More Defections From the Porn Industry

If I or others like me point out the dangers of porn, we are usually dismissed as crank and killjoys, and told to butt out. For decades now I have been trying to get the message out that our porn-soaked culture is killing our kids, our families and our nations.

Yet for all my efforts I have been abused, ridiculed, mocked and called every name under the sun. But speaking truth is always important so I will keep on doing it, despite all the abuse and hatred. However, the anti-porn case is much harder to dismiss when those who have been heavily involved in it come out and say the same thing.

You can dismiss me all you like, but when former porn stars and porn magazine editors leave the industry and admit that they were dead wrong, then we all had better sit up and take notice. And I have done this before, featuring such stories. See these three articles for example:
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2013/01/15/second-thoughts-on-the-sexual-revolution/
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2013/04/29/sleaze-abandoned-for-marriage-and-family/
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2012/02/11/some-wins-on-the-porn-front/

Well, we have even more examples of those in the porn industry deciding they have had enough, and having the courage to speak about the great harm their once chosen profession causes. Two more such stories have recently come to light and are well worth sharing here.

The first has to do with a big time porn star known as Jenna Presley who has given it all up and now serves Jesus Christ instead. One write-up about her life begins this way: “In 2010, Maxim Magazine named her one of the top female porn stars in the world. Little did they know, she was already on a rocky road to sanctification as a new creature in Christ.

“Brittni, who used the professional name Jenna Presley, started dancing to earn extra money as a freshman at Santa Barbara City College in 2005. Two men approached her after one of her performances and asked if she would like to make ‘romance movies.’ ‘You mean porn?’ she joked. They nodded affirmatively, but it was no joke. ‘I didn’t know what to expect,’ she admits now. ‘At 18, I was only a baby. I was looking for love in all the wrong places.’

“Brittni was insecure as a result of her upbringing in a home with a ‘verbally abusive’ mother and passive father. For the first time in her life, she began to receive positive affirmation, and it felt good. She traveled to L.A. and shot her first pornographic scene….

“Producers worked her relentlessly in the early phase of her career because of her youthful, fresh appearance. ‘I already looked like I was 12,’ Brittni recalls. They dressed her in ‘little girl’ clothing and pigtails, which made her uncomfortable. The inescapable conclusion is that filmmakers wanted to appeal to the depraved fantasies of men with pedophile tendencies. ‘It’s disgusting how they can portray you as a little girl,’ she says today. ‘It’s complete perversion.’

“During this period, she worked as much as 60 days without a day off, shooting two and sometimes three sex scenes a day. ‘I didn’t know how to say no,’ she notes. ‘I didn’t know how to stand up for myself. Before this, my mother made every decision for me.’ The youthful spark that made her such an attractive commodity began to fade. ‘It left me feeling drained,’ she says. ‘I was so robotic I was like a rubber Barbie doll. I had no emotions.’

“Initially, she made $900 for each sex scene she filmed, but the money quickly disappeared. As hopelessness and emptiness overwhelmed her, she turned to drugs to numb the pain. ‘I started with cocaine. Then it became a downhill spiral to heroin. I had many lonely nights when I cut on my wrists. I tried to kill myself. I spent all my paycheck on drugs.’ After three years in the adult film industry, she was fed up. She placed a 911 call to her grandmother. ‘I need you grandma,’ she said. ‘I’m done with this. Come and get me’.”

Her conversion took place as follows: “During her stay with her grandparents, they took her to the Rock Church in San Diego, led by Pastor Miles McPherson. Brittni was ‘bawling’ through most of the sermon. In response to his invitation, she raised her hand to receive Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior. The church gave her a Bible and after she got home, she devoured Genesis. ‘I always wondered how we became human. Finally I had the answer and I was so excited. I couldn’t put it down’….

“In November 2012, Brittni filmed her last sex scene. ‘It was seven long years,’ she laments. ‘I hated what I was doing, but I wondered what I would do next.’ After Brittni left adult films, she found work with a limousine company and makes a decent income. ‘I look forward to waking up every morning,’ she says. ‘There is life after porn; there is life after drugs and prostitution.’

“Brittni also reconciled with her parents and has a wonderful relationship with them today. Recently, her entire family sat together in church. ‘I love my mom so much,’ she exclaims. ‘My sister got baptized with me and my brother prayed the prayer of salvation with me on the phone. God is alive and He is working!’ she says. ‘He is in the business of miracles. I have finally encountered the unconditional love of God and I will never go back’.”

And those who make porn are also seeing the light. Consider the story of Martin Daubney, editor of the “lad’s mag” Loaded. He says, “The average Loaded reader — largely white, working class, 20-something blokes — had a simple palate, so we gave them what they wanted. To me, it was harmless fun, dictated by market forces. What’s more, I was paid more money than I’d ever earned in my life to do it. I’d always dreamed of editing Loaded and vowed to do whatever it took to stay there.

“I never stopped to consider issues like the crass sexualisation of women. Moral naysayers were party poopers, and if they attacked me, I’d attack them back — harder. We were under massive pressure to sell magazines to keep our shareholders happy. We knew sex sold, so our thinking was: why not make Loaded a frenzied, Harrods-sale of nudity?”

But in 2009 he says he “finally grew up” when he became a father: “It had such an effect on me and changed my views so forcibly that within a year I’d quit a dream job that, for me, had become a moral nightmare. When I look back now, I see we were severely pushing the envelope of what was considered decent.

“We were normalising soft porn, and in so doing we must have made it more acceptable for young men to dive into the murky waters of harder stuff on the internet. And, for that, I have a haunting sense of regret. I edited Loaded for eight years — the title’s longest-serving editor — and its titillating mix of topless girls and decidedly non-PC humour….

“My life had become a charade, switching between diametrically-opposed extremes — nipples by day and nappies by night. I started seeing the women in my magazine not as sexual objects, but as somebody’s daughter. Some of Loaded’s models had children themselves, and I’d think ‘what’s your kid going to think of you when they’re old enough to understand Mummy used to get her boobs out for a living?’

“To think that the girls who posed for our magazine had once had their nappies changed, had once been taught to take their first steps and had once been full of childlike hope .?.?. it was almost heartbreaking. I was confronted by the painful thought that maybe Loaded was part of the problem. Was it an ‘enabler’ to young teenage boys who’d consume harder porn later, in the same way dabbling with cannabis might lead to stronger addictions to cocaine or heroin?…

“By allowing children free access to pornographic images, the next generation of young men are becoming so desensitised, I genuinely fear we’re storing up an emotional time-bomb. Porn objectifies women, demeans and cheapens them, because it sells a fantasy where men are always in control and get what they want. But real life isn’t like that. In porn, women cry, ‘yes, yes, yes!’ but in real life, they often say, ‘no’. Not all men have the intelligence or moral fortitude to understand they cannot take what they want.

“Today, it’s never been easier to get your hands on porn of the most grotesquely graphic nature, yet absolutely nobody admits responsibility. And most shocking of all is the total lack of moral accountability displayed by the internet pornographers when it comes to supplying their product to minors.”

He concludes, “Two years after my exit, I can finally admit that I was part of the problem. By speaking out, in some tiny way I hope to be part of the solution.” Yes he is now part of the solution, as is Brittni. Thankfully some of those most heavily involved in the porn industry have been able to cut through the lies and deception.

It is hoped that their stories can help many others caught in this sordid and ugly world.

http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2013/s13060106.htm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2156593/The-lads-mag-I-edited-turned-generation-porn–Im-father-I-bitterly-regret-A-remarkable-confession-longest-serving-editor-Loaded.html

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