wife)? And the line is blurring between performer and consumer. How easy is it now to start a profile somewhere like Xtube and start accepting money for access to self-made porn? Very! And sites like this are HUGE now. Many other countries, such as Asian countries, don’t have a similar, latent hatred of the human body we do. They lack the sentiments we can boast of thanks to early Catholic thinkers like St. Augustine. Well, fact is, we can’t tell if someone is a good or a bad teacher based on past involvement in porn, any more than we can tell anything about their lives or abilities simply because they hadn’t. It’s puritanical, moralizing and I think it’s nonsense.
BubbasBack
Sorry buds, all porn stars, straight and gay, are skanks.
Allen D.
@BubbasBack: I’ve known many accountants, computer programmers, mailmen, cops, etc whose personal lives make porn stars look like complete saints.
Don’t generalize.
the other Greg
I wonder where this curious notion arose that all adults are “porn consumers” (either openly or hypocritically) because that’s what’s so weird about many of these comments.
It’s cool whatever porn consumers want to believe about themselves, I just wish they would stop convincing themselves that all men (& most women?) are as into porn as they are! There’s no reason to believe, for instance, that most of the parents in Kevin Hogan’s district are being hypocritical or anything like that. Probably like most grown-ups over 30 or so, most of them don’t watch porn at all. (If someone has other statistics, pls cite!)
I guess the headline’s contention is okay – “The Line Between Porn Consumer And Performer Shouldn’t Be So Stark” – since my bf and I are not porn consumers, except maybe in a very tangential sense. We do SEE porn from time to time, at gay bars, and none of it looks all that fascinating. What’s the big deal? Why do people pay such big money for this stuff? Are their actual sex lives so fucking boring that they have no choice, seriously?
My boyfriend broke up with a previous boyfriend who was a porn addict, who did little else in his non-working time (& perhaps working time) except watch porn. No other gay men we’re friends with seem to be very into it. But some Queerty commenters seem awfully convinced that ALL gay men watch porn incessantly.
jason
People who have sex for money do not represent people who have sex for nothing. Nuff said.
BubbasBack
@Allen D.: Well Alllen ol’ boy, then you sure know a heck of a lot of losers! Burp. Still, porn stars ARE skanks. Double burp.
Allen D.
@the other Greg: Most people that I’ve witnessed, in polite company, will outright lie about enjoying porn. That’s why. People are sexual creatures. Surely you would agree that the vast majority of people masturbate. Most people don’t get off on nothing (or memories).
& Bubba – I know people who are open about who they are. So to say that someone is a loser based solely on their professional is fucking stupid.
Allen D.
*solely on their profession. Damnit.
Mike UK
remember guys, if you’re going to do porn just make sure it doesn’t come back and bite you on the arse one day!