Pornographic actor
From Academic Kids
A pornographic actor or a porn star is somebody who appears in pornographic movies, live sex shows or peep shows. Many actors/actresses may appear nude in films (usually rather briefly) or on stage but even if they depict sexual behavior they are not considered erotic actors. To be considered a porn star, one must appear chiefly in porn movies and be filmed in explicit sexual acts, usually with close-up shots of the genitalia during sexual acts and where explicit nudity is involved. Most porn stars use stage names.
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History
The first porn star with name recognition was Linda Lovelace who starred in the 1972 feature, Deep Throat. The success of this movie, which grossed hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide, spawned a slew of other films and pornographic film stars such as Marilyn Chambers (Behind the Green Door), Gloria Leonard (The Opening of Misty Beethoven), Georgina Spelvin (The Devil in Miss Jones), Jeremy Cohen (" the Speed Demon Of Porn"), and Bambi Woods (Debbie Does Dallas). This was followed by what is called The Golden Age of Porn in the early and mid-eighties. Such legendary performers as John Holmes, Seka, Ginger Lynn Allen, Annette Haven, Veronica Hart, and Hyapatia Lee became well known in this era. Jenna Jameson and Briana Banks are among the most well known porn stars in the early 2000s.
Attempts in the 1970s to outlaw pornography in the U.S. by prosecuting porn stars for prostitution failed, as the courts made a distinction between someone who took part in a sexual relationship for money, and the act of portraying a sexual relationship as a performance for money.
The ability for people to view adult movies in the privacy of their own homes, due to the popularity of the VCR (and now DVD) created a new adult market that could not be ignored. The production values of adult films declined dramatically in the attempt to create product for ever increasing demand. As a result of this, there are hundreds of adult film companies today, releasing tens of thousands of shot-on-video titles annually.
As a result, there are thousands of people working as pornographic actors to meet the demand for these films.
Since the main market is for pornography aimed at a heterosexual male audience, the primary demand is for good-looking female performers. Female performers in pornography aimed at the heterosexual male audience are generally expected to perform with both male and female partners.
Male performers are generally selected less for their looks as for their ability to get and maintain an erection ("get wood") for a long period on a crowded movie set, as well as the ability to ejaculate at will. Ron Jeremy is probably the most famous male performer in heterosexual pornography. A number of male performers perform in both heterosexual and gay male pornography. Male performers are, in general, paid substantially less than female performers.
Pornographic actors and sexually transmitted diseases
Because of the nature of their work, usually involving sex without condoms, pornographic actors are particularly vulnerable to AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.
In the 1980s, an outbreak of AIDS led to a number of deaths of erotic actors. This led to the creation of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, which helped set up a system in the U.S. adult film industry where erotic actors are tested for HIV every 30 days. All sexual contact is logged, and positive test results result in all sexual contacts for the last three to six months being contacted and re-tested.
This resulted in low rates of HIV transmission, and hence low rates of infection among erotic actors: it has been reported that not a single HIV test was positive in the four year period prior to 2004.
In 2004, a male performer, Darren James, tested positive for HIV. One fellow porn star, Lara Roxx, was identified and tested positive for HIV. James apparently had contact with 12 other women since his previous negative HIV test. Following the release of this information the heterosexual porn industry voluntarily reduced their workload for the next 30 days, as various contacts with both individuals, as well as others within the industry, re-evaluated and expanded upon their original programs dealing with this possibility.
Related articles
- Glamour model
- Bondage model
- List of big-bust models and performers
- Sex worker
- List of porn stars
- AIDS and the porn industry
- Pornography
External links
- Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation (http://www.aim-med.org/faq.html): Frequently asked questions
- Anna Span's Advice on Becoming a Pornstar (http://www.bgafd.co.uk/miscellany/getintoporn-04.php): warning, sidebar images contain nudityde:Pornodarsteller
