Coming Out Like a Porn Star 2nd Edition (book)
Request a custom signed copy by Jiz Lee at check-out!
For porn stars, “coming out” is a process that never ends.
To the uninitiated, the idea of a career in the adult film industry may come with stigma that porn performers and sex workers have long fought to shake off. For many, that fight begins with one awkward conversation.
When Coming Out Like a Porn Star was first published in 2015, it garnered cult status as an anthology of candidly intimate essays by diverse adult industry professionals and icons, relating the pain, pride, and surprises that accompanied their experiences coming out about their work. This updated edition includes new essays that explore issues transforming the modern porn field: deepfakes, AI, and OnlyFans; the inequity and fetishization faced by Black, Muslim, queer, disabled, and other marginalized performers; and the everyday, ever-evolving legal injustices compromising sex workers’ rights to live, earn, and bank.
Edited by veteran industry professional Jiz Lee, and featuring a new foreword by Samantha Cole, the second edition of Coming Out Like a Porn Star continues to celebrate the rich and varied voices of the adult industry, offering a panoramic view of the world of sex work that has been described in recent years by Melissa Febos, Margo Steines, Charlotte Shane, and Michelle Tea. New contributors include Arabelle Raphael, Jessica Starling, Jet Setting Jasmine, King Noire, Maria Riot, Sinnamon Love, Siri Dahl, and Tyler Knight.
Awards and Reviews
"Best Thought Leadership" Winner of the 2021 BEST SEX AWARDS!
“A manifesto, a reclamation by Lee of the role of porn as a positive artistic form.” ―Salon
“These intimate, often funny, deftly expressed accounts are told from a range of generations, genders, and races, and include personal experiences from the late feminist porn pioneer Candida Royalle, legends Nina Hartley and Annie Sprinkle, and sexuality bloggers Conner Habib and Stoya.” —The New Inquiry
“Reveals the fascinating, funny, and sometimes brutal stories of performers in the adult entertainment business.” —Dazed
“[Coming Out Like a Porn Star] seeks to share an honest portrait of porn.” —VICE
“Lee’s collection of essays offers a nuanced, heartfelt, and incredibly honest look at what it means to come to terms with a highly public, incredibly sexual identity within the bounds of one’s private life.” ―Lux Alptraum, former editor/publisher, Fleshbot.com
“This revealing, moving, and often surprising collection lets you go deep inside the lives of generations of porn stars and explicit performers. It’s an absolute must-read for anyone interested in sex industry politics, sex-positive culture, and porn studies––and for anyone whose friend, lover, or family member has taken their pants off in front of a camera. One after the other, these memoirs add up to a powerful, if ironic, conclusion: Porn stigma is the biggest problem many adult performers face, and it is at least as likely to come from our feminist moms as from prudish conservatives. Once you’ve heard the clear, articulate voices of these porn stars, you’ll never look at a sex movie, or the people who make it happen, the same way again.”
― Carol Queen, PhD
"Coming Out Like a Porn Star is a testament to the power of storytelling and the importance of sex workers telling their stories in their own words. What becomes apparent almost immediately is that this book is about much more than coming out: it is about the right to privacy and sexual autonomy; the power of sexual expression and social stigma; and what it means to look at the world through 'porn-o-vision.'"—Routledge
Request a custom signed copy by creator and editor Jiz Lee at check-out!
