NINA HARTLEY:
Feminist "Adult Film" Star
Interview by Leesa G
Nina Hartley is a porn star, a feminist, an educator, a free speech advocate, a nude dancer, and a woman with a lot to say about any of the above. Here Nina talks about her 14 years as an actress in X-rated films, her plan for better sex education among America's youth, her arrest for "felony lesbianism," and her role in the "legitimate" film Boogie Nights.
Leesa G.: How does it feel to be known far and wide as the woman with the
best derriere in the adult film industry?
Nina Hartley: It's pleasing — obviously, I love it! It is what has
kept me marketable after nearly 14 years in the business. The rest of my
anatomy is nice enough (laughs), but not special enough to keep people
interested in me. The reality is, how much the fans like me and everything,
well, part of the business is based on your physical appearance, and I'd be
a fool to say that part of my long-lasting appeal is not based on my...
unusual physiognomy. But it just came to me, honest.
LG: Good genes, honey!
NH: Exactly. The short answer is, of course, it's great. I never did go through a period of hating my body because I'm not tall and thin; I grew up looking at classical paintings and sculpture and I knew that I had the weight of history on my side in terms of the emotional response people have to my body.
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NINA HARTLEY:
Feminist "Adult Film" Star
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MTM AND ME
by Laurie Ouellette
Can you name the TV character who has most shaped who you are today? While most of us are loathe to admit that popular culture has any real effect on our minds, let alone our identities, I'll fess up. I was a child of the seventies and like a lot of women who grew up with their eyes glued to the tube, my sitcom mentor was Mary Richards.
Actually, this was a recent epiphany for me. Sure, there were the surface coincidences: I'm from Minneapolis and that's where Mary lived on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." She had a seemingly glamorous job at a TV newsroom, and I was a journalism major with similar ambitions. Still, it wasn't until I turned 30 last year that I figured out just how deeply TV's first single career woman was, for me, lodged in that fragmented and layered space we call the human psyche.
As the big day approached, I found myself getting oddly depressed about the prospect of entering official adulthood, whatever that means. For the first time, I felt the overarching need to reevaluate who I was, where I came from and where I was headed. Unable to get much sleep, I turned to Nick at Night for solace, and there she was with her chic seventies career wear, unlucky in love but spunky and heroically independent and always standing up to Mr. Graaaaant — only to back down in quivering self-effacement. Nostalgia set in like anesthesia.
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MTM AND ME
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