XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography (24 page)

The fact that she is happily married doesn't decrease the jealousy. But it does explain something that was puzzling me: How did she escape the somewhat hard polish that I saw in most of the other women. Crystal's husband seems to form a barrier between her and the harshness of the "non-porn" world.

Crystal recounted an incident that occurred at the Canadian border when she and her husband drove up to conduct a three-to-four-week tour. Since she travels with a caravan of lights and equipment, customs routinely checks things out before waving them through. This time they were carrying a few videotapes of Crystal, not for sale-which was prohibited-but to show as promotion. Her husband took responsibility for them and was arrested for attempting to smuggle pornography. (That particular province prohibited anal sex and facial come-shots, both of which were in the videos.) It is little wonder that, when I asked Crystal what she would change about the industry, she immediately replied, "I want a written guide for what is and is not illegal to produce and distribute from place to place."

Crystal's marriage intrigued me. Many porn actresses are married, but she was the first one with what seemed to be a conventional marriage-a monogamous partnership, which included a small mom-and-pop business and the desire for children: the American dream. I was curious, but I had resolved never to intrude into the personal lives of the women I interviewed.

Instead of asking direct questions like, how does your husband feel when he watches you have sex on-screen? I asked, how do porn actresses such as you reconcile on-screen sex with a monogamous marriage? "Many of them restrict themselves to girl-girl scenes or have sex only with their husbands to keep from `complicating' their marriages."

I wondered aloud whether married men in porn handle things with as much delicacy. Apparently, they didn't, because they don't attach the same importance to sex as women do. "The men in porno are not like your average man, because sex is a job, sometimes mechanical. They are the ones who have to perform as far as the come-shot."

As the interview dissolved into a conversation, I drew it to a close by asking what she wanted to tell other women about pornography. "Just that I don't like getting feedback that's so negative ...

But I try not to be judgmental back. I keep asking myself, Who am I to judge? Because I don't like it when people judge me."

CANDIDA ROYALLE

Without question, Candida Royalle is the most powerful woman in pornography today. In 1984, having acted in several porn classics, she founded Femme Productions in order to create sensual adult movies that would appeal to women, allowing them to explore their sexual potential. For example, the promo literature for Femme's futuristic movie
Revelations
reads: "Ariel's world is sterile and gray. Creative expression is looked upon with suspicion and sex is only for procreation. Ariel follows the rules as best she can ... until she makes a discovery that will forever change her life.... There, kept alive forever on videotapes secretly made by loving couples, are the lives of those who lived in a different time.... A time when passions 96

ran freely and people were allowed to express themselves, creatively, sexually, lovingly: . . .

What does she do with her sexual awakening in a world where it is forbidden enough to warrant state arrest and imprisonment?"

Women desperately need their own form of pornography. According to a 1989 study by
Adult
Video
News-the closest thing the industry has to a Bible-twenty-nine percent of adult video customers were couples and fifteen percent were women; that segment of customers was growing rapidly. Candida addresses this huge audience through award-winning movies, such as
Three Daughters,
which tell a story-complete with original soundtrack, soft focus, and few genital close-ups.

Her films are reminiscent of porn classics from the seventies, which were carefully scripted with intricate plots and good acting. There are two reasons for this: Ms. Royalle is willing to spend months, if necessary, developing a
concept-Revelations
took two years-and, her budgets are often ten times larger than those of most adult films. Although the "old guard" of porn claims it is not possible, Candida makes a profit without lowering her staggering sticker price of $79.95

(mail order $39.95). And this, despite the fact that the theater system that formerly supported "big-budget" porn is now dead.

When I asked how she was able to survive, she responded, "The fact that we are so unique means that our work doesn't live for just one week and then die off and become what they call `catalog.'

The phenomenal thing about our line is that the first movie we ever made in '84 sells as strong as the last movie."

She never lowers her price. Instead, she does an incredible number of interviews and personal appearances to promote Femme Productions.

I caught up with Candida in her office, in a dead period before she dashed out to rehearse for her second career as back-up singer in her boyfriend's rock band. I began by asking why Femme advertised its products as "erotica" rather than pornography. "I like to think that my work takes more of a holistic approach to sexuality and lovemaking. I like to pull away from the obvious hardcore and get to the more subtle nuances of lovemaking. And I like to avoid the word
romance,
because I want to get away from the conception that women
need
romance as part of having sex.

Candida's commitment to women's sexuality led her to create Femme's Star Director Series-a collection of thirty-to-forty minute short stories which are directed by women superstars such as Gloria Leonard, Veronica Hart, Veronica Vera, and Annie Sprinkle. These women came together in July 1983, when they began a support group for adult film actresses; they went on to become business associates.

Femme's movies blend compelling content with filmmaking niceties such as original sound scores. Gloria Leonard's
Fortune
Smiles, for example, is advertised as taking "us on a touchingly funny walk through the minds of two people who have been dating and are about to take the leap into bed." Candida explains why she took a chance on such an innovative series. "I wanted to give each of these women an opportunity to express their personal views and fantasies about sex, love, and men."

Candida's philosophy is also expressed in the working conditions on her sets. "I bring a respect and compassion to the people who work for me, perhaps because I've been in front of the camera myself." She can remember walking on less pleasant sets as an actress, only to find them filled with sleazy producers/directors she didn't respect. That made her feel sleazy to be there. Candida offers her people respect; in turn, she demands professionalism. She will not hire anyone who has an active history of drugs, alcoholism, or other self-destructive behavior.

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Part of this professionalism is a commitment to safe sex, which includes using condoms on the set whenever the couples are not real-life lovers. Candida is the only major producer of heterosexual porn I have found who implements this policy. Femme has used condoms since 1986, when they became standard equipment for two basic reasons: to protect the talent (actors and actresses) and to set the example of a responsible approach.

Candida told me about the only time she breached this safe sex policy. "I remember with Jeanna Fine when we did Taste of Ambrosia-she and Randy [Paul] had worked together a lot and I really wanted her to use a condom. She tried, but she really didn't want to use it so I just said, `Fine, we won't use it.' But I thought, `This poor woman, she doesn't realize that she should be happy that I'm asking her to do this.' "

Candida went on to explain that if she is filming a dream or fantasy sequence, condoms are still used but the scene is handled differently, because-after all-condoms rarely exist in dreams and fantasies. Camera angles and other techniques mask their presence. In
Rites of
Passion, the sequence directed by Veronica Vera [Shady Madonna] used a condom but the camera didn't go in so tight that you could see it.

Especially when it is clear that couples are getting together for the first time-as in Leonard's story about first-time sex between dating couples-Femme likes to show condoms as being fun, as sex toys. Candida explained how, in the segment of A Taste
of
Ambrosia directed by Veronica Hart, condoms were eroticized. "There was the scene where the woman puts a black condom on the guy and fellates him over it. I always say to people, 'If you think it can't be erotic, look at that scene'."

It is a sign of how "in control" Candida is that I did not ask my obligatory question about coercion until twenty minutes into the interview. I finally blurted out: "Have you ever been coerced into a pornographic act?"

"No. The only time it ever came close-and it wasn't bad was when I was working with one of the bigger filmmakers. It was one of the first films I ever did and it was about this big albino guy who, in the story, had been abusing prostitutes. Some women throw an all-night party for him and they get him really drunk. At a certain point, the women all stand over him and pee on him.

"This wasn't in the script and all of a sudden they started handing out beers to all the actresses.

Now, I don't drink beer. I don't like the taste of it. So I said, Èxcuse me, what is this?' And I was told that there was a scene in which we were all going to pee on him. I said, Èxcuse me, I did not say I would do that. I was never told I would do it. I am not doing it.' " Candida rallied the other women; finally, some of them did the scene and some didn't, depending on whether it offended them. The only coercion used against Candida was the threat that she would never work for him again. She was paid for the work she'd done.

I ask if she knew of any women who had been coerced.

"No."

Then, before I could broach the subject of my next question, she brought it up herself. "Have you read Linda Lovelace's book
Ordeal?"
Candida asked.

"What is shocking to me," she continued upon discovering I had, "is that this is not a book about pornography; it is about domestic violence. It is about a woman who is abused as a child, who marries an abusive man and is turned into a prostitute by him. Not by pornography. If you read the book-in
her very
own words!-you find out that the whole thing about a gun to her head came from her own husband and was never part of the set of
Deep
Throat. In fact, she says that making the movie was the first time she felt she could smile, because the people were so nice to her. The reason she ended up with bruises was because her husband was so jealous of how nice they were 98

to her on the set that he beat her up in their hotel room. If any violence had occurred on the set, the crew would have stopped it, but they were so intimidated by him that they didn't say anything about what he did to her after hours.

"Rather than being an indictment of pornography, getting involved in the industry and becoming a star is what enabled her to finally escape. Women Against Pornography grabbed onto her story and acted every bit as exploitative as her husband did. They took her story, and instead of really trying to help the woman, who desperately needed help, they decided to misconstrue the facts and to wave her like a banner for their cause."

As long as the antiporn cause had come up, I wanted to know whether or not-as a producer-Candida had started to shy away from the sort of scenes that have been criticized as degrading to women, such as come-shots on the face or mock rapes.

This was the only time Candida-a veteran interviewee-paused before giving an answer. On one hand, she doesn't have come-shots on the face in her movies, because it has become standard (thus boring) and because she thinks most women do find it degrading. On the other hand, she believes women can get "as down and dirty as the best of them." Besides which, occasionally "playing nasty" with your lover can be good, clean fun. If an actress wanted to do a come-shot on her face, Candida was not sure how she would react.

As for mock rape scenes-she is comfortable enough with them to include them in her films, and believes society misunderstands the distinction between consensual power play and real abuse.

In fact, her semi-documentary,
LOVERS: An Intimate Portrait,
has a scene of mock rape.

Candida is well aware that antiporn feminism is a radical departure from the early days of the movement. "I was a very active young feminist in college between '69 and '71. We [The Bronx Coalition] had a storefront, we ran groups, we gave free pap smears once a year and we were really working hard. I finally left the movement because everything was getting full of anger pointed at men. Men did
this
to us; men did
that
to us. At the time, I noticed also that if you had anything to do with men you were basically `sleeping with the enemy.'

"You know, the feminist movement was so essential to my growth, but I didn't do it to hate men.

I did it to better my life. So I left the movement ['72], right around when it was becoming fashionable to be a lesbian. I really see that this [the antiporn hysteria] is the outgrowth of that.

The movement was co-opted by women who decided there was no hope for men, that we really had to be split off from them and that sex was our enemy as well ... unless it was masturbatory or lesbian."

Candida sighed, "Now we see that `feminism' has a bad connotation to it for the younger generation: It is anti-man, antisex."

The responsibility for this lies with radical feminists like Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon. Candida told me about the only time she encountered MacKinnon. It was in 1986, when they were on a panel together on the Donahue show. At that point, Candida didn't know enough about the antiporn zealot to get the full impact of who she was sitting beside. The show was somewhat stacked against MacKinnon. MacKinnon managed to dig her own grave by talking in impenetrable legalese. Now that Candida knows who these women are, she would love to confront them. But, as she says, "Now none of them will even get on the same stage with someone like me, which is very telling. Norma Ramos loves to call me àpimp' on the news."