NL-This interview happened because Brittany sent me an email decrying the AVN award winners & noms in the Transsexual category. I wanted her to have her say on the issue. The opinions expressed are hers. But I won’t lie, the winner of the T/S of the year award was one of a very few categories of AVN awards that I was unhappy with. The winner of the T/S of the year, Bailey Jay was someone I had heard nothing of at all in 2011. And I have nothing against Bailey. I like her. I actually voted for her to WIN the award last year (which she did) ! But this year there were MANY T/S stars who did more movies, did more promotion, were in the public eye and were more deserving, in my opinion.
Brittany St Jordan Interview by Jon of http://elexismonroe.thumblogger.com/
Are transsexual performers treated well at the AVN Awards? Brittany St Jordan doesn’t think so.
1 Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I got my start in the porn industry as a web cam model in May of 2010. From there I landed my first shoot with Shemale Yum and life has sort of snowballed from there. Now I am living in LA and persuing a career in porn as far as it will take me. I now have my own solo site, a bunch of
DVD work to my credit and I am venturing into working behind the camera which is where my real love is at.
2 How did the Transsexual Performer Award come about?
Joanna Jet was the first person to go to AVN and convince them that TS talent deserve recognition along with the rest of adult industry. Each year since then they list their nominees and this year I was fortunate enough to be one of them. I found out via a text message when I woke up and was jumping around like I won the lottery. To be picked as one of the top performers in the genre is a most wonderful feeling to have.
3 What happened when you arrived for the start of this year’s AVN Awards ceremony?
The fiasco started earlier that day when we went to pick up our tickets. Steve Javors, from AVN, was handing out the tickets for the talent who were going to attend the awards. I was with Jesse, who was also a nominee, and we asked for our red carpet passes. Steve said to find him at the show when we got there and he would have them. We grabbed our tickets and went off to get ready for the evening’s event.
When we arrived there was a huge line waiting for the red carpet. As the line slowly inched along, the larger studios started arriving with their folks and were being escorted to the front of the line. This is expected and was not a surprise at all. However, there was someone behind us who asked why these people were going to the front. Steve’s reply was, "They are presenters and nominees." That was when I informed him that Jesse and I were nominees for TS Performer of the Year and he then told us to
wait and we would get our turn.
4 Were you given the same opportunities for being photographed and interviewed as the other performers?
Even though we had informed them of who we were we waited for three hours before making it to the red carpet as straight girl after straight girl was escorted to the front of the line. Once we were finished on the red carpet the handlers for AVN told us go around another line of folks and to go out into the hallway where other media were present. That line which we were told to avoid was the line for people doing interviews for Showtime and the hallway was devoid of anything except people taking
personal photos with one another.
5 What’s wrong in your opinion about the way the TS performer nominees are chosen?
It is primarily based on press releases and media exposure and not actual talent of the people being nominated. Again, I am going to point out that Madison Montag being on that list was a prime example of this. If you look back on the year she has done a good bit of media and what have you but very little work at all. The reasons why she has done little work this year is she has a poor attitude on set, is immature and unprofessional and most of the people in TS porn don’t want to work with her. So having someone like her nominated over people like Sarina Valentina, Foxxy, or Liberty Harkness it is a huge slap in the face to those of us who care about our industry and want the best face and name out there representing us.
6 How do winners receive their AVN awards?
For the best male and female performers they get to be seen on stage and receive their award in person. For the TS Performer of the Year the award is sent to the winner in the mail and their name is listed on a screen of other awards for fetish awards at the end of the night when everyone is leaving. This is the biggest mistake made year after year that has been allowed to continue because "that is the way it is." Regardless of if we are doing clown porn or a heated threesome we are still TS performers just as the male and female counterparts are. Denying us the the time on stage and professional recognition amongst the adult industry simply keeps us a footnote sideshow act.
7 What changes would you like to see AVN make ?
The people who select the nominees can make it simple by doing a Google search on the person’s name and filtering the results for the past year. When the press releases and media appearances outweigh the results for actual scenes it is a good indicator that the person is not a good candidate for being nominated. Some criteria that should be considered are the person’s solo site, do they have one? How often is it updated? What is the quality of the content? Has the person worked for any other web sites other than their own? How many DVD appearances was the person in? By mixing these things together you get a much better idea as to who is an actual pornstar and who is just a media puppet talking about wanting to be one. When it comes to the judging there doesn’t need to be 30 people who don’t give a damn about TS porn waging their opinion on who is the best. A panel of four to six judges who are up to speed on TS porn should be good enough. The judges should also be completely anonymous throughout the voting process. When everyone knows who the judges are year after year it only simplifies the number of asses that get kissed and handed media packets with pretty pictures and little sustenance as far as as actual work in concerned. In addition there should be a fan vote as well and if there is a tie bewtween the judges then the one of the TS stars who are tied with a higher percentage of fan votes is selected.
8 How important is the Adult Entertainment Expo to you?
The AEE is great for meeting with fans and networking with industry folks. I really enjoy meeting fans and making new ones as well. It gives us, the talent, an opportunity to meet up with a lot of people in one place so for business relationships it is a wonderful thing. It also lets fans see that we are real people and not just a pretty face on a computer screen or DVD. AEE is a great event but not the only one of its kind. So for this reason there are plenty of other events throughout the year for TS talent to appear at and draw their fans to.
The kick in the nuts to a lot of people in this industry is they don’t understand that our primary audience are straight identifying males who also enjoy straight porn just as much as TS porn. If they have the
chance to see their favorite TS and straight stars at the same time they will be more apt to spend money on travel and admission for that reason. This has been pointed out numerous times by a lot of fans and if AVN doesn’t fill their needs someone else will.
9 What do you you think about how the TS nominees for the Xbiz Awards are chosen and their treatment at the ceremony?
Xbiz had its own share of problems this year as one of the nominees didn’t even produce any content of any kind throughout the period of qualification. However, when presented to Xbiz they responded promptly and were eager to have dialog about the concerns presented to them. This is day number eight since I sent my letter to AVN and still have not heard a single word from them. So there is a bit of change that needs to occur in the nomination process in order to ensure the proper people are
being selected.
As far as the awards go, Xbiz has no problem allowing the TS performers to accept their award on the stage in front of the entire adult industry. They don’t treat us as second-class citizens in the world of
porn and our fans really take notice. I saw more traffic about fans going to Xbiz than AVN this year for this simple reason. When people treat us with respect our fans and their money are eager to show their appreciation. I wasn’t a nominee this year so I did not attend. However, the people who did go said it was a great time and were very pleased with the way things went.
10 The Tranny Awards are coming up. What do you think of them ?
The Tranny Awards are a great way of celebrating our own genre but theres little knowledge or recognition that comes with that from the rest of the adult industry. It was started four years ago as a way of saying we don’t need the other awards shows. The downside to this is that all of the marketing and promotion that comes with AVN or Xbiz isn’t there. Yes, we get to say we won something or were nominated for it but if people outside of our TS bubble are oblivious that the Tranny Awards even exist it does little to get the names and faces of the nominees and winners out to the adult market.
For some reason a lot of people in TS porn feel that we need to accept the fact that we are a minority niche and as TS performers won’t ever mix with the straight crowd. As long as we let the industry paint us as freaks and ridicule those who work with us things will not ever change. Agents tell models that if they work with us they will be dropped and not ever work again. Other talent will blacklist performers for working with us. Distributors and producers have no concept on how to market us so they slap on the fetish label and call it a day. The only reason we are belittled and treated this way is because we let it happen. When enough people stand up and say enough is enough we will see a shift in the perception and marketing of TS porn to world at large.
If I don’t ever get another nomination but future TS performers get the proper respect that they deserve then publicly sharing my opinions on the awards of TS porn will be well worth it.
You can find Brittany on the net here:
First let me say that Brittany is one of my PR clients and I value her not only as a great performer but as a good friend. I think she has every right to voice her concerns since she was one of very few TS models who showed up at the AEE Expo and worked each day and supported AVN. With that being said as a veteran in the Industry I will voice a few of my ideas/feedback to the issues. I won AVN in 2009 and presented an award on stage in 2010. AVN and their staff have been amazing to me and I’ve never felt like a “second class citizen” except for the main issue of not being able to accept my award for all to see.
Address some of Brittanys Points:
I do NOT expect voters and or the committee to have to give us some extra treatment when it comes to the nomination process. It is un-realistic to expect them to do all this extra research when years past the nominations weren’t as bad as recent. In the past AVN kept their DVD reviews up to date and within those reviews you would see Pre-Noms for scenes, performers and DVD’s as of the last few years it seems the majority of the reviews you see in publication and on avn.com are more of the major studios and only a handful of TS reviews. I can remember when almost every DVD release submitted was reviewed now that seems not to be the case. If pre-noms were happening then AVN would have solid escuses of how nominations happen. Also I think in years pass their were more TS familier people at AVN (DarkLady, Mark, Heidi etc) When you have people who are actually involved/familier then you have a better pool of nominee’s.
The Performer of the Year is based on PERFORMANCE and BODY OF WORK. It would be naive to assume that the award is on performance ONLY. For AVN to have to sit down and “google”/research etc EVERY performer in the Industry is ridicilous and just not going to happen so of course those who are relevant via PR throughout the year benefit. Ladies don’t need a PR person to be able to promote themselves, attend Industry events and be visible in social networking. I also don’t think a “fan vote” is the answer. Doing so just ad’s another variable to make things harder. With proper DVD reviews, visibility, avn staff with TS knowledge etc I think the nominee’s would be much better.
Voting Process: Again making sure that voters are people who actually have knowledge and interest in the TS genre would give it more credibility.
I STRONGLY disagree that the nominee’s are chosen primarily on press releases and media exposure. I know for a fact that Mark, Peter etc and rest of the panel have discussions and preview some material when making the list. Does PR come into the process, of course as it SHOULD but do I think thats what its all about, NO……
I applaud Brittany for her effort because it has open up the discussion and thats what we need, OPEN DISCUSSION.
Wendy Williams
AVN takes complaints from TS performers very seriously, and in fact, Brittany and some other TS performers will be meeting soon with AVN editorial staff and management to attempt to iron out some of differences between what happened at the AVN Awards, what should have happened and what will happen at the 2013 awards. That said, some of the allegations made by Brittany in her interview are simply inaccurate — but these too will be discussed at our meeting.
At that meeting you guys should discuss what went wrong that night and how to improve so that it doesn’t happen again next year.
Is this going to become a human rights issue? I need to grab my popcorn.
I think the winner who was chosen this year was prime of example of what is wrong with how AVN handles the TS Genre. When it was announced everyone thought it was an error, it was so rediculous. Simply because it was someone who didn’t really have presence or the following this year at all. She wasn’t even the top seller this year. Much like How Kelly Shore and Lexi Wade received XBIZ Nominations. Its just seems like an overall out of touch and who cares type of treatment it seems like. That is why a lot of TS Performers feel this way.
Maybe both parties need to get more “hands on” with each other..
Sorry..
By the TS standard should not AVN include the gay side too at the awards?
So lesbians are the only homosexual group given the spotlight there. Maybe the TS representatives can bring along Nacho for support..
Not trying to be funny but how is, for example, Bridgette Powers and any other minority performer groups treated at AVN?
Tranny drama? GO away, I’d rather the Jeremy Steele saga continue.
This is one of the new “content” they are going to have the talent in LA start working with to get rid of the female talent in Porn valley. Ts/TG performer’s with Male talent in LA. I knew they were going to get rid of the girls one way out the other, and or try to get the girls to fuck a tranny…hahahahaha. Great!
No thanx I will stick with boy/girl porn instead of boy/? porn.
No shit Karmafan! But these clowns out here can’t seem to get that through there heads!. They really think the pornfans want to see that shit! Fuck no!!. Just had a agent email me telling me he needs Bi- Guys for Man on man shoots and then go either later to a boy- girl shoot and others. Back and forth. Like I said too many”yes” girls out here and its going to be real bad again. Just shut the ‘Fucker” down!.
Too bad, so sad, you cry babies like Rick. AVN is going to make some nice changes thanks to the discussion and people like your’s remarks. We all know you are jerking it to tranny porn, so cry some more.