I´d like you tu know that you are my favorite porn star, although I´ve been watching just a few of all ur videos I admire ya a lot.
Right!
Wish ya the best always!
:**********************************************

Whenever I go to job interviews, and a background check is done, the topic just seems to come up.

The most telling incident recently was when I interviewed for a software development position at one of the local porn companies. Went in for an interview, but of course, no job. A friend in the office told me that the owner of the company had run a background check, found my (many) aliases, and then googled one of them…

You would think that a porn company, a gay one, no less, would be somewhat immune to this kind of stereotyping. But no, the owner “knows how porn stars are”. So no matter how skilled a software engineer I am, apparently I’m just a porn star to the owner: cheap, disposable, and of no consequence whatsoever.

I’m very, very glad that bullshit lives in *his* mind, not mine.

It’s unfortunate for everyone in the adult industry that the same people who download our videos, and cache hundreds, if not thousands of our images are generally also the same ones who will argue and fight, sometimes very viciously, to maintain that our social status and overall worth to the world is less than that of even an animal. Hell, there are laws against treating animals the way we sometimes are treated.

Although I’ve accepted that this is the way the world works; by stereotyping in an attempt to not have to think, and by taking out of context in order to dismiss…

…I don’t have to like it.

I’ve accepted the fact that the gay community is not my friend, never was, and never will be. The obvious extension of that thought, of course is: “I am not a victim”. Which is perfectly true. It also means that if people take unreasoned punitive action against me by projecting their judgmental beliefs onto my life or my actions, that I’m justified to respond however negatively to that I should see fit to. Fair’s fair, after all.

In American society, porn stars seem to be both loathed and lusted after. I think maybe the only other job position which possesses a dichotomy that’s even *close* to that would be a police officer. You need them around sometimes, but the rest of the time you don’t want them anywhere near you.

Since you mention “Just the Sex” I will state that I see art in that Brent Corrigan DVD. You may not see it but the scene with Luke Hass was art. Nothing was said to explain the situation but the moves of the actors lead the audience to make postulations about the individuals portrayed and what lead up to the act of sex we saw.

So I’ll just end this by saying that I disagree with your view of art and I just see art in things which you do not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Winslow_Homer_-_Artists_Sketching_in_the_White_Mountains.jpg

This is not just nature being depicted: The painter plays with light, colours and forms and creates something new. Art is when imagination steps in. This picture is a wonderful example. Look at all those painters who are part of the scenery. The audience can imagine how each of them is painting a slightly different picture, the audience is inspired to imagining that this queue of painters will never end and that in the back of the original painter there’s another one. That’s art. Imagination. Fantasy.

I can give you an example: Think about photographs. They depict life and nature but in order to become art they must be more than that. Professional photographers don’t need brushes anymore, but they still work with light, colours and angles which make the image more than just a “reality show”.

I can imagine that if a porn movie develops an own language of colours, sounds or even some intelligent diaolgue it can be considered art. But usually, porn is not made with such care. Porn is shot within a few days to make the audience jerk off (that’s why self-made porn stars just need a webcam). That can be very beautiful and stimulating, but it’s not art. There is no deeper idea behind porn than offering sexual pleasure. You have to raise money, you can use the camera a bit differently than usual, you have to cut the movie – but that is rather technique than art.

Here’s an example of porn that can be considered art, I already posted this some days ago:

http://www.sundancechannel.com/greenporno/

This is also based upon sex but it’s very different from usual porn:
I) It does not stimulate the viewers sex drive unless you’re a zoophile
II) It includes a message
a) about sexual behaviour of other species
aa) …which offers new perspectives for human sexuality because it questions the
human black/white pattern of straight/queer
III) It includes a sense of humour
IV) It has an own language of colours and forms (some of the props are just made of paper)

Normal porn just doesn’t offer that. It’s “just the sex”. I would love to see Brent making such little movies or something similar because this is really art and this is where he can show his talents and not just his undoubtedly sexy butt.–

I know this is a minority opinion:-)) But I wanted to outline my point. I hope it’s more clear now, Ernie.

A mainstream actor (or actress) walks on set and for a movie or television series becomes someone else on the screen. If their portrayal moves the audience, they’re celebrated for it, but at the end of the day gets to “hang up” the role so to speak. Someone who works in the adult industry though, doesn’t have the luxury of putting away the role they take on even when the shoot is over. It seems to me that the audience often expects that persona created for the screen to be an accurate representation of everything that makes up who they are in reality. And that is the true tragedy of throwing the term “porn star” around – it sensationalizes and titillates, but in the end still falls short in allowing you to be who you are.

There’s always the danger of burning bright and burning out, in reference to adoration as fuel. But to truly be satisfied with your experiences in the entertainment industry, adult or not, I think you want to find a way to burn steadily, and mix in the reminder that you as an individual will always surpass whatever category anyone else tries to fit you into. After all, you know you better than we ever will.

…I know I had a point somewhere in there before the philosophical rambling started. Suffice to say that success or stardom isn’t a sure means of guaranteeing satisfaction (which you probably already know). The most sacred thing about all of this? Holding on to your sense of self and not letting the label of Brent Corrigan define who you are in your off-screen life.

Quantz, thank you for your comments on stars and the people who gravitate their direction. People are expected to just inherently understand why we idolize others or how stars are created. What you are saying here seems to sum up much of why I am both drawn to and away from entertainment in general. As contradictory as that may seem: part of me uses the flattery and compliments as fuel. When that fuel burns quickly and converts to less energy altogether (which is does), I’m left standing there with the reminder that I need to search for a more efficient, renewable source of power that will move me forward in my life. True, I know working mainstream isn’t the final source of that. But it may take me one step closer to where I ultimately want to be in the grand scheme of things.

It helps us to better understand and appreciate whats around us.
It is important to learn about what we like so we can fully appreciate its nature and its naturel value.

Would you like to make Art (installation, mix-media,..)?
I wonder what you would and could do

a very interesting blog
but i agree the term ‘porn star’ is very widespread with ppl uploading pics or even just pics then calling themselves porn stars when really they are not
But as you say labels are not seen as the right thing within our generation so hopefully there will be fewer and fewer labels soon and their meaning will diminish so you will just be a star in the adult industry and hopfully one within mainstream film too and maybe a producer or director in mainstream films too.

neway theres my views

until next time

David (london, england)

One of the things I dig about your blogging, by the way — hell, your whole approach — is your self-awareness and openness about the realities behind that glamour, how weird it is to be on a pedestal — literally and figuratively. While you present yourself as Brent, and some fans no doubt just adore that image, it seems like there’s a lot of Sean comes through, the you that isn’t at all defined in the gaze of others, that won’t let yourself be defined that way. As a writer with a bit of name recognition in my own niche, I see a lot of my own experiences reflected in the weird disjunctions of public and private life — not just in terms of flying round the world one week, worrying about rent/mortgage the next, but at a deeper level. Actually, I love the way your own experiences seem to have given you a deep sense of a responsibility to ensure that young guys don’t get seduced by the glamour, to let would-be “porn stars” know exactly what it is they’re getting themselves into. Talking/thinking about yourself as an “adult performer” is just one small part of this, but an important one, and I think it’s hugely laudable.

Anyways, like Diesel talks about with XTube, or with reality shows, or with the new media in general, people who don’t really care that much about a craft but totally buy into the glamour — they can now take a short-cut and get some token exposure that gives them their 15 minutes of “fame”. As with a vanity press novel where the writer pays to publish and sells a few copies to friends and family, this isn’t really about the craft and speaking to an audience of strangers; it’s just about having some token that validates the label — “writer” or “porn star” — so they can play that role to themselves. It’s not just that this detracts from the prestige that’s a palliative when you’re scraping by; it’s that the disregard of the work put in by yourself or Diesel to get where you are is sort of a disregard of the skills it takes time and toil to learn, and thereby a disregard of the *craft itself.* There’s nothing more guaranteed to piss off a craftsman than insulting the craft, and when someone presents themself as a master of it when they’ve made one godawful amateurist botch-job of a work and they can’t even see the flaws, that’s exactly such an insult.

So, yeah, I totally get where you’re coming from here.

In terms of porn as art/not-art… to be honest, most novels have a similarly short shelf life, so I wouldn’t base an evaluation on staying power; the greatest art can languish in obscurity, forgotten a few months after it was made. Sure, the narrative in porn is largely irrelevant, and that means there’s an absence (generally) of thematics; so when you compare it with cinema in general, porn looks like it’s lacking the requisite depth that would make it not just a craft but an art. But it seems to me as if the craft of porn movies is otherwise that of any other type of film, and if you compare it to instrumental music… Well, there’s nothing being “said” in most symphonies, nothing communicated thematically in terms of words and images. But in pushing our emotional buttons in a pattern of tension and release it’s still art, even if its aim is to give us an experiential journey rather than explore an idea intellectually. Working with sexual imagery rather sound, porn doesn’t seem that different to me; I think you’d be quite entitled to class it as art. It’s just that some art is designed to invoke a visceral rather than cerebral response.

Actually, given that you’ve talked about Shortbus and other movies that ignore the art/porn divide in using real sex, I’m curious if you’ve seen Michael Winterbottom’s Nine Songs. If you haven’t, I highly recommend it, as a film which basically uses real sex (straight) to replace verbal communication, with a series of sex scenes separated by nine gig scenes. It charts a relationship, shows the way two individuals relate to each other and how that changes over time — but does so almost entirely via the way they have sex. Personally, I think it points to an untapped potential in the porn idiom, and from things you’ve said about your own approach and ambitions… well, I reckon you might find it interesting in the way it explores just what can be done in a sex scene.

But that’s kind of sliding off-topic. Just thought I’d throw it in as a mark of how non-simulated sex doesn’t necessarily disqualify a work from being art.