BELGIUM — Former porn star Sasha Grey is appearing in an Internet commercial on EqualPayDay.be advocating pay parity for women.
The 70-second spot marks Equal Pay Day set for March 20 in Belgium.
The surprisingly explicit NSFW footage, sponsored by Belgium women’s organization zij-kant, runs a background sex scene as Grey narrates about her various jobs before entering adult.
Although Grey said she's not ashamed of her porn career and admitted that she liked “really dirty things” including having been tied up, gagged and anally penetrated with a 12-inch dildo, the tag line at the end of the commercial says “Porn is about the only way to make more than men” and calls for closing the wage gap and finding a "better alternative."
The slogan is touted in a downloadable PDF after the clip ends.
“This clip features 23-year old Sasha Grey. Sasha is a handsome, intelligent and independent young woman who recently starred in the series Entourage and "The Girlfriend Experience," a movie by Steven Soderbergh. But before this, she was also the most well-known pornstar of the last 15 years. It was no coincidence that she joined the porn industry at 18: it is one of the few fields where women earn more than men. So she actively contributed to closing the wage gap," the PDF reads.
It continues, “In the web commercial we see Sasha in a role she plays well: that of the sweet young woman. She tells us the story of her early professional life. She tells us about the choice she made to leave school aged only 18 years old and to take on a different sort of career. She tells us she earned a decent living. And then the commercial changes in mood. And she tells us with the same sweet smile about the things she had to do to earn all this money. Tough things. Things you wouldn’t do for all the money in the world."
There are also links for Grey’s Facebook and Twitter pages to spread the word.
At the end of the commercial Grey backs the organization’s claim of a 20-30 percent difference in salaries and states that Equal Pay Day wants to help close the gap.
Posters and flyers with the words “Close the wage gap, become a porn actress’” tattooed on a woman’s lower back will also be distributed by zij-kant.
