Will Academia's Loss Be Pornography's Gain?

On August 12, 2005, I got this press release:

Adult film producer/performer Dave Pounder has been admitted to the Ph.D. program in Telecommunications at Indiana University to study the social and psychological impacts of mediated sex and sexuality. “This is a tremendous opportunity to use empirical research methods to finally understand how people respond to sexual imagery in media and their effects on family relations, sexual perceptions, crime rates, and other related psychological and sociological factors,” said Pounder.

On Sept 17, I got this email:

Dave Pounder, adult film producer turned Ph.D. candidate, was profiled in the Sunday edition of the Bloomington Herald Times newspaper. Reporter Mike Leonard interviewed Pounder on why he made the transition from adult to academia and what he hopes to accomplish while in school.

In the article, Pounder says his content site [bikinibanger.com] gets half-a-million hits a day. "I was making a lot of money. A lot of money. I was living in a place with perfect weather (Irvine, California) and a great lifestyle, but the thing is, everybody I know in the adult industry isn't happy. Everybody who stays in the business, down the road, isn't happy. So why would I think I would be happy if I stayed in the business?"

These quotes are typical quotes of people leaving porn.

"What I'm trying to do is take what I've done in the business world and in the adult industry and leverage that to work for me rather than against me."

I love the euphemism of "adult work." In Dave Pounder's case, it means that among other things he ejaculated in women's faces for a living. How does one leverage that skill? How does one leverage one's on-camera porn work? How does one leverage the ability to shoot double-penetration?

I don't think many people have been able to do that. Overwhelmingly, porn work is going to hurt your social prospects more than it is going to help. For the majority of the planet's population, you are no longer going to be a real person. You are going to be the porner. That single fact will overwhelm everything else about you in the eyes of the majority.

Pounder says in the Herald-Times: "I have an MBA, but if I went and got a job at a bank, eventually people would find out I had a job in this business and it would create a major political hurdle for me."

Porn-using men may envy men who work in porn (and desire attractive young porn women) but they usually don't respect them to the point where they want to introduce the porners to their families, and tie their fortunes to those of the ex-porners.

"Believe me, no one in the business actually looks forward to the scenes. There are so many things to worry about it's more of a headache than anything else. The swinging lifestyle, that was fun."

Mike Leonard writes:

Pounder said he actually was a relatively conservative figure in the adult film industry. He believes that condoms should be mandatory and suggests that if they were, it would send the signal to viewers that unprotected sex is not cool. He believes that actors should be at least 21, not 18 as current laws permit. "They called me the Mr. Rogers of porn," he said with a chuckle.

I've never heard Dave Pounder called the Mr. Rogers of porn. I've heard that label applied to Robert Lombard by James DiGiorgio.

Also this fall, I got an email from Dave Pounder about him delivering a lecture at the Kinsey Institute.

On Nov 10, I got this reply from Dave when I asked him if he was still available for escorting: "Hey Luke, no I am not really doing anything at all while I am in school, aside from consulting and executive producing. I was on so many different sites for performing, escorting, etc. that it would be too time consuming to track them all down."

On Dec 19, I got this email from Dave Pounder:

I recently moved to Miami (Aventura/Sunny Isles area). I am available as a producer, director, or talent for your projects. I have several years of experience in the adult industry, having performed in hundreds of scenes (primarily in Los Angeles), directed for several companies (Daydream, Cybernet, Dane, etc.), and produced for both Dave Pounder Productions (my own company) and Daydream Entertainment. If you are interested in discussing ways we can work together, please contact me at your convienience. More information about me is available at the websites listed below. I plan to continue shooting for my bikinibanger.com site, so if you shoot camera, please let me know your rates.