Read Online The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure by Tristan Taormino, Constance Penley, Celine Parrenas Shimizu, Mireille Miller-Young - Free Book Online Page A
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black female is paired with an aggressive white male performer.
As a black woman in porn, my experiences were unique. I came into the industry at a time when there was only a handful of African American women performing in films. I didn’t fit into any existing category. As a “barely legal” looking nineteen year old, I was often cast in films with older white men and women and older black or Latin men. Throughout the 1990s, I found myself in videos with titles like South Central Hookers #10, or ones taken from popular rap songs like “Pumps’n da Rump.” I attribute my varied experience in working for both larger production houses on feature films and for smaller companies with equally smaller budgets to the fact that I have Caucasian features, light skin, and a cheery attitude, and speak in standard English. I found that movies featuring all black casts would have derogatory titles but movies with interracial casts would have sexier names. Directors often told me that I wasn’t “ghetto” enough or expressed surprise that I couldn’t “shake my ass” like other stars. I had to stress to a director that I wasn’t comfortable standing on a street corner in a short skirt and high heels while he drove around the block for a “pickup shot” for my scene. And it wasn’t only white directors who demeaned black actors. A few years ago, a black director asked me to eat a slice of watermelon for a scene with a white co-star who was playing a “country bumpkin.” I refused. My co-star was so uncomfortable with the “step and fetch it” routine that the director wanted me to portray that he offered to take the bite instead.
But racist instances like this are not the norm. I have had more positive experiences in the industry than negative ones. When people ask me, “Is there racism in porn?” I respond that it exists no more in porn than in other industries. I don’t think people go out of their way to disrespect others. Of course, it is difficult to watch the industry celebrate only a handful of men and women of color each year at its biggest awards shows—but it isn’t a surprise. I see the adult industry as no different from mainstream Hollywood where they pick and choose which actors of color or women or gay actors to applaud each year and which to ignore . . . despite how amazing they are.
When I started in porn, I didn’t have a stage name. I was given the name “Sinnamon.” I had no idea how difficult it would be later to market myself with this name when I wanted to potentially act beyond the adult world. Black and Latina women in porn are very often given names of food, cars, inanimate objects, countries, and spices: Chocolate, Champagne, Mocha, Mercedes, Toy, Persia, Africa, India, and yes, Sinnamon. No one ever told me, or many women of my generation, how important it was to have a name that was a real woman’s name, something that would allow you to market yourself outside porn and to a wider audience. The Jennas, Janines, Brittanys of my generation certainly had greater success. Notably so, Heather Hunter, Dominique Simone, Lana Sands, and later Crystal Knight, Lacey Duvalle, Marie Luv, and Nyomi Banxxx are all women of color who were more successful than previous women in the industry. They had two things in common: they had “real” names and they fit white standards of beauty.
Even with the explosion of the porn star agent and the staggering growth of Internet companies, many black adult stars still show up as either the token black girl in a video or appear exclusively in all black videos. The same faces can be found in interracial scenes with white men, and only a handful will appear in fetish and BDSM videos for companies like Kink.com . Having been the first black woman that companies like Kink.com (then called Cybernet) shot, I recall having long conversations with directors about my personal relationship with BDSM. They hesitated to film me because they feared the fallout of
As a black woman in porn, my experiences were unique. I came into the industry at a time when there was only a handful of African American women performing in films. I didn’t fit into any existing category. As a “barely legal” looking nineteen year old, I was often cast in films with older white men and women and older black or Latin men. Throughout the 1990s, I found myself in videos with titles like South Central Hookers #10, or ones taken from popular rap songs like “Pumps’n da Rump.” I attribute my varied experience in working for both larger production houses on feature films and for smaller companies with equally smaller budgets to the fact that I have Caucasian features, light skin, and a cheery attitude, and speak in standard English. I found that movies featuring all black casts would have derogatory titles but movies with interracial casts would have sexier names. Directors often told me that I wasn’t “ghetto” enough or expressed surprise that I couldn’t “shake my ass” like other stars. I had to stress to a director that I wasn’t comfortable standing on a street corner in a short skirt and high heels while he drove around the block for a “pickup shot” for my scene. And it wasn’t only white directors who demeaned black actors. A few years ago, a black director asked me to eat a slice of watermelon for a scene with a white co-star who was playing a “country bumpkin.” I refused. My co-star was so uncomfortable with the “step and fetch it” routine that the director wanted me to portray that he offered to take the bite instead.
But racist instances like this are not the norm. I have had more positive experiences in the industry than negative ones. When people ask me, “Is there racism in porn?” I respond that it exists no more in porn than in other industries. I don’t think people go out of their way to disrespect others. Of course, it is difficult to watch the industry celebrate only a handful of men and women of color each year at its biggest awards shows—but it isn’t a surprise. I see the adult industry as no different from mainstream Hollywood where they pick and choose which actors of color or women or gay actors to applaud each year and which to ignore . . . despite how amazing they are.
When I started in porn, I didn’t have a stage name. I was given the name “Sinnamon.” I had no idea how difficult it would be later to market myself with this name when I wanted to potentially act beyond the adult world. Black and Latina women in porn are very often given names of food, cars, inanimate objects, countries, and spices: Chocolate, Champagne, Mocha, Mercedes, Toy, Persia, Africa, India, and yes, Sinnamon. No one ever told me, or many women of my generation, how important it was to have a name that was a real woman’s name, something that would allow you to market yourself outside porn and to a wider audience. The Jennas, Janines, Brittanys of my generation certainly had greater success. Notably so, Heather Hunter, Dominique Simone, Lana Sands, and later Crystal Knight, Lacey Duvalle, Marie Luv, and Nyomi Banxxx are all women of color who were more successful than previous women in the industry. They had two things in common: they had “real” names and they fit white standards of beauty.
Even with the explosion of the porn star agent and the staggering growth of Internet companies, many black adult stars still show up as either the token black girl in a video or appear exclusively in all black videos. The same faces can be found in interracial scenes with white men, and only a handful will appear in fetish and BDSM videos for companies like Kink.com . Having been the first black woman that companies like Kink.com (then called Cybernet) shot, I recall having long conversations with directors about my personal relationship with BDSM. They hesitated to film me because they feared the fallout of
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