The Hustle

On a photoshoot for SuicideGirls, the author borrows from the aesthetic conventions of magazine centerfold poses, performing an amateur girl-next-door aesthetic and following strict model guidelines about wardrobe, makeup, and facial expressions.

Authenticity has emerged as a hallmark of indie production, positioning producers as documentarians and professing an increased investment in “real” bodies, unscripted sex, and genuine pleasures. This chapter argues that authenticity narratives form part of a wider cultural imperative for sex workers to describe their work as personal identity or sexual expression, and manifest in a context of income precarity and job insecurity where performers need to maintain open avenues of potential work. It examines how producer fantasies of authenticity reflect white, middle-class femininity and conventionalized “naturalness” presumed intelligible to audiences. In contrast, performers, who strategically navigate requirements across genres (including having their orgasms “verified”), are more concerned with transparency, expectation management, and contractual obligations. The authenticity delusion reinforces binaries between “fake” and “real” and becomes an aesthetic regime itself, working to obscure the aspirational and relational labor of porn performers.