# Porn stars' personal lives
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 29, 2011, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355 "2011-03-29T06:34:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@TNWPsycho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TNWPsycho)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2011, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355/1 "2011-03-29T06:34:05Z")
How is a porn stars real-life in terms of forming relationships with the opposite sex?
Is there a code of conduct saying they cant go meet random dudes at a club every night?
Do a lot of them just lead normal “monogamist” lives?
I ask about the code of conduct because i know the porn industry has very strict regulations regarding safety procedures.
---
### Author:  [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2011, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355/2 "2011-03-29T07:24:03Z")
Like everybody else, porn actors are individuals. There’s no “porn actor” personality profile that’s going to fit all of them. I’m sure there are some that are “monogamous”, and others that are promiscuous.
There’s no code of conduct, why would there be? Scandal today is when regular celebrities act like porn stars. If _porn stars_ act like porn stars, so what? Who’d be surprised by that?
The porn biz tries to keep obvious drug addiction to a minimum, but that’s going to be the main reason why anyone gets into porn as a career anyway. Easy money while your looks last is very attractive to a lot of people, especially if you have expensive tastes. So you _might_ get fired from the shoot if you’re too plainly drug affected, and if you do it regularly you _might_ get a bad rep and not get any more jobs.
But promiscuity? Who cares? Porn actors are mostly doing it for the money anyway, even the ones who enjoy the sex and the attention (and, I suspect, the degradation). I’d expect the great majority would be _much_ more likely to prostitute themselves than to go around giving it away for free. Why screw for free when you can get paid for it? So I doubt there are _any_ porn stars who go around giving away free samples. Not to regular schlubs in nightclubs, anyway. A rock star or TV celebrity; maybe.
---
### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2011, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355/3 "2011-03-29T07:44:25Z")
I have never known a real porn star. The following opinions are based on my reading about the pornstar lifestyle.
> [@TNWPsycho](#):
>
> How is a porn stars real-life in terms of forming relationships with the opposite sex?
>
> Outsiders tend to be judgmental. Porn stars tend to be buddies with other porn stars and people who are in the business in one way or another.
>
> Is there a code of conduct saying they cant go meet random dudes at a club every night?
>
> No, other than keeping clean of STDs which is big deal for them to keep working as they are tested reguarly. The main practical “code of conduct” is you have to be able to look great and perform, and this requires (on some level) taking care of yourself physically including not partying and drugging too much, and getting enough sleep. If you look and feel ragged you will not get work. Some burn the candle on both ends but it eventually catches up to you.
>
> Many porn stars will do escort (ie prostitution) gigs if the money is good enough.
>
> Do a lot of them just lead normal “monogamist” lives?
>
> While thy are working as porn stars? Some do, but they are a minority. Over the long haul the porn lifestyle doesn’t really make a supportive environment for long term monogamist committments working out.
>
> I ask about the code of conduct because i know the porn industry has very strict regulations regarding safety procedures.
See this NSFW blog for a peek into the lifestyle put the “ht” and the “tp” together
ht tp://cwians.typepad.com/
---
### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2011, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355/4 "2011-03-29T08:48:25Z")
> [@Shakester](#):
>
> The porn biz tries to keep obvious drug addiction to a minimum, but that’s going to be the main reason why anyone gets into porn as a career anyway.
Wha…? Cite, please?
---
### Author:  [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2011, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355/5 "2011-03-29T09:18:39Z")
> [@psychonaut](#):
>
> Wha…? Cite, please?
I don’t personally know any porn actors, but I _have_ personally known quite a few people in the related businesses of stripping and prostitution. Every single one of them got into the sex trade through a taste for drugs.
Are you claiming that drug use _isn’t_ endemic to the sex trade? I’d like to see a cite for _that_ which doesn’t come from the porn biz’s PR apologists.
The _stars_ - the ones who have had lasting careers - are likely to be fairly together. The great majority of the rest are financing drug habits.
---
### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2011, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355/6 "2011-03-29T09:29:58Z")
> [@Shakester](#):
>
> Are you claiming that drug use _isn’t_ endemic to the sex trade? I’d like to see a cite for _that_ which doesn’t come from the porn biz’s PR apologists.
Drug use is probably “endemic” to the rock music industry, but that doesn’t mean that most people who got into the rock scene did so through a “taste for drugs”. So no, I’m not challenging your assertion that drug use is prevalent among porn workers; I am challenging the illogical leap you made from correlation to causation.
---
### Author:  [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2011, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355/7 "2011-03-29T10:01:35Z")
> [@psychonaut](#):
>
> Drug use is probably “endemic” to the rock music industry, but that doesn’t mean that most people who got into the rock scene did so through a “taste for drugs”. So no, I’m not challenging your assertion that drug use is prevalent among porn workers; I am challenging the illogical leap you made from correlation to causation.
Sex workers in developed countries are almost always drug addicts, and the fact that some people perceive the porn biz as some kind of glamorous exception to the rules of the sex trade is what’s illogical here.
Also, I’ve actually spent much of my life playing in rock bands, so yeah, I happen to be in a position to explain that the difference between playing in a rock band and working in the sex trade is that, with statistically insignificant exceptions, there’s no money in rock music. There _is_ fast money in the sex trade, which is why it attracts drug addicts. And yes, I have personally seen people I know move from playing in a band to prostitution when the addiction started to bite.
---
### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2011, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355/8 "2011-03-29T11:06:10Z")
> [@Shakester](#):
>
> Sex workers in developed countries are almost always drug addicts, and the fact that some people perceive the porn biz as some kind of glamorous exception to the rules of the sex trade is what’s illogical here.
My use of the word “illogical” applied to your argument, not your claim. Your claim may be true or it may be false; I’m just trying to elicit from you the evidence and reasoning you used to arrive at it, because (believe it or not) I’m genuinely interested in knowing whether “the main reason why anyone gets into porn as a career [is drug addiction]”. But I’m not just going to take your word for it, no matter how much personal experience you have with some superset of the group under consideration. That’s not how we substantiate claims around here.
---
### Author:  [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2011, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355/9 "2011-03-29T11:49:50Z")
> [@psychonaut](#):
>
> But I’m not just going to take your word for it, no matter how much personal experience you have with some superset of the group under consideration. That’s not how we substantiate claims around here.
Take their word or not, but my small exposure to the porn biz (my high school friend was a mid-range porn star) confirms that drugs play a major part in the Porn industry. The two times I was around a party, there were drugs everywhere, and biggest concern the morning of a shoot, was if someone was too burned out from partying the night before.
Is this really a surprise to you?
---
### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2011, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355/10 "2011-03-29T12:07:12Z")
> [@spifflog](#):
>
> Take their word or not, but my small exposure to the porn biz (my high school friend was a mid-range porn star) confirms that drugs play a major part in the Porn industry. The two times I was around a party, there were drugs everywhere, and biggest concern the morning of a shoot, was if someone was too burned out from partying the night before.
>
> Is this really a surprise to you?
Still missing the question. The question isn’t “do porn stars tend to do lots of drugs”. The question is “Do porn stars get into porn \*because \*they do lots of drugs and intend to use their porn earnings to support their drug habits?” That is, is the decision to do porn most often motivated by drug habits, or is it merely a sweet bonus unrelated to the career decision making process?
Some doctors are drug addicts (about the same percentage as the general population, actually). Very few people choose to go into medicine \*because \*they’ll have access to drugs.
---
### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2011, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355/11 "2011-03-29T12:11:37Z")
> [@spifflog](#):
>
> Take their word or not, but my small exposure to the porn biz (my high school friend was a mid-range porn star) confirms that drugs play a major part in the Porn industry. The two times I was around a party, there were drugs everywhere, and biggest concern the morning of a shoot, was if someone was too burned out from partying the night before.
>
> Is this really a surprise to you?
Just out of curiosity, how old are you? Or rather, when where these parties? I was under the impression that a lot has changed over the last few decades and that porn over the last 15-20 years has cleaned up quite a bit. Not to say that drugs aren’t still there, but not like they were in the 70’s and 80’s.
Of course this is from seeing specials/documentaries on TV about things like Playboy, Vivid, Club Jenna etc which I think is considered high end rather then “mid-range.”
---
### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2011, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355/12 "2011-03-29T13:14:24Z")
> [@WhyNot](#):
>
> Still missing the question. The question isn’t “do porn stars tend to do lots of drugs”. The question is “Do porn stars get into porn \*because \*they do lots of drugs and intend to use their porn earnings to support their drug habits?”
The question is not only that, but also “If so, what evidence is there to corroborate this?” And by “evidence”, I do not mean statements such as “Trust me, man. I know lots of prostitutes and strippers and they’re all drug addicts. And never mind that prostitution and stripping aren’t the same occupations as porn acting.”
---
### Author:  [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2011, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355/13 "2011-03-29T14:19:40Z")
Callling Abby Winters!
---
### Author:  [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2011, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355/14 "2011-03-29T14:45:12Z")
A friend of mine’s frat brother became a porn actor after college. I don’t think he was in it for drugs. I got the impression he was addicted to sex. My friend and I were driving around the city once in college and he pointed out a “brothel” and I asked him how he knew. It was just a rowhouse. He said so-and-so goes there all the time, he’s all into that. It was no surprise when I heard what he did after college.
I imagine there are some women who are nymphos and get off on being filmed and figure why not get paid for it. Not evidence, I know, but another possibility besides drugs for being in the business.
---
### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2011, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355/15 "2011-03-29T15:28:22Z")
There are now tons of books written by people in the porn industry. Jenna Jameson’s [How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale](http://www.amazon.com/Make-Love-Like-Porn-Star/dp/0060539100/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301412146&sr=1-1) is no great shakes as literature and probably not in the related sense of literal truth.
She does talk in great detail about the exact issues in the OP. Why she got into the business. The relationships between men and women and women and women and those with power and those without. The use of drugs, the need for drugs, and the need to get off drugs. The strains between the porn world and the regular world. It’s surprisingly dark without being one of those “porn is the Devil’s Aftershave” crusader books.
---
### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355/16 "2011-03-29T15:55:06Z")
> [@Shakester](#):
>
> But promiscuity? Who cares? Porn actors are mostly doing it for the money anyway, even the ones who enjoy the sex and the attention (and, I suspect, the degradation). I’d expect the great majority would be _much_ more likely to prostitute themselves than to go around giving it away for free. Why screw for free when you can get paid for it? So I doubt there are _any_ porn stars who go around giving away free samples. Not to regular schlubs in nightclubs, anyway. A rock star or TV celebrity; maybe.
Uh … are you saying that porn actors have sex only (1) for money, or (2) with celebrities? Because I’m under the impression that a lot of porn actors are in relationships of one kind or another that don’t fit either category. (And what does the question have to to with “regular schlubs in nightclubs”?)
---
### Author:  [@TNWPsycho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TNWPsycho)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2011, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355/17 "2011-03-29T17:02:46Z")
Original OP chiming in here.
The question was more in regards to their personal sex lives, not drug use.
Do most porn stars have “monogamous” lives, or are they very promiscuous.
---
### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2011, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355/18 "2011-03-29T17:12:00Z")
For what it’s worth, I’ve read that some porn actors who are relationships or who are married have “rules,” for example, sex with others in the context of filming only, or no penile-vaginal penetration with others.
---
### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2011, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355/19 "2011-03-29T18:08:59Z")
> [@spifflog](#):
>
> Take their word or not, but my small exposure to the porn biz (my high school friend was a mid-range porn star) confirms that drugs play a major part in the Porn industry. The two times I was around a party, there were drugs everywhere, and biggest concern the morning of a shoot, was if someone was too burned out from partying the night before.
>
> Is this really a surprise to you?
If your knowledge of academia was based on frat parties, you’d probably assume that all college students were alcoholics.
I’m guessing there are porn stars who go home to their families after work rather than go out partying. And those porn stars probably take a lot fewer drugs.
---
### Author:  [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355/20 "2011-03-29T18:29:47Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> …I’m guessing there are porn stars who go home to their families after work…
Pretty much any documentary I’ve seen about female porn actresses involves drug abuse of some kind. Of course, the reason that they were noteworthy is due to some unfortunate ending of their lives, which makes the sample set somewhat biased.
Admittedly, I haven’t really watched or anything recently (like over the past decade). I did attend 2 parties at a NY club that were promoting adult movies a couple of years ago. At both, I observed porn actresses lining up to do lines, or looking obviously f-ed up. In fact, I probably met 10 - 12 of them, and I wouldn’t have been comfortable with any of them driving me home. But again, this was a biased sample.
If I had to make a bet, I’d bet that drug abuse is far more prevalent in the porn world than in the non-porn world. If that’s true, then one can make the logical assumption that they’re indeed doing it to support their expensive addictions. While many people are natural exhibitionists, most people respect their families and wouldn’t want to embarrass them unless they really, really need the money.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-stars-personal-lives/576355.md?page=2)