BRIGHT FUTURES OF AMERICA HQ, Calif.—Imagine this: A fresh-faced 18-year-old vixen waltzes into her guidance counselor's office for career advice.
"What are you good at that you enjoy doing the most?" the counselor asks her, to which she replies, "Well, I really, really enjoy having sex, and I'm hella good at blowjobs!"
"Oh, I see," the counselor says. "Then let me give you the number of a place I think you should contact. It's called LA Direct Models."
OK, so any guidance counselor who dispensed such advice would probably find himself relieved of his guidance counseling duties in pretty short order. However, a couple of items in the media over the last 24 hours would suggest that should a young lady choose to pursue work in the sex-on-camera field, it will no longer turn her into the social pariah it once would have.
One of the items we speak of is Vivid Entertainment chief Steven Hirsch's latest blog for the Huffington Post, in which he waxes on about the general tone of acceptance that's met Nadya "Octomom" Suleman and wrestler Chyna's recent forays into porn.
"Was Octomom's porn decision part of a new norm?" Hirsch wrote. "Is doing explicit films to pay the bills now seen as a viable and acceptable option? ... The only controversy seems to be over her poor financial planning, not the method by which she's solving her money problems."
Hirsch continued, "With the exception of a relatively small number of people, no one condemned Chyna for her decision to make porn films. ... And sometimes, as in the case of Kim Kardashian, a sex tape leads to an empire."
All valid, if (let's face it) somewhat self-serving points. Arguably a more compelling commentary in support of the thesis at hand, however, came from a segment on Wednesday night's edition of Comedy Central news program The Daily Show concerning Minessota high schooler Mike Stone and his porn star prom date Megan Piper.
Despite Piper's brand-spanking-newness to the business (she has eight titles under her belt, according to IAFD.com), she served it quite well in the piece. Reported by Daily Show correspondent Jessica Williams, the roughly four-and-a-half-minute segment featured Stone, Piper and "Minnesota Mom" Marjorie Holsten speaking about the decision by Stone's school, Tartan High, to forbid Piper from accompanying Stone to the prom.
After sussing out that the main point of contention over Stone's "controversial" date was the belief (voiced by Holsten) that she was apt to do something, you know, pornographic during the evening, Williams dropped the piece's biggest zinger: "We all know that if you do something for a living, that's all you ever do. Like how pro football players tackle everyone they see, and therefore would never be allowed at prom."
This was punctuated with a news clip about a high school student who scored a prom date via Twitter with NFL player Joe Haden, and took him with no opposition.
"OK, well Megan is different," Williams said in mock defiance. "She's uncontrollable."
But Piper calmly maintained, "I don't plan on doing anything sexual with Mike or any of his friends."
The overall message of the report was driven home by Williams' next question to Holsten: "So ... why do we care again?"
And there you have it: Doing porn is a job, and the mainstream media is recognizing it as such. Perhaps it's not a job like any other, but then neither is being a pro football player, as The Daily Show so bitingly pointed out. And of course it's not a job most would advise young people to pursue, but again, if they choose to do so anyway, well, perhaps society has decided it's OK with that.
See The Daily Show's segment with Mike Stone and Megan Piper here, and read Steve Hirsch's blog for The Huffington Post here.
