What is the difference between a prostitute/escort/hooker and a porn actress? Really, not much. We’re all in the broader category of sex work along with strippers, nude models, phone sex operators, pro-doms (and pro-submissives) and other women in the sex industry. I’ve never been a prostitute so I could be wrong here, but to my knowledge prostitutes accept money in exchange for spending time with a person, during which it is assumed they will engage in sexual acts. Porn stars accept money in exchange for the rights to record and sell video or photographs of a sexual act they have been hired to depict for the camera, usually with one or more partners.

At the end of the day we’re both accepting money for sex. On paper, there is 1/16th of a metaphorical inch of difference. It’s practically just semantics.

But of course the issue isn’t that simple.

For me, the additional difference is choice of partner. I don’t work with anyone that I find unattractive. Actually, there’s a list of people actively performing in the adult industry that I do find attractive which Digital Playground pulls from when they book me for scenes. I can’t have sex with someone that I don’t feel some amount of lust for. Were I to be a prostitute, I would have to either have sex with people I may not find attractive (which is not an option) or find myself in the position of having to inform someone that they aren’t attractive to me. The latter seems both unprofessional and extremely rude.

If I were to be a prostitute that only accepts clients that they really want to have sex with, charging them just wouldn’t seem right, at which point I would just be a highly liberated sexual creature who is very organized about taking applications for sexual partners and screening them.

Hopefully I’ve managed to satisfy your curiosity. I can’t speak for other women in the sex industry and I’m sure they all have their own reasons for doing what they do and not doing what they don’t do.

While we’re on the subject of prostitutes, I’d like to mention that I know some who are wonderful people and admire them very much. I’m for the legalization of prostitution in the US, especially in light of the way that California and now New Jersey have begun to legalize marijuana. In addition to making the hands-on sex trade safer for both the providers and clients, legalization would enable moderate taxation which our national and state budgets could really use right now.

Thanks for visiting my personal soap-box,

Stoya