‘My name is James. I am a simple guy who likes to eat, sleep, and watch TV. Oh yeah, I also bang chicks for a living.’
So goes the Twitter bio of 25-year-old porn actor James Deen. 24,000 followers might not stand out in the ranks of mainstream celebrities, but for a man who most would say is merely a prop, Deen has quite the fan base. Most of those followers are women, and they are not quiet about their affection. “Reading James Deen’s blog until my parents walk in,” tweets one young woman. Another bemoans forgetting to download True Blood because she was too busy fantasizing about him.
A step further, to Deen’s personal blog, reveals an intensity of adoration normally reserved for swishy-haired pop stars. Among declarations of love and lust and women begging for personal visits—more than one requesting devirginization—a vocal group coalesces around this sentiment: “im a girl, and most dudes in porn do nothing for me. then i stumbled across a clip of you … its been lust at first sight ever since.” What magic pheromones does Deen emit that he’s earned the infatuation of his fans, the respect of his costars and the porn industry’s top awards? There’s something special about this guy, and it isn’t his penis.
♦◊♦
Sunday afternoon, while large chunks of the country cheered on the women of Team USA, I detached myself from my television to talk to a porn star who maintains a firm “no panties” rules on his website (and I call myself a feminist). I wanted to know where he came from, and how he thinks about his work. How, in an industry known for its seedy underbelly, did a decent guy like Deen come out on top?
He’s objectively good-looking, with curly brown hair, long sideburns, and very blue eyes. The word “impish” comes to mind. “I’m not hideous,” he says, while trying to explain his popularity, “I’m not old and ugly. For the percentage of women interested in porn, I’m a guy who they would talk to in a bar.”
He says “percentage of women” like it’s a teaspoon of water in the ocean of smut, and it occurs to me that he doesn’t know how popular he is. I tell him that the latest data from Nielsen shows that a third of porn site visitors are female. “What? That’s awesome! I had no idea it was so high!”
I ask him why he’s so pleased, and he says, “The world is becoming a more sexually liberated place, you know? People are more out there with their porn watching. It’s super cool.”
Deen is a behind-the-camera guy, too, directing, producing and editing for punk mega-site BurningAngel. “If you’re going to make porn, you should make something you’re really passionate about, it’ll be good, and people will watch it. Like me, I’m not really into feet … unless it really turns a girl on. But boobs? I love boobs, I could play with boobs for hours. If I make porn about boobs, it’ll be good, because you can tell how much I like them. Not so much with feet.”
From the other side of the camera, he pushes for pleasure, too. “Whenever I’m directing, I hire performers that love what they’re doing. I put them in a room together and tell them to do whatever you want, and they go at it.” He laughs and tells me a story about a friend who spends “too much” time on foreplay: “Twenty minutes later, I’m like, ‘Dude, this is hot, but would you fuck her already?’”
We talk about rough sex, a specialty of his. “A lot of the porn for women and couples is intentionally inoffensive and soft, but I don’t know any girls who have ever watched Playgirl. Sometimes girls just want to see a guy who will fuck the shit out of them. Rough sex is a science, and I’m really good at it.” Thanks to his experience in this arena, Deen is regularly requested for scenes at BDSM conglomerate Kink.com.
He speaks like a teenager, chortling at his own jokes, punctuating sentences with “whatever” and “fuck it.” But when talk turns to the industry, Deen peppers his conversation with lingo like a consummate professional. Degrees of degradation, levels of consent, variations of kink, this is the language of the biz, and he’s more than fluent. “It’s a job, you know? Like a bank job,” he explains. “You show up on time, don’t be drunk, don’t bring drugs, be polite, be professional.” It sounds too good to be true.
♦◊♦
I bring up the M-word, misogyny. Are sets actually as polite and above-board as he’s implying? “I just had this conversation! This dude was like, ‘You can’t get sexually harassed on a porn set,’ and I was like, ‘Dude! Are you kidding? Of course you can! A guy can’t just randomly come up to a girl and start waving his dick in her face—that’s sexual harassment!’”
What about those other sites, with names so offensive I wince as I say them out loud? He tells me a story about a scene so aggressive and violent that he received hate mail and death threats.
“I was like, ‘Hey man, that was my girlfriend.’” The point, he emphasizes, is that “it’s all totally fake.” All of it? “Take these two different sites that look the same,” he says, describing sites that play in the space of extreme degradation. One site is “brilliant. Everyone thinks it’s about degradation and making girls cry, really rough, fucked-up stuff; before every scene, they do an interview with the girl. They talk very specifically about what kind of scene it is. ‘It’ll be degrading, there will be this and that.’ The majority of girls are like, ‘OK, awesome, bring it on.’” But what about the other site? “Oh, well those guys are misogynistic assholes,” he says. “They just want to hurt women. They suck.” As a viewer, I probably couldn’t tell the difference.
The lines get blurry when porn gets as rough as Deen likes it. He tells me about a site he recently stopped working for because he didn’t like the premise. “Girls acted like they did something ‘bad,’ like step on my shoe,” he describes, “and then I’d have rough sex to punish them. It made me feel icky.” I want him to clarify, after all, he makes a living slapping women around onscreen. “At Kink, this girl and I are having awesome sex and she likes to get slapped in the face. The sex isn’t punishment. It’s BDSM lifestyle, and they make it super clear it’s the girl’s fantasy.”
It’s the distinction between power play that is built on a foundation of consent and pleasure, and sex that comes from a place of anger and resentment. His fans have noticed on which side of the line he falls. “He gets the difference between dominance and domineering. It’s so sexy!” says one, a 30-something mom from Missouri.
I read that Deen once bemoaned the lack of cunnilingus on camera, explaining that he loves giving oral sex, but directors didn’t want to waste film on it. Is this a problem, that kids grow up seeing blowjobs but not “box jobs,” as Dan Savage recently called female oral sex? The younger we are, the more porn influences what we think is “normal.” Does porn give kids the wrong idea? He pauses, carefully considering my question. “Yes,” he says, “Yes, you’re right. Young kids are learning that pussy-eating isn’t part of sex.” He laughs, emphatically declaring, “There should be more pussy-eating in porn!” Work on that, I tell him, and he says he will. Then he reminds me that viewers only watch what they like. “Their hands are on the fast-forward button the whole time.” He’s right. A quick and dirty search shows that pussy-eating isn’t as popular as one might hope.
♦◊♦
During this interview, at every point where I’ve asked him to choose a side, Deen defaults to “equal rights.” Are you a feminist, I ask?
“I hate feminism!” he blurts out, but rushes to rephrase. “In its truest form, I’m down with feminism, but the feminist movement has gone from being about equal rights—something I really believe in—to telling me how horrible I am because I have a penis. That shit drives me crazy.”
I tell him I’m a feminist and I don’t hate penises; he seems pleased. Our conversation is winding down. It is, after all, a Sunday afternoon, and porn star or not, Deen has laundry to do. I feel strange, like in the last two hours my best hopes and worst fears about pornography have been confirmed. There are good, smart people like James Deen and his friends, who are committed to making super-hot porn that is grounded in equality, pleasure, and consent. And yet, Deen has proven, perhaps inadvertently, that I won’t necessarily know it when I see it. None of us do, and that should make us all a little uncomfortable.
—Photos courtesy of James Deen.
About Emily Heist Moss
“During this interview, at every point where I’ve asked him to choose a side, Deen defaults to “equal rights.” Are you a feminist, I ask?”
Why continue denying that this is a feminist site? Just be honest.
Good read! A couple of things:
a) It’s quite easy to distinguish kink.com from any less responsible / actually misogynist site, for one thing the obligatory interviews with the models before and after the shoots are the sole purpose of this!
b) James Deen always goes for the clit when he gets a chance. If there isn’t enough of that in porn it sure isn’t his fault.
I like performing oral sex on women. Rather a lot. But I think there’s a good reason why there aren’t a lot of box jobs in porn: sure, the action heavily involves a woman’s vaginal area (yay!)… but also a man’s face. And personally, as a straight-ish guy, looking at women turns me on and sex turns me on, but looking at men kind of doesn’t. Especially their faces. Or hair. Even when I’m actually hooking up with them and not just seeing them in porn. Men look like goofballs when they’re having sex. Not to say that women don’t too, but for some reason my brain interprets that as hot. Extrapolate this to the majority straight male consumers of straight porn, and you have an activity which, while awesome to perform, is actively de-stimulating to watch.
Contrast that with a blow job, where the focus is on the woman’s face, and may include other sexually significant parts of her body. The cock in her mouth… well, you can imagine it’s yours, and that she’s doing to you what’s happening on screen… and try not to think too much more about it. If you’re not focused on the guy’s face, it’s about the woman and the sex. And those are hot.
In sum, I see two ways to increase the rate of female reception of oral. a) Spend a lot more time on the woman’s reaction and a lot less on the guy doing it. b) Have both/all participants be female (my personal favorite). Although that could use more reaction shots too. Even vaginas can start to look silly.
I hate that everyone disavows feminism…. but aside from that he seems “decent.”
Even as a gay man I understand why most do not like it. For much the same reason you dislike misogyny. As James said in the interview–feminism has become more a hatred and degradation of men rather than of equality. Of which I advocate fervently. But, neither do I believe any gender should rule the other. Instead I believe we should walk together rather than ahead or behind. Neither is less or more. Nor will I except condemnation for being born a man. As I myself have never done anything to deserve it. That isn’t to say others haven’t. Of which I have intimate and painful experience from. Yes. Men can be hurt by men too. Especially when we are children and cannot protect ourselves. So I very much understand what it is like. Which is why I feel so strongly about equality. It’s what I live for. And I’m pretty sure this is all James Deen meant as well.
James Deen is so HOTT! I love him
Yes, there is a distinct difference between Brazzers (which is who I assumed he stopped working for) and Kink.com. Every Kink.com sex scene includes a mini-interview to show that the actors are willing participants and enjoy the what they are participating in. Brazzers, a woman boss would be mean to a male “underling” and he would choke and slap her for it…. big difference.
Actually he stopped working for pornstar punishment
Pornstar Punishment is a website on the Brazzers network.
Sigh. I’m SO late to this, but obviously there’re some women here who consider themselves superior to the rest of us. I’m into BDSM. Good for me. I am also an educated, liberated woman.
Erin shouldn’t open her big mouth and speak for all of us just because something doesn’t turn HER on. She doesn’t like deep-throating someone? Good for her. But how dare she speak for the entire female population. (I’d comment on more, but her long-winded responses had me skimming after a while. Plus it’s kind of hard to take anyone seriously when they don’t know how to spell “niche”.)
I love people who try to defend all women, when we don’t want – or NEED – to be defended!!
the author closes with: “There are good, smart people like James Deen and his friends, who are committed to making super-hot porn that is grounded in equality, pleasure, and consent. And yet, Deen has proven, perhaps inadvertently, that I won’t necessarily know it when I see it. None of us do, and that should make us all a little uncomfortable.”
i would argue that we do know the difference, and that is why James Deen is so popular.
I just don’t get his appeal. He is just so fuggly to me. So it’s ok to like aggressive sex but the guy has to look like Screech? What’s wrong with muscles?
My biggest problem with porn is a lack of physical closeness between the performers, the manscapping, the lack of tan lines. lol.
Gay male porn is actually pretty hot to watch. Playgirl isn’t that bad but yes..it’s boring.
I know I’m late to the party here, but I agree with your statement that the biggest drawback for me in terms of watching porn is the lack of physical closeness between the performers. That’s exactly why I really like James Deen. If you watch some of his scenes you will notice that he talks to his partners quite a bit…just watch the girls he performs with…they seem completely enthralled. And I’m not talking about porn star acting “involved…” these girls have literally said they love working with him because he’s so passionate.
Anyway, I think that’s where his appeal comes from…he’s passionate, an definite Alpha (even though you wouldn’t know it by looking at him) and a generous on-screen lover. I didn’t think much of him until I watched several of his scenes. Then it all became clear;)
How does he go from “Girls acted like they did something ‘bad,’ like step on my shoe,” he describes, “and then I’d have rough sex to punish them. It made me feel icky.” to the recent kink.com controversial and brutal gang rape of a young girl because she’s Christian? This is a much more disturbing premise than stepping on a shoe, it’s a hate crime re-enactment. Not “Good Men Project” IMHO. You should re-evaluate his recent violent, hatred and anger scenes. Most disturbing.
H is for Hagiography
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Look, pornography is not supposed to be reflective of real life. It’s supposed to be reflective of our fantasies. The purpose of pornography is not to inform us about how to live our lives. It is not a “how-to” manual on safe and sane bdsm practice. It’s supposed to turn us on. That is its only purpose. It is supposed to create an illusion.
One of the problems is that people think of BDSM as an umbrella term, not understanding that there are nuances and differences between the fetishes, and differences from person to person. Some might only be turned on by bondage. Some masochists might only need physical discomfort. For other masochists, there is an emotional element to it. And this is where a true power differential is necessary in a FICTION.
Some of the things that turn people on I find to be absolutely disgusting. I simply don’t watch those things. So long as everything is completely consensual behind the scenes, then it’s not for me to judge. But what I think is happening with a lot of BDSM and fetish type erotica and pornography is that people ARE passing a judgement on it. They either believe that these things are depicting and encouraging rape or they believe they are symptomatic of misogyny. I think they are wrong. I think that there is nothing wrong with having these types of fantasies. I think it is completely normal for some people. Everyone is different. Everyone has their own particular thing that they find hot. For some people, BDSM, consensual or nonconsensual, is what turns them on. And what’s the harm, so long as they know the difference between fantasy and reality? So long as they do not harm anyone else?
And I do not get all this talk about this kinky stuff being so misogynistic. Where is the outrage over Femdom? Where is the deeper, socio-politcal meaning when it is a man who is helplessly aroused by licking a woman’s shoe or being spanked? When he is shown on film being used as a ponyboy? Is there any outcry about the underlying message of male inferiority? No. Because people spend less time analyzing and judging men and their sexual fantasies.
Women, however, can never catch a break. We are first made to feel that it is completely unnatural for us to have sexual feelings at all. We are chastised for centuries for showing the slightest interest. Then back in the 1970s, some research was done and it was found that women did indeed have sexual desires and fantasies. And one of the most common fantasy was forced-sex or some variation of BDSM. And from then on, this has been studied and picked apart and judged. Most of the judgement comes from other women, who read way the hell too much into sexual turn-ons. I really don’t believe it’s all that big a deal. It should not be made into a political statement, no more than male fantasies are. So long as real life is based on respect and equality, make believe doesn’t need to be.