Nina Hartley Speaks!

Here is a pretty great interview with porn star Nina Hartley on the subject of -- you guessed it -- sex.

Speaking with Brad Warner at the Suicide Girls blog last April, subjects tackled include: Buddhism & Zen, getting to know your own needs, sexuality, objectification, feminism(s), the porn industry, and why they'll never be a porn actors' union.

A sample:

NH: ...I realize in my life that kindness is a choice you make.

BW: What do you mean by that?

NH: I take compassionate awareness and acceptance as far as I can take it without being an actual temple living, Zazen-sitting, observant Buddhist. But it is a primary philosophy that I grew up with. Zen, in terms of my daily life, in terms of compassion, infuses all of my work especially my interaction with my fans because a lot of people look at people who consume pornography as losers, wankers, just completely pathetic.

BW: We are!

NH: [Laughs] I don’t see it that way. There are certainly many people in that world who could be considered pathetic losers but liking porn does not make you such a person. As a stripper I realized that men and women are equally fucked over about sex, but in such different areas we’re blind to the other’s pain. For certain kinds of guys, women are heartless bitches and cock teases and will bleed you dry before giving you a kiss. And for some women, men are asshole jerks and want one thing. Really, it’s the culture keeping them equally ignorant and then saying, “Go off and get married!” Watching the men, just showing them my vulva, I realized how sad it was. No woman in their life had ever said, “Here it is, here’s what I like, here’s what you can do with it, try it this way.” Poor guys are supposed to know what to do.