LOS ANGELES — Three prominent porn stars from the ‘70’s were featured on Huffington Post Live recently discussing how porn has changed over the decades.
Among the guests were adult legend Nina Hartley, filmmaker Candida Royalle and performer Richard Pacheco (Howie Gordon).
Pacheco discussed his new autobiography “Hindsight, True love & Mischief in the Golden Age of Porn” and chronicled his porn career from 1977-87. Pacheco said stars in those days came of age during the sexual revolution, however nowadays porn has evolved into an “era of plague” where moralities and fashions of sexual behavior have been radically altered to cope with the phenomenon.
One major change, according to Harley, is new technology. She said workers can now own the means of production and sell directly to consumers without going through the drudgery of dealing with third parties.
Hartley added that the ‘70’s fostered an “anything goes” attitude, whereas today the discussion of porn often centers on porn as a threat or menace by certain anti-porn advocates.
The aspect of feminist porn was also on the table. Royalle, a pioneer in women’s porn noted that the idea that feminists were against porn is not true, and that in fact it was just those who yelled the loudest. Many feminsits of the day — who embraced free speech — were pro-porn.
Life after porn, according to the guests, is often tough for former performers.
Hartley, who described porn films as “live action cartoons,” said it’s difficult to revert back to a regular life. “You can’t take it back.”
Gordon quoted the late Al Goldstein who said, “porn is a life sentence.”
But filmmaker Royalle noted that she found her way by going back and doing it [films] the way she wanted. “I never wanted to hide,” she said.
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