Monday, June 17, 2013

How Are Reality Stars Who Gained Fame Because of Sex Tapes Really Different Than Porn Stars?


How Are Reality Stars Who Gained Fame Because of Sex Tapes Really Different Than Porn Stars?

What do Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, and Kendra Wilkinson have in common with Linda Lovelace, Traci Lords and Jenna Jameson? They all made money and achieved fame because of performing sex acts on video.  The only real difference is the latter three women openly worked in the porn industry. Kardashian, Hilton and Wilkinson feigned outrage and surprise that a former partner would release sex tapes to the media – and then capitalized on the “embarrassing experience” to publicize their reality TV shows, become household names, and earn mountains of cash.

It is for this reason, more than any other, that it is truly unfathomable to me that these individuals have become media stars.  Would HLN have delayed reporting on real news to announce that a porn star had given birth?  Would countless clueless young women clamber to Sears to buy clothes designed by a porn star?  Do porn stars fill the pages of  “celebrity magazines"? I think not!  Then why do these reality TV personages who, arguably, can’t act, sing, dance, recite poetry, play a musical instrument, create anything artistic, or do anything other than shop, interest so many people?

I think I’ve answered my own question. Porn stars don’t make a fortune; they aren’t on the covers of OK or People or whatever other publications are sold at the supermarket check out line or available to peruse surreptitiously at the beauty salon or dentist’s office; stories about their giving birth does not usurp the elections in Iran; and nobody wants to follow their fashion choices.  What they do have in common is self-exploitation.  But I can respect the woman who is honest about it. 

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