Reality-TV Porn

Porn is actually a lot less murky than reality TV about what makes a person famous, according to Jenn Pozner, author of Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV. “There are people who go onto reality shows because they think this is their big break and they’re going to have a career based on this,” she says. “They see Snooki or folks who go from one reality show to another. But those are the very few people who actually make a legitimate career.” In porn, actors may have a short shelf life—but everyone is labeled a “star.”

Now some reality shows, like Showtime’s Gigolos, have combined both demi-art forms by skirting the limits of softcore porn. On the second season premiere of The Real L Word, also on Showtime, one woman goes down an another to climax. Cast member Whitney Mixter justifies her participation as more educational than prurient. “I’m a consenting adult with another consenting adult,” she tells the Voice. “So I’m definitely not ashamed or embarrassed, and hopefully it can be a learning experience for someone.”

Photo illustration by Rachel Steinhauser

Design Star's Michael Verdugo

Details

THE QUEER ISSUE
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In Praise of Promiscuity
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The Tranny Chaser Chaser
Reality Stars Turn to Porn
Girl-on-Girl Action Becomes Passé
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More About

• Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi
• Big Brother (TV Show)
• Steven Daigle
• Television
• Reality Shows

Whatever. As inevitably happens on TV, the bar continually gets lowered. Pozner cites the popular TLC series Toddlers and Tiaras as reaching the nadir. “You have five-year-olds running around in bikinis and doing Dallas Cowboy cheerleader–style dance/stripteases for the judges,” she notes. “That show is extremely influenced by kiddie porn even if they don’t intend it to be.”

Whether we’re seeing people bare all on reality television or pornography, the one common thread is that voyeuristic thrill we get watching other people act out—even if, as Daigle points out, both forms of entertainment are as staged and phony as a World Wrestling event. “It looks glamorous when you’re watching a porn scene, but when you’re actually doing it, it’s not at all,” he says. “I say the same thing about reality TV. I can’t watch reality TV without looking at every aspect and going, ‘That’s fake, that’s staged, that looks set up’ and you realize how much is not real. Same with porn.”