Coming Out Like a Porn Star

“Someone you love is a sex worker. Part coming out stories, part critique of a culture that expects people to ‘come out’ about the jobs they do, this is a stunning record of how porn workers make their living and what that means for how they move in the world.” —Heather Berg, author of Porn Work: Sex, Labor, and Late Capitalism  “This book delivers puta theory with a revolutionary punch. Revised and expanded to engage the changing tech landscape of porn and politics, it remains an essential tool for learning, teaching, and organizing for liberation.” —Juana María Rodríguez, author of Puta Life: Seeing Latinas, Working Sex “Porn performers are constantly looked at, but rarely actually seen. This collection humanizes the adult industry in ways you can’t escape. A much-needed reminder that porn people are people.” —Madita Oeming, author of PORN: An Audacious Analysis “Coming Out Like a Porn Star is a fascinating compendium of how the lives of the people who enter the erotic entertainment industry can change, from the effects such a revelation can have on a person’s family and friends, to the legal obstacles that may put a performer, director, or producer in danger of violation of obscenity laws that no one can tell they’re violating short of a court trial, to impacts such a revelation may have on whatever activities the person may engage in that are not porn-related—mainstream jobs, romances, parental/sibling relationships, etc.—and how they dealt with them, sometimes in great detail. The contributors to this volume, some of whom are world-renowned, lay out all the joys and shortcomings of their involvement in erotica in fascinating, very personal detail, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s a must-read.” —Mark Kernes, author of Preachers vs. Porn: Exposing Christianity's War on Sexxx “There’s no substitute for listening to actual sex workers. Their ability to process and recount lived experiences, their individual and collective wisdom, survival skills, passion for activism and mutual aid, and capacity for extremely smart self-reflection would be exemplary for any group of professionals, let alone one that does all this while mainstream/bourgeois/polite society continues trying to marginalize and stigmatize them. With Coming Out Like a Porn Star, Jiz Lee has compiled the most important collection of essays by contemporary adult content professionals, telling it like it is. This updated edition adds necessary layers to its account of a business that is—famously—constantly changing at the speed of technology. Nobody should presume to speak about the complicated topic of pornography without at least considering the rich diversity of experience and thought contained in this book.” —Gustavo Turner, news editor at XBIZ “Groundbreaking, nuanced, and necessary. Jiz Lee’s Coming Out Like a Porn Star is one of the most important collections of sex worker writing and theorizing ever to be published.” —Lynn Comella, author of Vibrator Nation: How Feminist Sex-Toy Stores Changed the Business of Pleasure “Essays from those who bare it all, exploring the joys and risks of sharing our secret selves with those we love in order to love them better. Along the way, these stories reveal what it means to be fully, bravely, gorgeously human.” —Lola Davina, author of Thriving in Sex Work “A truly singular, monumentally important work bringing together the wildly varied, comic, passionate, heartbreaking, and inspiring stories of the real people behind the fantasy. At a time when legislators, regulators, banks, courts, tech platforms, and churches are engaged in a seemingly collaborative effort to silence the voices of sex workers, Coming Out Like a Porn Star stands defiant, presenting sex workers on their own terms and in their own voices. More than a book of essays, it’s a guidebook for activism, a history of the community, and a testament to how smart, funny, kind, and wonderful the people we work, love, and fight alongside are.”  —Mike Stabile, director of public policy at the Free Speech Coalition Praise for the First Edition of Coming Out Like a Porn Star “[Coming Out Like a Porn Star] seeks to share an honest portrait of porn.” —VICE “These intimate, often funny, deftly expressed accounts are told from a range of generations, genders, and races, and include personal experiences from the late feminist porn pioneer Candida Royalle, legends Nina Hartley and Annie Sprinkle, and sexuality bloggers Conner Habib and Stoya.” —The New Inquiry “A manifesto, a reclamation by Lee of the role of porn as a positive artistic form.” —Salon.com          “Lee’s collection of essays offers a nuanced, heartfelt, and incredibly honest look at what it means to come to terms with a highly public, incredibly sexual identity within the bounds of one’s private life.” ―Lux Alptraum, former editor/publisher, Fleshbot.com “Reveals the fascinating, funny, and sometimes brutal stories of performers in the adult entertainment business.” —Dazed