My Comment on a GQ Article about Max Hardcore

November 14, 2011 by
Filed under: News, Opinion Piece, Sex Worker Rights 

There is an article at GQ.com by Shalom Auslander entitled, My Hard-Core Obsession. He writes about the guilt of liking certain types of porn and he interviews Max Hardcore (Paul Little) and Ashley Blue.

I left a comment, but it doesn’t appear to allow them visibly, so I’m reposting it here:

I worked for Max Hardcore and didn’t enjoy it. I worked as a porn actress for six years and mainly for people who cared about what I enjoyed/did not enjoy, personally. Max was the low point of my career.

I can honestly say, for me, that though the scene was not enjoyable, it was the hiring process that disturbed me the most.

I wrote about working for him a few years ago on my adult blog www.juliemeadows.com/blog, and then just over the past week went back and forth with someone I had worked with around 1999, and it has uncovered some details about what really bothers me about Paul Little and others hiring practices.

I was explained things in a very rational way–as with any job I took at that time–and nothing about the rationalizations were transparent to me. I did not have the mind for uncovering shifty tactics because, honestly, everything I’d done in pornography up until that point was pretty straightforward. I knew I was showing up to perform a sex scene, but I had no knowledge about kinkier forms of sex at that time and couldn’t have projected anything beyond my own sexual awareness.

I was told I had to come alone and park my car blocks away to minimize people and automotive traffic. Logical. But I had to refuse parking my car away from me because, should a catastrophe arise beyond our control, I would need it and feel better if it were close. Regardless, I was not given the location address. I had to follow a driver to the house and write the directions down on my own. Also, when I asked over the phone what kind of sex it would be, I was told boy/girl sex. I wasn’t told that it would be about implied pedophilia. I wasn’t told that there might be incest-related dialogue. I wasn’t told a speculum would be involved or extreme face-f*cking.

I got inside and was played a video where he explained what was required, to my horror. I told him on the phone I was only into “old fashioned sex” because I had been warned not to work for him. I do take responsibility for accepting the job though I had been warned not to, but again, he didn’t tell me the particulars. At this rate I could have only guessed maybe he was difficult to work with, but people have different types of chemistry and none of that suggested working with him might not be pleasant based on that, alone. The person who warned me said nothing more about him except, “Don’t work for him.” Good advice stupidly ignored.

As he explained the scene, two large men stood behind my seat in his tiny office. If I imagine what another female could possibly feel like in that situation, but with her car blocks away from her and no idea where she is because she was driven to the location and not given the address, I can imagine she’d feel even more vulnerable than I did, and I still felt very vulnerable in the situation. I had to decline the blow job and being opened up with a speculum, but was asked why, of course. I explained that I only performed sex acts where I also enjoyed what was happening–not just my scene partner–and that unless he could produce a degree or some credentials showing me he was qualified to use a medical instrument on my body, there was no way I would let him insert a metal object into me. We were negotiating my doing the scene or leaving, and settled on my doing the scene without those things.

The dialogue portion was given to me during the scene, so I delivered it because I just wanted to be done with it. I was angry and mean to him throughout, and left thoroughly disgusted by the experience. Had I been given all the information I would have declined doing that scene, but then I might not be here to explain the tactics some pornographers use to get otherwise unwilling women to perform in their scenes. It’s all laid out very plainly, but only after all the vulnerabilities and insecurities are in place, and only after the model has shown up. BDSM is straightforward because it is appropriately named. Gonzo porn is so varied that these niche companies fall into it without having to explain anything at all until the time comes to actually do the scene. The description they offer is the same for educational and couples-related scenes: boy/girl, blow job, etc…

I just spent the past few days talking about this with someone. Certainly there are predators from different industries who use misinformation or strategically placed information to prey upon people, but there really should be an identifying label for that kind of porn so a performer who is not aware of that kind of sex can ask questions about it based upon the name. I had been asked to perform bondage sex and declined easily and without anger because I know my limits and the descriptor explains it plainly. It’s just not what I’m into. These people take advantage of their lack of identity within the industry. A performer can perform for a number of “gonzo” lines before running into the abusive/extremely niche porn occupied by people like Paul and Khan Tusion. Agents get paid when performers work, and often they juggle so many performers they can’t be bothered with the little details. My own agent called it a “boy/girl” scene even though he knew the theme. Through my experience with Paul I learned to ask for all the information, and failing that, the title of the movie.

I remember a phone conversation with a producer, after I asked him everything there was to ask, and got nothing abnormal. “What’s the title of the movie?” “Cry Babies,” he said.

People are into different things and I know there are people who probably enjoy working for even abusive pornographers, but I can only imagine how many don’t and how it is probably preferred that some or most of the models don’t enjoy it because of the pain these people want to capture on camera.

Thank you for writing this. Nobody talks about it and when an adult female who has chosen sex work with clear-thinking intellect has a bad experience in porn, most people probably just think she deserves it, but I do not. There are pitfalls in everything, but that scene still bothers me to this day. When I was a performer in the early 2000′s, most pornographers did not conduct their business the way Paul did. I navigated the industry pretty well, but many are not as fortunate in their experiences as I was. I would never paint female sex workers as “victims”, but that no one ever addresses specific victimizers doesn’t seem right, either.

Oh, and I wasn’t told about the pissing scene until the end. And it was faked, so it was actually the most pleasant aspect of the scene.

 

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Comments

22 Comments on My Comment on a GQ Article about Max Hardcore

  1. jim mazz on Mon, 14th Nov 2011 11:59 am

    2. Good job – can’t be easy to have to retell it.

  2. Jason Cassidy on Mon, 14th Nov 2011 2:23 pm

    3. Wow, I am on your facebook friends list and I just saw your link to this comment. I Commented on fb before reading this and this only reinforces what I wrote on fb.
    This was really well done. I love the way you are fair and take responsibility for your actions and still point out how manipulative and overbearing this guy is. I am happy you stayed strong and stuck to your guns. As bad a memory as this is, your character and str. stopped it from being much worse. I’m a soccer player and coach and one of the things we do is try to help people find inner str. coached at a catholic girls school and it was nice to see young women feeling strong and empowered. I am really happy and impressed to see those qualities in you too. I love that you wanted to have pleasure to and spoke up about it. actually, on a side note, it makes me want to look up your work…always nice to know the person is actully having fun. anyway, this is the second little book I’m writing on this (1st on fb) Great job Julie!

  3. Lydia Lee on Mon, 14th Nov 2011 3:52 pm

    4. It is hard to retell it. My hands start shaking every time I write about Paul Little.

    Thank you both. It’s hard to talk about this stuff, but it’s therapeutic, too.

  4. Adam Wilcox on Tue, 15th Nov 2011 5:47 am

    5. Great post, Lydia, and I too applaud you for speaking about this. I actually remember reading another piece you wrote a while back about your experience working for Paul Little/Max Hardcore.

    My personal opinion on Little/Hardcore and the type of pornography he produces is somewhat splintered, I suppose. I will not judge anyone’s right to enjoy what they wish (as you stated, people are into different things) provided everything is consentual and those involved (in this case, the models)are not deceived in any way. But at the end of the day, I’ve never been able to understand why anyone would have the desire to watch those types of acts in the first place.

    On that note, I agree with what you said on Facebook: “Vanilla” sex is too often automatically – and unfairly – labeled as “boring.” To me, it is the participants involved that determine whether or not the act is enjoyable/exciting – whether it is taking place on or off-camera – not the level of the act’s abnormality.

  5. Lydia Lee on Tue, 15th Nov 2011 10:38 am

    6. Thank you, Adam. I know a lot of porn stars, and usually the more extreme their external sexual needs, the deeper their intimacy issues. There are people like Nina Hartley who can be kinky and intimate, which is why I hate blanket judgments, so I guess it really pertains to people who are self-righteous about their kink needs. At the heart of it is a defensiveness and insecurity unrelated to how “simple” or “complicated” the sex is. If you are content with yourself, you don’t have to argue for or against it.

    It was hard being a single porn star in LA. Guys immediately think they have to match movie performance to make you happy, when the last thing you want is to feel like you’re at work when you’re with someone you actually like.

  6. Dawson on Wed, 16th Nov 2011 8:24 pm

    7. That last comment of Lydia’s made me laugh.

    I always felt like most Porn should have come with a warning label: “Don’t try this at home, these are trained professionals.”

    In my whole adult life I have never been with anyone who tried to make me jump through hoops like most Porn Directors seem to make their “actors (hey, it ain’t a real date, it’s in front of a camera with a Director–It’s ‘Acting’)” have to do in what I refer to as the “Obligatory Standard Seven” Acts: BJ; eating pussy; missionary; doggie; cowboy; anal and cum shot. Everything else is just variations or modifications with toys etc…

    But I’ve never been with anybody who said, okay we’ve done this for 90 seconds–switch! We want to get them all in before your balls explode or head explodes first.

    In real life it always seemed to be more important about who you were with at the time and finding a really good rhythm, like rowing a boat to get across the river together, more than doing acrobatics like Cirque du Sexlay.

    Yes, sex starved husbands watching this porn DVD at home while your wife is at the grocery store (we know whose fantasies we fulfill), Do Not attempt these sex acts at home, these are trained professionals. Besides, your wife will tell anything new you try to her girlfriends at Church.

  7. Anthony Kennerson on Thu, 17th Nov 2011 9:47 am

    8. Wait a minute…Max Hardcore actually FAKED scenes?? Who knew??

    What I find fascinating, Lydz, is that your reaction to the attempts by Hardcore’s folks to bait-and-switch you into doing something you weren’t so comfortable in doing is basically the response of most performers who are first exposed to the “gothic” style of his brand of porn.

    And yet, like most porn women, you were able to simply walk away and alert others to what he was about and give them fair warning. He didn’t send his goons over to kidnap you and force you to perform his brand of porn.

    That’s why I found Reagan Starr’s reaction to Hardcore — and her subsequent attack on Anabolic for their even more “aggressive” brand — that much more interesting, because it reflects the essential fact that not every porn girl thinks alike, and one woman’s essential horror might just be another girl’s delight..however frightening it may seem to outsiders being fed the Dines-Lubben canards about “sexual slavery”.

    But..it’s kinda funny to see that even Max Hardcore had his limits. I mean….FAKING golden showers??

    Oh…relative to Regan Starr, see this:

    http://redgarterclub.com/RGClubNetwork/rgclub3dot2/2011/11/01/why-shelley-lubbens-latest-book-should-join-the-conservative-club-book-of-the-month-1-bin-alongside-quitter-palin-and-coultergeist/” rel=”nofollow”>Why Shelley Lubben’s Latest Book Should Join The Conservative Club’s “Book of the Month $1 Bin… — The Red Garter Club (Ver. 3.2)

    Anthony

  8. Anthony Kennerson on Thu, 17th Nov 2011 9:48 am

    9. OK…try that embedded link again….

    Why Shelley Lubben’s Latest Book Should Join The Conservative Club’s “Book of the Month $1 Bin… — The Red Garter Club (Ver. 3.2)

    Anthony

  9. Lydia Lee on Thu, 17th Nov 2011 10:41 am

    10. After interviewing Tanner Mayes and reading some actress’ perspectives on certain people, I’m certain there are predators within the industry. They work within the law, but they should be called out.

    I wish Kylie Ireland hadn’t deleted a writeup she did on working for Jim Lane in his “Violation” series. He made a veteran actress cry. That woman had been in the industry for years, and he decorated the entire shoot with strategically placed pitfalls that physically hurt her and finally sent her into to bathroom crying.

    It was a well written post, too. She set it up about how she didn’t want sympathy for the incident–just wanted to vent. i think she deserves our sympathy, quite frankly.

    Thank you for the link, Anthony. Can’t wait to read it. Have had my head buried, as usual.

    @Dawson–In real life… for us… those things are more important. Some people like marathon sex with a lot of extra frills. :D

  10. Claire on Thu, 17th Nov 2011 2:30 pm

    11. ‘Implied paedophilia’? That is so sick. Is Max Hardcore the one who went to prison recently?

  11. Dawson on Thu, 17th Nov 2011 11:50 pm

    12. From what I’ve read about the guy, Paul Little seems like he was a first class small fry asshole and scum. But here is the actual Bush Administration Justice Department “For Immediate Release” Official Statement http://www.justice.gov/criminal/ceos/Press%20Releases/MDFL_MaxHardcore_10-03-08.pdf on the charges against Little of distribution of Obscene materials through the U.S. Mail to an (Entrapment) Tampa, FL address, and “transporting obscene matter (movie ‘trailers’) by use of an interactive computer service.” WTF? On that basis no one in “the industry” is safe from “careless” Entrapment.

    Almost all “Obscenity” determinations on anything involving consenting adults are based against some “religious” moral interpretation standard and run contrary to Amendment I of the Constitution. And “interactive” implies someone had to initiate the “interact” on a computer without a parental gun lock, ‘er controls.

    You have adult actors pretending to be high school teenagers on “Glee” and other mainstream TV shows for Christ’s sake, some story lines involving implied underage sex, especially in the comedies.

    So Little is convicted on a case of Post Office Entrapment on anti-Free Speech charges by a Bush Administration which cost us Billions of dollars and (for the Iraqi people plus our Soldiers) Millions of lives in an illegal Oil Men’s war. Wait a second, the Government, which claims to be broke, has money to prosecute obscenity cases but has to cut back on services for Disabled Veterans from that same Oil Men’s war? I’m a disabled Vet, I noticed this irony.

    That’s right, because the Squeaky-Wheel-Moral-High-Horse-Religious-Right-Voting-Bloc gets the propaganda Low-Hanging-Easy-Pickings-Obscenity-Case-Prosecution grease.

    This ain’t my 1st Amendment “Industry” fight, but it is the same basic reasoning of letting people in Power take your Rights away in order to Woo the Religious Voting Block that they are fighting the “Devil.” Same basic reason I can’t buy actifed cheaply over-the-counter any more and must pay Pharmacy Rx Prices and show my driver’s licence (“your papers please”) and sign my name, like I’m picking up morphine, just to get a few very effective decongestant tablets in order to protect my neighbors from my bathroom medicine cabinet turning into Satan’s Meth Lab. Funny thing is, there is as much Meth on the street as ever (which proves this is just a propaganda scam) since this Nazi restriction went into effect, but boy aren’t the pharmacies now charging and getting 400% more for plain old actifed tablets, while the Dollar Stores can no longer sell them. Almost like some Big Chains gave campaign contributions to some politicians to get these knee-jerk regulations passed.

    Max Hardcore might be scum of a fantasy sorts and the worst kind of asshole to work for, but you still have to be on the lookout for the Political Opportunists in Suits who are the real “Anti-Constitutional Scum” who would sell their own Mother’s Rights away, much more so yours and mine, just to get ahead.

    Nothing wrong with disliking Paul Little the person and wishing him some bad Karma getting kicked in the nuts, but be careful saying things like, “Ain’t he that guy who went to jail.” You could go to jail in the near future from a DUI Holiday checkpoint for a cop reaching under your seat and finding a 2 year-old blister pack of decongestants that had fallen out of your purse and they could seize your car (legislation in the works folks).

    Remember, “It can’t happen here.” Fucking ghost of Richard Nixon still haunting America.

    I had thought maybe Little had gone to jail on assault and battery charges or got caught using actual underage actresses in his films, not Entrapment.

  12. Claire on Fri, 18th Nov 2011 11:59 am

    13. OK, I must apologise for stating an opinion. I am suitably told off.

  13. Lydia Lee on Fri, 18th Nov 2011 12:10 pm

    14. @Claire–The one and the same.

    And don’t take offense. Dawson isn’t trying to insult you, he’s referring to the way Little went to prison, which is not the point of this post and in no way meant to justify Little’s actions. Lots of people are upset he went to prison in that way.

    And, Claire, you are entitled to your opinion. Don’t not express it just because someone else doesn’t agree. You are correct that that is the person I am talking about. There aren’t many other people in porn identifiable by their having gone to prison.

  14. Dawson on Fri, 18th Nov 2011 1:43 pm

    15. @Claire: Absolutely you are Not “Told Off,” and sorry if You took it that way.

    And I always highly encourage people to comment and participate here or anywhere.

    But we have to be careful, just because people “go to jail” to assume they are bad people. For example, legal Prostitutes in Nevada aren’t locked-up and have their children taken away as “unfit mothers” as happens in 49 other States on laws of “Religious Bias” which shouldn’t even be on the books in the 21st Century.

    Gripes, Old Testament strong man Samson, Judge over all Israel (the Book of Judges) frequented the prostitutes of Gaza. That’s not why God punished him. God took away his strength for cutting his hair. Who knew God was a gay hair dresser where that would upset him so.

  15. Lydia Lee on Fri, 18th Nov 2011 2:42 pm

    16. @Dawson–I don’t think Claire was equating him as bad just because he had gone to jail, I think she asked because he is one of the few pornographers identifiable because he went to jail. It was highly publicized.

    I don’t mean to speak for her, but I think you are mixing her opinion with her question, which are two different things.

  16. Dawson on Fri, 18th Nov 2011 8:41 pm

    17. Mr. Little’s case may have been highly publicized in California and in Tampa, Florida or even in “Men’s (adult) Magazines,” but I never heard about it on the evening news or read about it in the local paper.

    But then I’m living in the Bible Belt and it might not seem newsworthy here. I think here they believe that everybody in the adult industry are career criminals and are being hauled in every night like street walkers on some TV cop show.

    Now, Lindsay Lohan getting a DUI, that would be news here.

  17. Brian on Wed, 23rd Nov 2011 12:22 am

    18. I’ve read someone else describe their dealings with Max Hardcore. I’m glad to say I’ve never had the displeasure of watching one of his productions.

    I think if I ever had I would have to scrub my eyes and mind with steel wool and bleach; and probably still wouldn’t be clean. My sympathies for those who didn’t fair as well in their dealings with him.

    Reading this post made me curious enough to read the article by Shalom Auslander. While I can relate to him I still found myself wondering what was his point; unless it was something along the lines of ‘if you feel guilty watching it, you’re probably okay’ (i.e. Am I normal for liking this?).

  18. Dawson on Wed, 23rd Nov 2011 2:37 pm

    19. This might get me in trouble for saying it, but is Shalom Auslander okay by simply being a writer for GQ?

    Personally, I thought Auslander’s article (give him credit he did the traveling to meet people) sounded like a Woody Allen Jewish Neurotic movie about the Guilt of liking “Nasty” added into your sex and porn.

    I’m sure Lydia would have had a response to an article about “Max Hardcore” had it come from “Reader’s Digest.”

    But GQ originally was a Trade magazine for men who sold men’s clothing. And it’s not even a “Quarterly” anymore.

    About 1980 while I was in the Marine Corps I noticed the college age crowd were buying it and reading it like a male version of Cosmopolitan “How to dress to impress your date.” “Twenty things you can do to get her to go out on that second date.”

    Then after the success of Maxim and FHM magazine GQ started putting celebrity females on the cover.

    Something I learned from Intelligence Gathering research is you might find the occasional jewel of an article even in a “TV Guide” or “High Times” that adds a piece to the puzzle that you didn’t find from “U.S. News & World Report.”

    But I always thought of GQ as basically a magazine for Narcissistic Pretty Boys who can’t think up their own Pick-up Lines.

  19. Brian on Wed, 23rd Nov 2011 2:52 pm

    20. LOL @ “Narcissistic Pretty Boys who can’t think up their own Pick-up Lines”: that was my impression too.

    @Dawson: If describing Auslander’s article as sounding like a Woody Allen movie (aren’t they all neurotic?) will get you in trouble then I might as well get in trouble too; I had thought along the same lines.

    But I’d be one to talk since I’ve had those “is it wrong to like this(?)” moments when it comes to sex/porn. Although I’d like to think that I was more subtle in my investigation (heh, right); at least I didn’t write an article for GQ. Right?

    I think it should be said that there isn’t anything wrong with writing the article it’s just that the tone of it seems rather, well…..Woody Allen-ish.

  20. Lydia Lee on Sat, 26th Nov 2011 5:59 pm

    21. I think that the comments are turned off (except for one spam comment??) deals us the final verdict on whether or not Auslander feels there’s something wrong with his fetishes, but it’s hard to critique the subconscious mind when it becomes aroused.

    What I do think is the more interesting question is whether or not we feel guilty watching something because of the act itself, or the feelings that come from it based on what might be real in the scene between the actors.

    I was explaining to a pornographer on another comment thread that I have seen scenes that are meant to degrade the female, where the female appears to be enjoying herself, and did not feel at all bad about the images playing in front of me. Yet, when it really does seem the female is uncomfortable or somehow something is just “not right”, I get immediately uncomfortable, myself. Maybe the response of feeling unsettled is a direct response to the person in the scene being unsettled. Fantasies are so dependent on so many different things in our subconscious and conscious minds that it’s weird to judge “turn-ons”. I think he should be asking whether or not his feelings come from something else altogether.

  21. Anthony Kennerson on Tue, 29th Nov 2011 12:28 pm

    22. My political ideology and my sex-poz feminist creds would probably never allow me to watch one of Hardcore’s (or Anabolic’s, or Khan Tusion’s, heaven forbid Meatholes’) movies, never mind become sexually aroused by them. Maybe I’m abnormal for a porn fan, but I don’t find pissing to be that erotic, myself. So sue me.

    That doesn’t change the fact that there are more than a few otherwise very mature and stable adult men and women who obviously do get aroused at such freakery, and that there are women in porn who might even get off on that kind of play. (Or..those that don’t, but do just enough of an acting job to fool people into thinking that so that they can finish the scene and get the hell out of there.)

    I still don’t really think that the appeal of those kind of movies is even that particularly sexual, though; it seems to me that the real appeal is more of a hardcore horror/gothic/blood-guts-and-gore appeal, like a graphic war movie or a gruesome car accident or seeing a woman struck by a train over and over again. You really don’t want to see it, but once it sticks in your mind, you just can’t avoid looking at it.

    It’s as if Hardcore simply tacks the sex on to it just to allow it to meet the definition of “porn”, but really, it’s more like the hardest of horror, sold to the public the same way that movies like “Jackass” and “Faces of Death” are.

    In any case, Lydz, you are so right that agents and performers need to be much more transparent about the kind of scenes they sell to their talent, and that word of mouth and personal experience is still the best means of preventing those who may not have your BS meters running at full strength from being induced into a scene that could potentially be damaging, if not injurious.

    Anthony

  22. Anthony Kennerson on Tue, 29th Nov 2011 12:32 pm

    23. And of course, it should go without saying that even an asshole like Max Hardcore who produces degrading material should have the same protections from government entrapment and selective prosecution as any other pornographer. If the Feds can go after him, then they can also go after Ginger Lynn, Janine Lindemulder, Jill Kelly, John Stagliano, and so many others.

    Anthony

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