Blogs away! From porn to mainstream and back again
 

Here it is.. the new YNOT. Good looking, isn?t it? I?m pretty psyched about being part of the YNOT team. I?ve enjoyed writing my weekly articles (I hope you?ve enjoyed reading them!) and I?m looking forward to working at a faster pace with the new daily format, as well as writing these bloggy-blogs.

Course, that being said, I could only sit and stare at a blank word document for a while, trying to figure out what to write for my first blog entry. It occurred to me that I spend so much time in this industry writing about porn and sex that my world has become very different than the average (read: non-porn industry) person?s life.

Or, has it?

We hear about porn becoming more and more mainstream, and recently I watched a movie that seemed to embody that very notion. It?s an indie film called ?This Girl?s Life?, and I found it by total accident at Blockbuster. (Can?t get much more mainstream than that, now can we?) I was debating whether to rent ?The Village? when I glanced over and saw Juliette Marquis?s eyes peering up at me from the box cover. I hadn?t heard about the movie, hadn?t read any reviews, but the blurb on the back cover promised a voyeuristic look into a pornstar?s life, and I decided I?d rather be turned on than scared out of my wits, so ?This Girl?s Life? won out.

Expecting a shallow story line, sketchy acting, and misguided directing at the very least, I have to admit, I was utterly surprised when the story snagged my attention from the start, and held me captive.

Told from her perspective in a docu-film sort of style, Moon Rise (newcomer Juliette Marquis) reveals a slice of her life, from the webcam house where she works with the other girls and shoots porn flicks, to her home where she?s the sole caretaker and provider for her father, played by James Woods, who has advanced Parkinson?s disease.

This movie isn?t a cheap softcore porn flick, like I thought it would be. It?s R-rated, but there aren?t even any real gratuitous sex scenes. The acting is superb and the characters are multi-dimensional so that the movie manages to convey actual depth.

During a provocative sex scene where she?s being taken doggy-style, she looks right up at the camera and, in between pants and moans, says:

?I know what you?re thinking... What?s a girl like me doing a job like this for? Doesn?t she know she doesn?t need to be doing this? What?s wrong with her? Is she on drugs? ... Sorry, but that really does feel good! Someone once said to me a long time ago, find something in life that you like, that you love to do, and make that your line of work, cuz then it doesn?t feel like work to you... Well, when I?m having sex, I honestly don?t find myself staring at the clock thinking when is five o?clock coming... although, I might be cumming at five o?clock... And by the way, I?m not a drug addict, and I?ve never been abused by my father, uncle or minister.... Oooohh!"

Reclining in a hot bath, she continues, "Back in high school if you were a girl, and you slept with a lot of guys, you were labelled a slut. If you were a guy and you bedded a lot of girls, you were labelled a stud... In my world, I was a female stud.?

As a female viewer, I always like seeing a strong female character. But let?s not get carried away here, those of us in the know are aware that it?s not all glamour and glitz and sex and money. The movie does a fair job of revealing some of the more exploitive and dangerous aspects of the job and the industry. The kindly father-figure manager?s mean streak comes into play when one of the girls is reluctant to do a 20-guy shoot. The question of AIDS becomes a factor when it?s revealed that one of the guys faked his test results. Violence is also an issue: Moon is tracked down and nearly raped on her own front lawn.

All in all, I thought the movie did an interesting job of portraying the industry to a mainstream audience without judgement and without striving to win the audience over with clichés and platitudes.

Considering that this movie kind of came out of nowhere without any media fanfare, and I found it sitting innocently on the shelves at BlockBuster, I?m starting to wonder where the line is anymore between ?porn? and ?mainstream.? Here?s a movie about porn, available in the mainstream market, for mainstream viewing audiences to see. Of course, this is up here in Canada. You?ll have to let me know if you can find it as easily in the States.

whats your typo speed?`word per minute?