I find an underrated point of conversation–where adult work is concerned–is life inside the office. Now, I don’t know what other industry offices are like, but I know from other’s retelling that they can be stuffy and terribly boring.
I worked in the office of an adult production company for a time after silently ducking out of performing life. In fact, Stacy Valentine had a desk next to mine until she relocated and the rest of us moved to another bought production company studio and office in Culver City.
After some employee reshuffling, the new staff settled in and I got to know a building full of colorful characters. Our daily life together could have easily been realized as a television show, not because it in any way resembled office life, but because we were so thoroughly different and funny together. You had the stodgy tech person who could always be counted on to say something extremely pompous and unenlightening; the accounting person mediated and had a delightfully twisted sexual sarcasm; the person in charge of picture selection and retouching had a sadistic side that came out at terribly inappropriate times and usually sent me running back to my office to hemorrhage from laughing. Our receptionist looked like a Barbie Doll and talked like a sailor, and the replacement receptionist looked like a Kewpie Doll and liked to pass around poop videos. These things unfolded on a daily basis (and well away from HR’s radar) and created the glue that made our otherwise hum-drum life bearable. We didn’t work in production. We were the foundation and structure that propped up porn production in all our paper-shuffling, content-management glory.
I miss this cast of characters. I miss our pow-wows to share gossip and literally try to out-disgust one another. We made good times because it made the time passable. Two of these people are still my closest friends. They are effected by Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in 2008; and soon they may be effected by Measure B, which will require condom police on porn sets and may drive companies out of the state.
When people think about pornography, they often don’t think about the pencil-pushers and paper-staplers. We usually think about the performers, the cameramen and women, the director and the final product. The office workers I met are probably the most interesting people I’ve ever met in porn because they are “normal” enough to find themselves in an office, and quirky enough to be okay with being in a porn office. I cherish my memories with these people and I hope they are not forced to find other work in this upside down economy should porn become a policed industry. The anti-porn war has always been underway, but this one is being cleverly “wrapped up” in clothing I’ve never seen before. The language of the measure includes dental dams and HazMat suits, for goodness’ sake–completely inappropriate for that particular industry for obvious reasons. I’d hate to see well-intentioned votes about “safe sex” champion this anti-porn/anti-free speech measure into killing thousands of jobs and dispersing the lovable people I had the pleasure of knowing for years.
Just wanted to say that.
Reference: Language for Measure B interpreted by a high-level adult industry attorney here.
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