I just found out that a favorite porn star of mine has been retired since December of 2008. I try as best as possible to keep up with a number of porn stars but when it comes to Porn Stars of the P.O.C. variety you kinda have to get your info were you fit in.

So while working on my Porn Stars on MySpace/Facebook post I noticed that Lexi Cruz has retired from the game.

What?!?!

I didn’t get an email about that one and I thought I knew everything about the woman.

This incident although not tragic (just slightly disappointing as I won’t get to see her beautiful frame anymore) does shine the light on a very important point:

The lifespan for P.O.C. Porn Stars isn’t as long as we might think it would be.

According to the Book Money Shot: The Wild Nights and Lonely Days Inside the Black Porn Industry by Lawrence C. Ross Jr, many stars have a goal to make as much money as possible then get out. Usually that means doing a number of high quality scenes, getting your website up then making money from fans who want to see you in all of your glory.

Italia Blue is a prime example of this trend as she was able to do no less than 6 films, build up a fan base then drop out building high expectations for her fans. She’s recently resurfaced with a brand new body and a brand new website charging clients 29.95 a month to join.

[Edit: The Italia Blue's Site has been pulled down. I'm guessing the money coming in is drying up for the site Or Something else. Hopefully Ms. Blue will resurface at one point. - Mr. BlackSexxx - 7/03/10]

Just think what would be easier: You manage your own content then charge 100 or more members 29.00 a pop for your content (Raking in $30,000 a month) or have to deal with a system that counts you even less that white co-stars in pay and role selection.

I don’t knock the hustle but it just shows to me the problem of lax production values and lack of quality films can do to these women.

Is there any reason why women like Victoria Allure and Lexi aren’t in the business while women such as Belladonna and Jenna Jameson have been allowed to branch out in to other ventures within the the porn industry?

Victoria has branched out to to creating her own agency and is looking to recruiting other actors of color looking to get into the business … as for Lexi … I’m not sure what she’s doing now she’s “retired.”

Again its not all gloom and doom for your major P.O.C. Porn Stars. Pinky, Jazmine Cashmere and Jada Fire are still putting in work even though they have been in the game for a long time. Male stars such as Delvin Weed, John E. Depth and Mr. Marcus have been putting it down for years.

I think the difference between the ones with longevity is that P.O.C. men have been requested more by white directors for films outside of a urban or ethnic label.

Mr Marcus and Jada Fire have frequently been involved in several Interracial series allowing them to gain fans on both sides of the color line.

I think this has to do with a number of factors but most importantly it has to do with the fact that producers allow black men and women to follow into that overly sexual stereotype that they want nothing more than to have sex with the women of white men. Or the fact that black women are merely looked at as unconscious sexual beings created to serve white men.

Wrong as it is I believe this has happened because this business is controlled in most part by white men. White men will put on screen what they and their contemporaries feel comfortable with.

As quoted in Money Shot (from a study by Dr. Mireille Miller-Young in 2005):

Because the adult industry seeks to manufacture images of White female sexuality as the ideal of beauty and womanhood that its mainly white male consumer base seeks to access (at least in the realm of fantasy), Black women’s sexuality stands at an alienated position to the racialized economy of desire. Although most of the constructions of women’s sexuality in hard-core tend to be reductionist images of women as hyper-erotic specimens of Tits and ass, Black women feel particularly objectified as the Other. This simultaneous desire for and disavowal of Black women’s sexuality maintains their status as marginal fetishes in relation to White women.

In other words Black Sex in Porno is always going to be looked on as some fetish like people who are into S&M and feet. That is why you get the porno covers that focus on P.O.C.’s asses rather than their acting ability.

I once read that Obsession could not get work outside of Urban Pornography because of the number of tattoo’s and piercings she has … but somehow Belladonna still gets works even though she his fully Tatted and seeming presented as sexy?

I don’t want to use this blog to rail on the establishment as much as I have but I just want some balance between what is out there and what porn should be in some cases. Women comprise 40% of the porn watching audience but many of the women that I speak to don’t find that this porn speaks to them directly. I think that many women of color get into the business for one reason or the other but the dynamics of the business force them out.

There is no reason that beautiful women such as Lexi or Victory should not have the careers that Delvin or Jack Napier have. It’s just sad that even their retirements don’t the fanfare that their fair skinned contemporaries get.

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