Sex Work Goes Mainstream on Reality TV

By Marcy Marzuki, Spread Magazine. Posted December 30, 2008.

Not everyone who does reality shows is willing to enter lockdown with a Baldwin brother or suck face with Flavor Flav. Though proud to be "the first man" on the hit WE TV series "Secret Lives of Women," porn star Buck Angel ("The Man With a Pussy" ™) is adamant: "You will never see me on 'Celebrity Detox' or whatever it is," he says.

"Secret Lives," like "Cathouse," "Family Business" and even "The Girls Next Door," is part of a kinder, gentler reality subgenre. Here, adult-industry participants are cast not as sideshow exhibits or human pit bulls, but as star attractions. Though equally voyeuristic, the pace is less frenetic, conflicts less orchestrated and the mundane is mixed in with the titillating to project a more balanced and positive image of participants.

"They were totally respectful," says Nicki Hunter of her experience with the "Secret Lives of Women" producers, who featured her and Buck Angel in the recent "Porn Stars" episode. "They gave me a very wide berth. They said, 'We'll only do whatever you feel comfortable with. We want to know all about you.' "

It was an approach that worked. For Hunter and other adult-industry workers, control is a big issue. They have no problem being exhibitionists -- as long as they control their public persona. And when a film crew moves in, that control goes out the window, a prospect that Hunter admits made her nervous. "I didn't want them to put a spin on things to make it more interesting. I'm in entertainment. I'm not dumb. I know how these things happen."

With some trepidation, Hunter let the five-person crew from the L.A.-based KAOS Productions follow her around for four days: at home, in the hospital (Hunter is in remission after a bout with leukemia), and at a Vegas adult-industry convention. The only line Hunter drew was at filming her children. At another point, she asked to see the footage. It was a test. They obliged. "I realized then that there wasn't a problem," she says.

Angel was equally loath to let his guard down. "I wanted to make sure they portrayed me and my life in a positive manner," he says. "People can misconstrue things. Someone can say 'We're not going to do this,' and then everything can change in editing."

What Angel wanted was assurances that he would not be labeled, that he would be shown "as a normal person." He was also nervous about his past drug use. To reassure him, the producers gave him a DVD of a previous show about a transgender subject. It brought tears to his eyes. Angel was in.

Angel let them film him at home in Mexico, talk with his partner and follow him to the AVN awards. On the show, he talks openly about his private life and the controversy over whether someone who has not taken the final surgical step should be nominated for a transgender performance. At one point, Angel tears up talking about his difficult childhood and his parents.

Hunter's footage is even more intimate, or as she puts it, "About as close to accurate as they will let you get." The episode shows photos of her hospitalization; her husband chokes back tears as he talks about her illness. The segment on her recovery and her work to help others in the porn industry who find themselves seriously ill and without insurance (conditions that often go hand-in-hand) is downright inspirational.

"I'm really amazed how many people saw it," says Hunter. "A friend of mine, the biggest, toughest, biker guy I know, sent me a text message after, saying, 'you just made me cry.' " Angel, too, got nearly all positive feedback. In one e-mail, a 64-year-old grandmother wrote him to say, "I'm not into porn, but you really are amazing."

"You have to educate people," Angel says of the experience. "Not everyone in the business is a drugged-out loser."

From Cathouse to Your House

But some reality series featuring adult-industry workers have been bashed for being too glossy and not gritty enough.

In Showtime's "Family Business," the porn maven family is portrayed as a struggling single dad who longs for true love even as he lines up money shots. E! Television's "The Girls Next Door" plays like a pampered Playmate slumber party, and in HBO's "Cathouse," day-to-day operations of a Nevada brothel find the girls orgasmic, well-paid and all but whistling while they work.

Carol Leigh, aka the Scarlot Harlot, director of the Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Network, finds the "Cathouse" premise "cute."

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