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There is a paucity of research on individuals who perform in x-rated films because this group of actors represents a difficult-to-access population. The current study used a discovery oriented qualitative methodology to examine the responses of 105 male actors in the adult entertainment industry regarding the motivations for becoming involved in the pornography industry. The results indicated that there were nine reasons that emerged from the data with the most frequent responses being money, sex, and social interactions. The results provide insight from a large sample of actors on why they chose to become involved in the pornography industry and represent a step in better understanding the characteristics and attributes of individuals in the adult entertainment industry.
Issues regarding the production and consumption of pornographic materials continue to be an intensely debated social topic. As with most controversial topics, there are fervent advocates on both sides of the debate regarding the effects or non-effects of pornography on the viewers, as well as the actors and actresses who appear in adult films. Women involved in the adult entertainment industry are typically of more interest than men because anti-pornography advocates have focused on the effects of pornography as it relates to women. For example, some writers (e.g., Dworkin, 1989; MacKinnon, 1993) have asserted that female porn actresses are in desperate conditions and are coerced into participation. Another view is that pornography is used by men as a guide to hate and abuse women (Jeffreys, 1988). Thus, the controversy regarding pornography has largely focused on women as victims and men as the perpetrators both within and outside of the pornography industry.
It is common to use the assumed motivational, psychological, and behavioral characteristics of individuals in the adult entertainment industry as a foundation for judging the many facets of pornography. Evans-DeCicco and Cowan (2001) demonstrated that negative views regarding pornography are associated with negative perceptions of the performers who act in X-rated films. What is known about actors in the adult entertainment industry largely remains speculative at best because the actual characteristics of porn actors have not been reported and the majority of the available reports focused on porn actresses (e.g., Campbell, 1990; Gittler, 1999; Lovelace, 1980; Strossen, 1995; Wilkenson, 1994), and was anecdotal in nature. Data...