The New Pornographer

After shooting a few hundred scenes, the 32-year-old Lagina still can't stand some of the industry's quirks. "The crazy part is that I sometimes get burned out from this job," he wrote. "I know it makes zero sense to the average individual: You shoot hot naked women all day and you get paid a lot of money to do it, so what's the problem?" There's lax schedule adherence — "the porn star delay," Lagina calls it. There's erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation, especially among inexperienced performers. "Being around the lights and a guy holding a camera that they just met a half-hour ago can understandably bug someone out." There's the occasional actor who tests positive for chlamydia or gonorrhea. (Most porn stars are tested for venereal diseases every 30 days, according to Lagina and others.) A yeast infection can blow a shoot, but there are ways — an inserted sponge, namely — around menstruation.

As for the stereotypes, yes, plenty of porn stars do hard drugs, Lagina admits. He questions, however, whether the industry is unique in that respect: "I know surgeons who have had coke problems." Before every scene he films, Lagina asks the actors if they are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. If the answer is yes, the shoot doesn't happen. Same goes with Viagra, Lagina claims: "I won't give out a blue boy, because it's a liability if they should keel over with a heart attack." Exploitation? Sure, Lagina says, there are those who prey on impressionable young women. But, he says, "I think there are an equal amount of girls who see themselves as a commodity that can make them a decent living for a certain period of time." The smart ones invest or save their money, Lagina says.

"You have to have a plan," says Hailey Young, a 22-year-old who recently left the Miami porn scene to make a go of it in Los Angeles's adult world. Her plan is to learn the ropes as a porn actress and then move into directing. In the meantime, her mother knows what she does and is "very supportive." Young was surprised to hear that Butders, her sometime costar, hadn't told his mother about his career. Then again, she remarked, much about Butders surprises her. "He comes across differently than a lot of the guys. They just want to have sex with all these different girls. They're just horny guys."

Butders is as horny as the next guy, and he'll bluster like a frat boy about having sex with this girl or that girl. But talk with him one-on-one, and you can almost hear him parsing the moral ambiguities that color his work life. "What am I giving her?" he says of the girls he's paid to have sex with. "I'm giving her my sperm. I'm not doing anything sacred." He is careful to emphasize the distinction between the physical act of "fucking" and the emotional act of "making love." He gets paid to fuck, he says, but he wouldn't accept any amount of money to allow a cameraman into his own bedroom. In fact, Butders says, he wants to be a successful porn star, but he doesn't want to be too famous. "It'll be a very difficult conversation when I have kids."

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Porn Argot

blue boy = Viagra
chili dog = excrement that comes out when girl doesn't prepare properly for anal sex
cowgirl = position in which girl rides facing the guy
let me get my edge = phrase a male porn star might use to ask for time to get an erection
mish = missionary position
money shot = ejaculation scene (male porn stars don't get paid for a scene unless they ejaculate, hence the name)
newb = new porn star (short for newbie)
over-under = doggie-style in which stud penetrates from an elevated angle and holds his scrotum to allow for a camera angle from below
pile driver = position in which girl lies on her back with legs bent back toward her head
playing in the mud = anal sex
pop shot = see money shot
pro stud = male porn star
reverse cowgirl = position in which girl rides facing away from the male and toward the camera
studding = working as a stud
stunt cock = guy who replaces main star when main star can't get/maintain an erection or ejaculate
sunny day = sex without a condom (although rare in the business these days, some production companies, such as Score Group, still film scenes in which the male porn star goes condomless)
suspect wood = a less-than-fully erect penis that is erect enough for penetration
woodsman = a porn star who has no problem maintaining an erection