Candida Royalle says on her Face book-
Anyone catch Jenna Jameson on the Oprah show? Jenna trying to take credit for ‘feminist porn’ was a joke. Only thing worse was watching Vivid founder Steve Hirsch try to take credit for the ‘couples market’. Oh really? Was he even in business when I created my Femme line for women and couples in 1984? Oprah couldn’t h…ave looked more uncomfortable. I guess even Oprah has to play the game for November sweeps month.
So here’s the deal: I was called by the producers in June and worked with them for 5 months on that show…only to be canned at the last minute along with a bevy of other far more qualified and significant women who made a difference for women in porn…like Nina Hartley who graduated Magna cum Laude in nursing and has directed her own ‘how to’ vids for years, and Jamye Waxman who has a masters in Sex Ed and who’s written two self-help books for women and directed pro-woman vids…
In the end they went for the most famous, wealthiest and recognizable person who they hoped would bring in the ratings…it is after all sweeps month. I think the most telling moment was when a rather shell-shocked looking Oprah turned to her audience with a forced smile and asked, ‘Did we all learn something? Did we all have fun?’, and the camera panned the entire audience, and NONE of them, not ONE, applauded or had a smile on their face. They were completely bemused.
Look, I don’t begrudge Jenna her accomplishments, she’s worked hard and went for what she wanted and got it. But I hate when people take credit for other’s hard work and efforts. If it was just a show about the most successful and richest porn star that would have been fine, but Oprah betrayed her audience by parading this woman around as the creator of movies the average woman can relate to.
Am I miffed? Yup…At the very least a nod to the fact that I in fact pioneered this genre along with my original partner, Lauren Niemi, back in 1984 when the porn-powers that be patted me on the head and told me women weren’t interested would have taken the sting out of watching this sham of a show.