LOS ANGELES — Porn’s most famous, or infamous film, the original “Deep Throat,” is celebrating its 40th anniversary since its premier in New York’s Times Square and it’s still making headlines.
The Daily Beast talked to some of today’s top porn stars and asked them to reflect on the film that in many ways changed how the world views adult material, and more importantly how it’s affected women’s roles in porn.
Jessica Drake, Joanna Angel, Kaylani Lei, Alexis Texas, Stormy Daniels and Alektra Blue all weighed in on the how the classic film affected their lives.
Angel told the Beast that "Deep Throat" made watching porn legitimate and accepted by the masses. As a businesswoman who created an alternative porn product, Angel said she’s constantly challenged. The tumultuous career of the film's star, Linda Lovelace, has taught her some lessons.
“This is a tough world for women who want to be in charge of anything. You have to work 10 times as hard to get half as far as everybody else. If you want to be a CEO on Wall Street or a doctor, you have to be the best doctor and the best CEO because everyone’s waiting for you to fuck up. Being a woman is hard,” Angel said.
Daniels added that the film opened doors for women in adult and even contributed to the overall well being of sexuality. The famous clitoris in the throat premise of the movie helped men realize that women had a clitoris, Daniels said.
“Up until that point I bet some men didn’t even know that women had a clitoris. This began wanting to please your partner and took the shame out of being aroused or wanting to have an orgasm. I think the movie did great things.”
Women are now more confident and accepting of themselves thanks to "Deep Throat," according to Texas, who maintained that in the last decade women have made it known that “it’s not just about men.” “I came to the realization that women have to be very vocal about what they want and don’t want. And that’s evident with more women in higher positions to make business decisions nowadays and involved behind and in front of the camera in the adult industry.”
Drake, who is an active sex-positive advocate and sexuality coach called Lovelace a sexual pioneer who contributed to better communication between couples despite the stigma of being a porn star. She said women today are becoming forces of authority, power and control thanks to the efforts of earlier women in porn.
“I think they’re amazing. I’m all about girl power, I think we run the world and we can do anything. We’re definitely giving the guys a run for their money,” Blue said about women's rise in porn. But she also gave credit to men for paving the way, noting that the adult industry has evolved “a thousand times since 'Deep Throat',” thanks to the efforts of people like Hugh Hefner, Larry Flynt, and John Stagliano who cared about their art and stood up for their rights.
Lovelace’s groundbreaking career also influenced Lei, who said the star took adult to a new level that allowed women back then to realize,"Wow, I can do this, too."
