How Women Of Color Should Navigate In The Adult Industry
Anyone that has read my writings about the adult industry understands that I have no respect for the powers to be of the industry. For the most part I think that they are a group of undereducated, racist at their core, unaccomplished white males. How else can you explain why there treatment of people of color in the adult industry today is basically unchanged in the past 25 years? I also feel that at the core they truly dislike women. They always want to say that it’s just fantasy but I ask why would your fantasies be so dark towards women if you had any respect for them. So I shake my uru hammer (the Mighty Thor’s hammer) at that sorry lot.
This week I have been communicating with this young lady that was in the industry that knew quite of few black female in the industry. This lady is out of the industry now and has been for almost two years. But after communicating with her I immediately found out she was funny as hell and had a very insightful take on the black women in the industry. Let me start off be telling you exactly what she said:
I am a FIRM believer that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. Even if you provide an avenue for these new up and coming black starlets to shine in this industry...if it's not in them to be winners, they will ultimately find a way to fuck it up..maybe thats a bit pessimistic, but even if you lead them to the water, instead of taking a sip..they might fall in and drown!
After I read this I laughed for 20 minutes. Basically she feels that it’s on each individual to be successful. How you handle yourself in the industry as far as money, attitude, and self-worth plays a big part of any success you may have. Now I totally agree with that but I also understand that the industry has structural problems and that hamper ones success if your are a black actress. I often wonder about women, especially black women that freely walk into the adult industry. You stand the chance of your family and friends turning their backs on you, finding a serious lasting relationship is now cut in half, and what you have done in your youth may come back to hunt and/or to hurt you at a time when you may have changed your lifestyle totally around. But I say, once you are in and you know these things why not be the best you can be. So it’s like why do you have to put up with a group of unaccomplished white males standing in your way. That’s madness and it needs to stop.
What does it take for a woman of color to be successful in the adult industry? Marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing. If she doesn’t understand that she’s in a hole from the very start. I’m not saying that she has to be a marketing genius but simple marketing principles shouldn’t be so hard to understand. The more you are seen, the more you are featured in articles in print and the more your photos are seen, the more people know about you. How can industry photographers and fans not recognize a woman that has been in the business for 3 years now and have been in over a 120 films at an industry event? It sounds crazy but this just happened to Marie Luv because I read it on her blog on her MySpace site. I think she was a little taken a back because of it. How can this be possible? Today the industry is full of women that do porn. The adult industry has long stopped trying to promote women into stars. When you have a star in the business that star can demand a salary but when you just have women that are in porn they have to accept what a producer wants to pay. The industry doesn’t want white porn stars so you know they don’t want black porn stars at all. You do have white porn stars that are very successful but they only last two or three years and that’s by design. Jenna Jamison is a totally different animal. Unless this individual is willing to get out there and work on promotions and marketing, once the industry has pulled everything they can pull out of her she’s going to drop off the face of the earth. At least a white adult star has a base to start from once she’s on her on but that woman of color is just out there. Today you can’t name one black adult star that would have a base to start from. There hasn’t been anyone the industry has promoted enough to the public. And if a starlet waits on that she will be waiting for a very long time.
There is an avenue to take that will help women of color be successful in the adult industry. In the past the key to success as an adult actress relates to how much money you could make outside the film industry. The dance circuit was the key and how many appearances you could make, i.e. adult video and bookstores. Today the avenue is the Internet. Through hard work a women of color can cultivate a very strong fan base via the Internet. If you are in the industry there is no reason for you not to have a website, yahoo club, and now a MySpace site. This industry is going to take all it can from you so why not get every cent you can from it. But you have to have a plan and be astute enough to work the industry while it’s working you. You must learn to be an opportunist. The retired adult star that give me her insight about the industry told me that she was damn near on the streets when she got in the industry. But she had a plan and for the most part stuck to it. She was able to get her credit together, save some money and buy a house. Buying a house is something I know women that have been in the industry for years haven’t done. She felt that a lot of them just blow their money and are living from day to day.
In this industry like in the general population you only have a few individuals with good business sense. If you think having a nice car and apartment is success then it doesn’t take much to please you and you are prefect for this industry. But your bar of success is much higher then you are going to be labeled as a pain in the ass to work with. You refuse to do certain acts or want more money than the average women in porn then you are going to find this industry difficult. If you stand up for yourself and are able to say no then you are going to find this industry difficult. But you have to keep your self-respect because when you lose your self-respect that’s when the demons of this industry (drugs and alcohol) can creep into your life. And they have taken down a many good people.
Any women of color coming into this industry needs to understand the type of individuals that run and control the adult industry. You must counter these individuals through self- promotion and self-marketing anytime you get the chance. That means when you have a chance for a photo opps, being interviewed, and just standing out from the crowd you need to do so. A woman of color in the adult industry needs to think of herself as a twin-engine plane. All twin-engine planes can fly on one engine. Now you are going to have some yaw and pitch problems but they can be controlled and you should fly. But if you had both engines running at the same time the flight is going to be so much easier. So if you are going to navigate in this industry then you need to have both engines running. And maybe you will find success.
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This week I have been communicating with this young lady that was in the industry that knew quite of few black female in the industry. This lady is out of the industry now and has been for almost two years. But after communicating with her I immediately found out she was funny as hell and had a very insightful take on the black women in the industry. Let me start off be telling you exactly what she said:
I am a FIRM believer that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. Even if you provide an avenue for these new up and coming black starlets to shine in this industry...if it's not in them to be winners, they will ultimately find a way to fuck it up..maybe thats a bit pessimistic, but even if you lead them to the water, instead of taking a sip..they might fall in and drown!
After I read this I laughed for 20 minutes. Basically she feels that it’s on each individual to be successful. How you handle yourself in the industry as far as money, attitude, and self-worth plays a big part of any success you may have. Now I totally agree with that but I also understand that the industry has structural problems and that hamper ones success if your are a black actress. I often wonder about women, especially black women that freely walk into the adult industry. You stand the chance of your family and friends turning their backs on you, finding a serious lasting relationship is now cut in half, and what you have done in your youth may come back to hunt and/or to hurt you at a time when you may have changed your lifestyle totally around. But I say, once you are in and you know these things why not be the best you can be. So it’s like why do you have to put up with a group of unaccomplished white males standing in your way. That’s madness and it needs to stop.
What does it take for a woman of color to be successful in the adult industry? Marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing. If she doesn’t understand that she’s in a hole from the very start. I’m not saying that she has to be a marketing genius but simple marketing principles shouldn’t be so hard to understand. The more you are seen, the more you are featured in articles in print and the more your photos are seen, the more people know about you. How can industry photographers and fans not recognize a woman that has been in the business for 3 years now and have been in over a 120 films at an industry event? It sounds crazy but this just happened to Marie Luv because I read it on her blog on her MySpace site. I think she was a little taken a back because of it. How can this be possible? Today the industry is full of women that do porn. The adult industry has long stopped trying to promote women into stars. When you have a star in the business that star can demand a salary but when you just have women that are in porn they have to accept what a producer wants to pay. The industry doesn’t want white porn stars so you know they don’t want black porn stars at all. You do have white porn stars that are very successful but they only last two or three years and that’s by design. Jenna Jamison is a totally different animal. Unless this individual is willing to get out there and work on promotions and marketing, once the industry has pulled everything they can pull out of her she’s going to drop off the face of the earth. At least a white adult star has a base to start from once she’s on her on but that woman of color is just out there. Today you can’t name one black adult star that would have a base to start from. There hasn’t been anyone the industry has promoted enough to the public. And if a starlet waits on that she will be waiting for a very long time.
There is an avenue to take that will help women of color be successful in the adult industry. In the past the key to success as an adult actress relates to how much money you could make outside the film industry. The dance circuit was the key and how many appearances you could make, i.e. adult video and bookstores. Today the avenue is the Internet. Through hard work a women of color can cultivate a very strong fan base via the Internet. If you are in the industry there is no reason for you not to have a website, yahoo club, and now a MySpace site. This industry is going to take all it can from you so why not get every cent you can from it. But you have to have a plan and be astute enough to work the industry while it’s working you. You must learn to be an opportunist. The retired adult star that give me her insight about the industry told me that she was damn near on the streets when she got in the industry. But she had a plan and for the most part stuck to it. She was able to get her credit together, save some money and buy a house. Buying a house is something I know women that have been in the industry for years haven’t done. She felt that a lot of them just blow their money and are living from day to day.
In this industry like in the general population you only have a few individuals with good business sense. If you think having a nice car and apartment is success then it doesn’t take much to please you and you are prefect for this industry. But your bar of success is much higher then you are going to be labeled as a pain in the ass to work with. You refuse to do certain acts or want more money than the average women in porn then you are going to find this industry difficult. If you stand up for yourself and are able to say no then you are going to find this industry difficult. But you have to keep your self-respect because when you lose your self-respect that’s when the demons of this industry (drugs and alcohol) can creep into your life. And they have taken down a many good people.
Any women of color coming into this industry needs to understand the type of individuals that run and control the adult industry. You must counter these individuals through self- promotion and self-marketing anytime you get the chance. That means when you have a chance for a photo opps, being interviewed, and just standing out from the crowd you need to do so. A woman of color in the adult industry needs to think of herself as a twin-engine plane. All twin-engine planes can fly on one engine. Now you are going to have some yaw and pitch problems but they can be controlled and you should fly. But if you had both engines running at the same time the flight is going to be so much easier. So if you are going to navigate in this industry then you need to have both engines running. And maybe you will find success.
posted by vesuvius at 12:34 PM
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