by Rich Moreland, January 2016
In my recent interview with performer Natasha Nice, she talked about consent in adult film. It has become an industry lightning rod as you will see in our discussion. All photos are courtesy of her social media. Watermarks identify the studios where appropriate.
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Sure, Why Not?
Natasha Nice came into porn at the earliest age possible. Now twenty-seven, she’s a treasure trove of porn wisdom sprinkled with practical common sense.
First, a little background to introduce our star.
The curvaceous sweetie is a native of France. When she was three, her family emigrated to America and settled in Los Angeles. In 2006, Natasha finished her education at a private academy in Hollywood and couldn’t resist the open-minded charm of the city’s entertainment industry.
“I had just graduated high school and was completely against the idea of going to college right away,” Natasha tells me. Instead, she opted for adventure and checked out nude modeling. As sometimes happens, porn eventually drifted into the picture. “I just kinda thought nothing of it like, ‘sure, why not.'”
A successful career followed, producing a body of work most girls in adult can only dream of. In December 2011, Natasha was selected Penthouse Pet of the Month, a supreme industry compliment.
In light of the James Deen/Stoya allegations, I want to take Natasha in a different direction from the usual porn girl interview. I asked about consent and what it means for the sex worker.
Natasha’s response is indicative of her intellect.
Tapping his Thigh
Monitoring consent “should be a big concern for everyone on set,” she begins.
“I know some performers who admit there have been times when things have gotten a bit too much, but most consider it part of the job.”
Has she had any personal incidences? You bet, and this 5’2″ dynamo pulls no punches.
“There have been a couple of times where the guy was going really deep and it kinda hurt, so I signaled him to slow it down by tapping his thigh.”
He paid little attention to her concerns, Natasha remembers, so she tried another approach. She bared her teeth before settling into oral sex, “just for insurance.”
Natasha hastens to add that incidents like this are not frequent. Most porn guys are pretty good to work with and she rarely has to take extreme measures to get them to back off.
All-Too-Common
Our conversation shifts a bit.
Porn is sex work and given that it carries a stigma, should girls be surprised that uncomfortable things happen during shoots?
To put another spin on the question, no one is coerced into performing sex acts on camera, regardless what some people want to believe. So, what is consent and what are its boundaries?
Natasha frames her answer by looking at an all-too-common mindset which she takes logically to its conclusion.
If a girl shows up to work thinking she is less a person because of her profession or feels shame “because society has told her she is a bad person for doing porn, she’s less likely to say ‘no’ or ‘stop.'”
“Pair that with a director whose job it is to get hardcore content and the girl doesn’t speak up,” Natasha states, “he’s going to go as far as he can.” It’s the nature of the business.
In other words, Natasha is challenging what many directors say they monitor closely, a girl’s limits.
But there’s more. A performer can turn against herself.
“She might go home after the scene and be like ‘I didn’t like that,’ and because she thought she couldn’t say anything, she’d be inclined to blame the director and male talent for pushing her boundaries when she didn’t state her boundaries [to begin with].”
To complicate the issue, we have society’s attitudes about porn performers as throwaway people.
“At the same time,” Natasha comments, “it’s no secret that men in porn and men everywhere think women, especially porn stars, should just shut up and take it.”
No Position to Fight Back
Relating her point of view to Stoya’s story, Natasha understands how the actress, whom she has never met, may have felt.
“If what I’ve read is true and Stoya was in no physical position to fight back and James took advantage of that, then we should all be on the lookout” for guys who might abuse girls on camera.
Natasha uses the business world as a comparison. Bosses “care about” their employees because they benefit the company. Putting herself in the place of the studio owner, the French lass says she “would want Stoya to be okay to continue shooting good scenes for me and feel like she can let loose as much as she wants to on my set without being sexually harassed.”
“On the other hand,” Natasha continues, “if Stoya chose not to stop the scene because she was afraid of people thinking less of her, that’s on her and we’ve all been there. That’s why we really have to emphasize our boundaries before the scene starts, even though it’s uncool, we’ll live.”
If the shoot is BDSM oriented, another question comes up. Natasha has filmed for Kink.com where the crew is alerted to safety concerns that may arise during shoots. There “are others on set” who should have stepped in when things got rough, she says. If someone “heard Stoya use her safeword . . . why didn’t they say anything?”
Next we’ll ask Natasha about the sex worker label and how it fits into the adult profession today.
Natasha with fellow performer Charley Chase
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Take a look at Natasha’s website natashanice.com when you have a chance. She’s on twitter @benicenatasha.
