WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif.—"Porn makes me feel really beautiful. It makes me feel really sexy and really confident. It makes me love myself."
That was one of the thoughts offered by Oriana Small, aka former AVN Female Performer of the Year Ashley Blue, during a panel discussion Sunday afternoon at the 2010 West Hollywood Book Fair entitled "Let's Talk About Sex: Porn, Erotica and Everything in Between." Small appeared on the panel in promotion of the photo anthology Anal Sex Love, just released through Edition Reuss, featuring her and shot by husband Dave Naz, and her own autobiography, Girlvert: A Porno Memoir, due for digital release in December and in print at the beginning of 2011 from Barnacle.
The panel was moderated by Rachel Resnick (Love, Junkie) and also featured authors Larry Duplechan (Got 'til it's Gone), Adrian Colesberry (How to Make Love to Adrian Colesberry) and Penthouse editor Rachel Kramer Bussel (Best Sex Writing 2010).
Those who've followed Small/Blue's career will of course recognize the Girlvert moniker as that of her signature character from the long-running JM Productions series of the same name. A winner of multiple AVN Awards, Girlvert has largely drawn upon Small's real-life experiences as the bases for the character's continuing adventures in havoc-wreaking. Now the girl behind the character will be sharing some of those experiences with the world.
One she shared during Sunday's panel was her first attempt at having anal sex, something she said she was inspired to try at the age of 16 or 17 after reading Henry Miller's Under the Roofs of Paris. "I had this boyfriend and I took him in my room and just told him, 'I want you to put it in my butt,'" she said. "I passed out, because he just shoved it in. I just blacked out because it hurt so bad."
Asked how she defines the word "perversion," Small mused, "'Perversion' is not a negative word to me. It's cool. I don't draw any lines ... I draw them as I go. But they're not solid lines. They're broken lines."
This followed her proclamation that, "I get really disappointed when things are not dirty enough in a book. I feel like it's insulting to my threshhold. I like looking at gross things. I like things that are violent and interesting. I want to hear the tasty expressions, like 'wizard sleeve,'" (which she explained is a term for a bedraggled vagina).
"It was because of porn that I got this way, and I'm grateful for it," she said.
Stay updated on details about the release of Girlvert: A Porno Memoir at davenaz.com/oriana.
Pictured l to r: Rachel Resnick, Adrian Colesberry, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Larry Duplechan, Oriana Small
