Porn awards show fuels misogyny, adds to death culture
Porn awards show fuels misogyny, adds to death culture
Former porn actress helps women exit pornography industry
By Mark Hasiuk, Vancouver CourierJune 9, 2010
Porn is everywhere because computers are everywhere, and kids are everywhere with computers. Gone are the days when young boys squabbled over a Playboy magazine stolen from someone's older brother. With one mouse click, today's kids can access graphic hardcore images unimagined by their peers a generation ago.
We can't fully appreciate the consequences of this reality. The measuring sticks don't exist. But our retail porn culture will undoubtedly impact--to varying degrees--the attitudes of boys and girls, the societal relationship between men and women, and the institutions of marriage and family.
Speaking of porn. Tonight the Rio Theatre on East Broadway hosts the Naked Truth Adult Entertainment Awards. According to the event website, the awards "celebrate the positive aspects of the adult entertainment industry" and porn's "valuable contributions" to society. Like the millions of pornographic websites in cyberspace, porn events have become commonplace as the industry spreads its tentacles over popular culture. Last January at the Vancouver Convention Centre, a three-day porn industry trade show attracted thousands of men who bought T-shirts, DVDs and Polaroids with their favourite porn stars.
Shelley Lubben knows that scene intimately.
Born in Pasadena, Lubben grew up in Southern California's sunny climes yet her life was anything but idyllic. At nine years old she was sexually abused by a teenage boy, essentially ending her childhood. Her home life, while unremarkable, lacked love and communication. Feeling detached from her family, Lubben rebelled, partied and left home at 18. Hungry and desperate, she turned to stripping, prostitution, drugs and alcohol. And in 1993, at the age of 25, she appeared in her first porn film. The industry, with its bright lights and predatory producers, offered a sense of acceptance to the estranged daughter and abuse victim.
During a recent phone interview from her California home, Lubben remembered those dark days. "When the porn industry opened their big arms to me," she said, "I sold what was left of my heart, mind and femininity and the woman and person in me died completely on the set."
After nearly two years and 40 films, Lubben contracted herpes and left the industry, continuing her downward spiral of prostitution and drugs. She embraced crystal meth, attempted suicide and hit rock bottom. Her life seemed over.
But it wasn't.
Thanks to an extraordinary tale of grace and redemption, which reads like a New Testament parable, Lubben got clean and sober, married, had children and eventually settled in Bakersfield, Calif. As a wife and mother of three, her involvement in porn seemed over.
But it wasn't.
Lubben's recovery coincided with her Christian awakening. Spurred by faith, and aided by private donors, in 2007 she founded the Pink Cross Foundation, an outreach organization for women in porn.
Now a beautiful blond 42-year-old, Lubben regularly (and covertly) crashes porn events and parties, connecting with porn actresses and providing fellowship outside the superficial bonds of pornography. With help from other former porn actresses, she's made countless friendships and helped many women exit the industry. Unlike the caricatured Christian often portrayed in popular culture, Lubben offers love and support, not judgment, to a group of women to whom she once belonged. "The pornography industry lures in a damaged population. Most of these people have a background of child abuse, sexual abuse, and hardly any of them even graduate high school."
Abuse and porn go hand in hand. The industry, ruled by men with a lust for money, perpetuates a misogynistic worldview at ease with prostitution and human trafficking. Porn is the lubricant for many crimes against women. Lubben's website features 48 photos of dead porn actresses--victims of overdose, suicide and murder. While the faces boast more make-up and whiter smiles, they resemble in spirit the victim mug shots spawned by serial killer Robert Pickton. Incidentally, in a revealing and outrageous gesture of common philosophy, the WISH Drop-in Centre Society, a taxpayer-funded organization aimed at Downtown Eastside women, will accept a porn award tonight in the "advocacy" category.
What's that old saying? With friends like these...
Despite porn's growing influence, Lubben soldiers on, secure in the knowledge--gained by experience--of the industry's grotesque nature. During her countless hours of outreach and advocacy, kids (including her three daughters) are never far from mind. "This whole culture is so sexualized and growing so quickly. Porn does not teach anything about love or kindness. It's just very, very sad."
For more information about Lubben's organization visit www.thepinkcross.org.
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