Devon Hunter

From time to time I encounter or learn about behavior that is so disappointing that it becomes necessary to address it as a point for Career Advice. I think it is time to bring special attention to the three most important guiding principles of Escorting as a modality of Adult Entertainment. There is (or at least there ought to be) a minimum expectation of decorum in any career, and when that lowest measure of professionalism is not only violated but on some level celebrated, a negative stereotype about Adult Entertainers is strengthened, and then it is time for me to refer back to the Mission of this blog, so that poor examples do not become the only examples.

I invite you to consider the information and videos in this story on “The Sword” before continuing, in order to understand the context of what I am going to discuss, and why I feel it is important to do so. Although each person is responsible for his/her own actions and the opportunities or consequences they create, I would like to use this space to remind both potential escorts and the reading/viewing/hiring public that negative stereotypes, although based to some extent on anecdotal situations, do NOT apply to all people within a community or industry. Here are what I consider to be the three guiding principles of Escorting:

1. Discretion – for a client’s privacy. Even if, for whatever inexplicable reason, a client were to request, permit, insist, or encourage you to publicly divulge his/her identity, you should never do so. Regardless of how well the client may think s/he has considered the consequences to him/herself, s/he probably has not considered how this will affect YOU. Being connected in any way to revealing the identity of a client will automatically make you suspect to almost all other clients who might otherwise consider hiring your time. Your judgment, sense, and discernment will be justifiably called into question. Do not bring unnecessary attention to your clients!
2. Discretion – for your behavior. You are in charge of creating your own reality, so you should consider carefully what you do publicly, especially if you are a person of renown. Clients often do a considerable amount of research before hiring a particular escort, and imitating Paris Hilton is not generally considered to be endearing. You attract that which you generate: If you generate trouble/drama/chaos, you will attract people who will create more for you. Again, I tell you to consider carefully your image and brand, so that you can attract the clients you want and enjoy a career that is rewarding to you. If you do something foolish, illegal, cruel, or controversial DO NOT BRAG ABOUT IT ON THE INTERNET (unless generating that particular hype and image helps you maintain the brand that attracts the type of clients you want). As “The Sword” illustrates, there are plenty of people who are willing to bring attention to you when you make mistakes, so you don’t need to do anything to help them. Do not bring unnecessary attention to yourself!
3. Discretion – for your opinions. Although it is true that you should be honest with others and yourself, you should also consider how diplomacy factors into what you say. Expressing shock online that a client is “hot” does not merely bring attention to one particular client’s attractiveness. It also, by default of your shock, betrays your true feelings about all your other clients, and is probably a bitter pill for them to swallow when they learn of it. This comment on the “The Sword” needs to be addressed: “Later, after he was given the ‘OK’ by the client, [the escort] tweeted a photo of them together. I concur with [the escort] that [the client] is kind of fucking sexy, for someone who hires escorts. Holy shit.” Let me say this right now: ALL TYPES OF MEN HIRE ESCORTS. I have many attractive clients, some of whom are more attractive than myself. To presume that only one particular type of man hires is to ignore the fact that any number of men will hire for any number of reasons. If you wonder what kind of man hires escorts, go to your local gourmet grocery store at 6 o’clock when everyone has left work, and take a look around at all the people there. These are the men who hire escorts. Do not bring unnecessary attention to people’s vulnerabilities!

(In the spirit of providing useful information and a place for intelligent dialogue, www.DevonHunter.info accepts well written blog entries about topics of concern to adult entertainment. The views expressed in the following article are not necessarily shared by the operators of the hosting site. Archived guest writers’ articles will be listed under Interviews & Essays.)

“While L.A. County finally doing something by closing AIM is a good thing, we’ll see if they have the backbone to shut down productions,” said AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein, a longtime critic of AIM, who renewed his call for public health authorities to shut down productions that do not require condoms.
- Los Angeles Times, December 10, 2010*

Have we failed the test?

Six months ago, I had never heard of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation.  In August, I started researching a new project which includes characters that become gay adult models.  Of course, I’ve been a fan of the industry for a while.  I find watching a man make himself physically, if not emotionally, vulnerable to another man incredibly erotic.  That’s one of the reasons I author novels in the genre of gay erotic fiction.  However, I had no idea that there was a clinic in Los Angeles dedicated to the testing of adult models until I began to follow dozens of models on Twitter and saw a tweet from Wolf Hudson mentioning it.

As I started talking to a few of these guys, I found out that testing policies range from strenuous to non-existent depending on the studio.  From watching the ACS (Amateur College Sex) side of Corbin Fisher, I knew that sometimes condoms aren’t anywhere to be found.  This puts a lot of pressure on the models to keep themselves tested and put their health in the hands of their scene partners.  I think a database with test results for everyone involved in a shoot is a band-aid, but it’s better than fucking in the dark.

That’s why I was very surprised to see that the AIDS Healthcare Foundation was a longtime critic of the AIM testing clinic.  I absolutely understand their position about requiring condoms on every shoot, but that’s not likely in a society driven by capitalism.  While there are customers that want to see bareback sex, there will be studios that will produce it.  The government tries to stay as far away from the stigma of porn as they possibly can.  I mean, porn stars bring it on themselves don’t they?  If they were worth anything, they’d find another line of work.  This is another attitude that pisses me off, but that’s a post for another day.

If the goal is to minimize the new outbreaks of HIV and other STDs, how does it possibly make sense to close a facility geared toward industry performers?  Consistent testing for models isn’t going to solve all of the world’s problems, but it will allow them to get treated sooner and allow reputable producers to minimize risks to other models.  Of course, that’s a lot of sex to be had in the thirty days between tests and the variables are exponential, but it’s better than them not being tested at all.

I don’t know what the solution is which is why I’m an author and not a politician.  It just seems to me that if the goal is to try and keep models safe and healthy, as I think it should be, they should have more options for achieving that goal, not less.

- J. P. Barnaby
http://www.jpbarnaby.com
Twitter: @JPBarnaby

Erotic fiction is more than just moans, grunts, and physical pleasure. To J. P. Barnaby, erotic fiction consists not only of the mechanics of physical love, but the complex characters and relationships that lead to those all-encompassing feelings of need and longing.  Sex without context is merely sex – but sex coupled with attraction, with explosive repercussions – that is good erotic fiction.

*http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/10/local/la-me-porn-hiv-20101210

“From ghosties and ghoulies and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord deliver us.”

We all have our demons. I am definitely not an exception. I still have a particular monster under my bed. (I would say I have a skeleton in my closet, but the door is wide open, and nearly all those have come clattering out onto the floor.) But to stretch this extended metaphor to its breaking point, I will say that I am still haunted.

I have been eating irregularly again.

I thought I’d completely contended with the anorexic tendencies, but they are back. And it helps to talk about it, to examine it, and to get it out of my head. It’s like clearing the cobwebs out of a spooky house. I am eating as I type this, in a bid to reverse the habit that has been coalescing since Sean Cody published my legal name. Over the last several weeks I found myself falling into a familiar thought process: “Oh, it’s too much trouble to eat. I’ll just put it off. What I’m doing at this moment is far more important (plus I’ll look better, too).” That last part is what betrays the underlying problem. The rest of that notion is fairly typical to American workers… but the last part… I have to break this cycle NOW. I have accidentally initiated a process of feast and famine, and it’s wrecking my mood and wellness.

Looking at what might have triggered this, I have to say it’s pretty obvious: My stress levels went up dramatically just before my birthday, and have never really diminished completely. At the exact same time that everything was happening with the gay porn blogosphere in June and July 2010, both Gramma and Dad went into the hospital on my birthday. Dad has recovered, but Gramma has not, and it’s wearing Mom out (who is getting almost no help from her brothers, which is pissing me off more and more). While I was trying to take a break and retreat from everything for a couple weeks, I ended up having to contend with various types of emotional traumas simultaneously, and my response was to stop eating properly (to say nothing of my drinking water and sleeping enough). All of it together has thrown me into a bit of a tailspin, and my sense of happiness and optimism have definitely taken a hard knock. In addition to these factors, the trolls guarding the G4P bridges on the intrawebzes got in some painful licks: It was extremely jarring to have so much homophobia lumped on me by my own people. I admit it: That hurt.

It’s an odd addiction, attention. When I was getting far too much of it, I just wanted it to go away; however, there’s some kind of reality-show-need to maintain it (despite the fact that I didn’t want it in the first place). I feel a little bit like a used car: I’ve been afraid of becoming an obsolete model after having been driven hard by too many reckless drivers. It isn’t that I care specifically about becoming a porn star, but I have been fretting over preventing the prediction of my detractors: I have been trying to stave off their desire for me to fail in my video endeavors. But it isn’t for these anonymous “people” to define my happiness or my success – I have given them a power that isn’t theirs.

And so, as you can see, doing porn is also contributing to this eating situation: I am constantly worrying that I look ridiculous next to my scene partners, that I look utterly disgusting next to their beauty. (But my agent told me that nearly everyone in porn suffers these same insecurities.) Part of the problem in maintaining a strenuous diet is trying to stay in tip top shape constantly, so that I can be ready at a moment’s notice if I get a call for a scene. I haven’t allowed myself enough down time to rest and enjoy food. It’s irritating, because they call when I’ve been enjoying desserts too much for two weeks, but when I am a good boy I don’t hear from them. I had a carb meltdown yesterday and ate half a box of Golden Grahams. Sigh. Watch them call me in three days once the puffiness sets in around my bellybutton…

It was my goal to do 10 scenes. I have already done 11 (nine of them this year, AFTER the bullshit with Sean Cody… so MNAH!), and I feel the need to dig my heels in and remind myself that I am an escort who has done some porn. I’m not a porn model who sometimes escorts. I did what I set out to do. There are now examples of me in a variety of scenarios. Worrying about whether or not I will get more scenes has become too much of a priority. I can check off the porn item on my Adult Entertainment To Do list.

I am going to put the focus back where it belongs: On being happy. And I was happy when I wasn’t worrying about proving something to a bunch of assholes I’ll never meet (thank the Goddess for small miracles). If I continue to do video work, great. And if not, okay. I will accept reasonable video offers for scenes that don’t diminish me as a person or cloud the clarity of my brand, so long as the dates don’t conflict with my travel plans; I will continue spending time with the people who enjoy my company; and I am going to calm this porn noise by reconnecting to a spiritual practice that I have recently neglected.

Besides, I have other concerns: A Greek Orthodox Monk is on his way over to my apartment to talk to me about the plot for a musical he wants to write. And he’s using my poetry to do it. I think that is far more interesting than whether or not I’m given the nod of approval from a group of rampant consumers who are impossible to please.

Speaking of rampant consumers: I’m hungry. I’m going to go eat some more. I’m making a conscious effort to exorcise this demon.

As many of you will remember, I’m the former Sean Cody model whose legal name was revealed in retaliation for speaking about their process for making videos, and I want to add my voice to this discussion about Mason Wyler’s HIV-status being leaked. No matter how Mason’s status became known, it wasn’t by his own choosing, and that should not be tolerated AT ALL. His medical information is private, and the status of that information is protected by law for many reasons (including the issues of stigma and discrimination mentioned on the discussion board at The Sword already).

As for legal names and other forms of private information that we models have to share for employment and tax purposes, I want to reiterate that I am absolutely ashamed of the people at Sean Cody for going out of their way to prove that they are everything I wrote about them. I hope Mason will be okay, and I hope some guarantee for privacy will begin to be worked into standard contracts, so that lapses such as those at Cody Media (and possibly Next Door Media?) can be countered with harsh legal penalties.

I wish I knew of a way to insist upon it, so that other models wouldn’t be under this threat.

It was brought to my attention that there are sites that do nothing but discuss the material that is generated at places like Sean Cody, Corbin Fisher, and Randy Blue. What’s more, it was brought to my attention that people can respond to those critiques/discussions. There are so many opinions out there… It’s pretty amazing how much they can differ from person to person or site to site. It’s also amazing the extent to which some people try to invade the privacy of others.

What I have read essentially brings me to balance: There are at least 15 sites I have found that have discussed and/or reviewed my solo at Sean Cody. This was not something I’d thought to consider before I did it. It never occurred to me that there were full-time movie critics and peanut galleries for Sean Cody; however, these not only exist, they proliferate in large numbers. And that is what is interesting: I am only one person, and yet some of the responses I elicited from people were as divergent as you could possibly imagine.

Some people were revolted at the thought of me being gay and 32 years old. Others liked me specifically because of it. There were as many comments that I was fugly as there were that I was gorgeous. All of the reviews themselves were glowing, but it was the conversations that followed that could be startling. And yet, after all that reading, what I have finally accepted is that I am who I am, and that’s going to just have to be good enough.

So, although some people have called me a pasty grub and others have called me a creamy boystud; and although some have called me a nelly gay-faced homo, while others refer to me as a hot gay jock; and whereas there are people who think me ancient and/or decrepit, there are others who applaud me for admitting my age (which makes me seem, to them, even more youthful); and since in the same conversation there are people who think I am nothing arguing along side of people who think I am everything… What all this essentially means is that all the negatives are cancelled out by positives, and I’m left right where I was before: Me.

And that’s not such a bad scenario.