Porn Star Statement #3
by former porn star, April Garris
The following statement describes the hazards, risks, and negative secondary effects, physical and psychological, that I experienced working in the sex industry.
Note to porn stars: If you are tired of the abuse and want to submit your statement to make your voice heard please contact me at info@thepinkcross.org. I will make sure your name is protected if you wish to remain anonymous.
(Beware of adult conversation)
I spent approximately 2 years working in the sex industry, between 1999 and 2001, all of which were in California.
In 1999 and 2000, I worked in an upscale topless bar in San Francisco. While employed there, I knew of several girls who performed oral sex during their shift for extra money. Customers would also solicit prostitution from several of the girls who worked there.
In 2001, I spent six months in the porn industry. While in the porn industry, I was exposed to various hazardous conditions, drugs, and psychological trauma from which I am still recovering.
I was recruited by an "agent" who brought me into his home in order to discuss my "career." He told me that he needed to audition me, and proceeded to film me while having unprotected sex with me. The conditions of his home were filthy, and he did not use a condom. He then had me sign a contract with no witnesses and no one to explain the terms of the contract. The experience was humiliating, and in order to get out of the situation, I hastily signed the contract. He claimed that he was now my "agent," and that he owned all the rights to the video that he made, and all future videos.
Health hazards: Conditions on set were usually extremely unsanitary and gross.
On one particular shoot, used sex toys were offered as props. I had no idea if they had been sterilized or not, but I would be expected to "play" with them and insert them in various orifices of my body, including my mouth and vagina.
On another occasion, I was involved in a video where women would urinate outside, right on the patio and the floor. One girl urinated on a lawn, while another urinated on the roof, while the urine dripped down from the roof onto the porch. This took place in a suburban neighborhood, where other homes were nearby. We would be forced to hold our urine for a long time, so that our time urinating would be as lengthy as possible. If we didn't hold it in, we wouldn't get paid. This was extremely painful, and dangerous.
During rear-entry sex videos, it was not uncommon to be exposed to feces. Not only is this incredibly humiliating, but extremely unsanitary. During one particular shoot where this happened to me, the man said that this "wasn't the first time this has happened." During hardcore sex acts, condoms were not used.
On one occasion, I contracted a painful yeast infection. One of the girls told me how I could still work while having a yeast infection…by putting sponges in my vaginal cavity to conceal the bacteria. Because of this, I was still able to work while infected.
Swallowing body fluids to include semen was a regular practice during many of the shoots I was on.
Drug use was typical when I was doing porn. Marijuana was openly smoked on the set, and alcohol was readily available. All of the performers, including myself, would get high before shooting. Nothing was concealed. I would also use methamphetamine in order to tolerate the hardcore sex.
Negative psychological effects: I spent 6 months in the porn industry, but the humiliation and degradation left me with massive psychological scars. While I was in the porn industry, I started becoming severely depressed, which only escalated after I left, until I was eventually committed to a psychiatric ward for severe depression and self-mutilation. I spent approximately 5 days in the mental ward, and was diagnosed as manic depressive. I was prescribed lithium for my severe depression and mood swings.
Doing pornography made me lose touch with reality, and with myself. The trauma of being constantly humiliated left me with a distorted sense of who I was. I am still emotionally recovering from the months of emotional abuse and exhaustion.
Negative after-effects: Spending 3 years in the sex industry made it difficult for me to transition employment-wise. Having such a huge gap in my employment record made it difficult for me to secure work in the job market. I was forced to go back to school and re-train myself in order to secure a decent job where I could support myself.
Porn is not glamorous. Get the facts. Get help.
