XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography Read Free

people can tape off TV for themselves. Pornography has lost its edge in both the video marketplace and at CES.
    Accordingly, the Adult Video Section of CES was housed in the Sahara Hotel, far from the main convention center.
    I had prepared for CES in two ways: emotionally and intellectually. As an intensely private person, I quickly resolved the emotional side. I was going to stay with the intellectual side.
    I drew up two lists of questions: one for women, the other for men. The questions for women focused on whether they were coerced into "performing pornographic acts." If not, how were they treated? My questions included: Have you ever heard of women being threatened into performing in pornography? How much are you paid for a sex act or for a video? Do you negotiate your own contracts?
    The questions for men focused on how pornography functions as a business, with particular emphasis on how women were treated. These questions included: How long does it take you to shoot a video? How many women work for you in a technical capacity, e.g., behind the camera?
    I wondered how the women would react to my being a feminist. I wondered if the men would be dismissive. I was more than a little nervous about appearing ridiculous.
    I began to make "guerrilla feminist preparations." I carefully chose a wardrobe of "feminist drag": Reeboks, blue jeans, and oversized sweaters ... and an ultra-conservative dress for the AVN Awards ceremony. I decided to wear little makeup, less perfume, and no jewelry. When I looked in the mirror, I looked like I was going to give a lecture on sex rather than investigate the real thing.
    DINING WITH PORNOGRAPHERS
    My first dinner in Las Vegas was a headlong dive into the hardcore industry. My husband and I waited at the reception desk of the Bally Hotel to link up with John Stagliano, who is arguably the most successful XXX pornographer in America. His nickname is "Buttman" due to the specific XXX niche his videos, such as Face Dance I and II , fill. After a telephone interview, 10
    Stagliano had invited me to dine with him. Another pornographer, John Leslie, was included as well. I was told that Leslie was of the "old school."
    I had never met Stagliano, but I made a point of watching several of the videos he'd produced.
    Since John had a tendency to appear in his own work, I thought I'd recognize him. I did. My first impression of the porn producer: youngish, amiable, streetwise, and a bit on the L.A. trendy side.
    John Leslie (Talk Dirty to Me) was waiting for us in a nearby Italian restaurant. Although Leslie is well known as a porn actor, I hadn't seen any of his work. I would have recognized him immediately if I had. The man made an impression: immaculately attired in black, with pure white hair, a face of stone, and ice-gray eyes. Leslie looked more like a mafia don than a porn star. He stood in stark contrast to Stagliano's comparatively boyish enthusiasm.
    While Stagliano answered the first of my questions-What makes something soft-core rather than hardcore? Leslie ordered two bottles of wine, one white, one red. As a connoisseur, Leslie sent one bottle back for a replacement; the other he liked well enough to have the waiter soak off the label to take home for future reference.
    At first, Stagliano and I chatted about what constituted fetish porn, while my husband and Leslie discussed the growing importance of Canada's Niagara peninsula as a wine-producing region. In short, everyone felt each other out. Then, in a neutral manner, I steered the conversation toward the possibility that women were coerced into pornography. I asked whether the violence in hardcore porn, like the sex, was real, rather than simulated.
    The response was electric. Both producers vigorously insisted: All of the violence was simulated.
    In fact, there were strict restrictions on which acts could be simulated. Stagliano explained that the hardcore industry was regulated, not by law, but by the threat of law. In 1978, the