Porn Industry Exploits Its Male Stars

The death of Stephen Hill—a porn star who police say killed a colleague and wounded others—prompts Susannah Breslin to examine the often brutal way the industry treats its male actors. "If porn is a joke—and, particularly these days, it most assuredly is—male porn stars are its punch line," she writes in Salon. Forget the conventional wisdom that these guys are living dream lives: They get paid far less than women and are "treated like props."

"Due to the hardcore nature of the porn business and the toll it takes upon all its workers, the porn industry functions as a meat grinder for the human condition, and men are its offal," writes Breslin, who's written about the industry for more than a decade. "They may score bragging rights as professional cocksmen, but the reality is these are the working stiffs of a business that has virtually no interest in the men it employs and all the interest in the world in the women with whom its movies are forever preoccupied."