Page 14 - AVN May 2018

EDITOR’S DESK | By Sharan Street
EDITOR’S DESK
THE DANIELS DIGEST
A few stories stand out in the saga of Stormy
A veritable tower of babble has been erected in the
mainstream media in the wake of l’affaire Stormy,
much of it no more than clickbait reveling in the
combination of “porn star” and “president” in the same
breath. But there have been a few exceptions that delved
a little deeper into the woman behind the headlines.
When it comes to setting the stage for how the saga
of adult star Stormy Daniels and reality TV character
Donald Trump first began, you can’t beat the detailed
timeline of the fateful weekend the two met that reporter
Ben Schreckinger laid out in a detail-filled narrative for
GQ magazine. Titled “When Trump Met Stormy Daniels:
The Strange Story of Four Wild Days in Tahoe,” the piece
sets the stage with well-researched detail.
Schreckinger writes, “Trump was equally unaware of
the strange twists of fate that lay ahead, but he had his
eyes open for opportunity. Soon he caught sight of some
other visitors who’d come to town for the tournament:
a collection of hard-to-miss adult actresses, sent as
emissaries from the porn studio Wicked Pictures.”
Fittingly, as befits the national paper of record, The
New York Times aggressively followed the story on both its
news and opinion pages. In a profile researched by three
reporters, the Times presented a well-rounded look at
Daniels in a story and photograph that appeared on the
daily’s front page—above the fold—and also published
an editorial that tacitly supported her claim to have been
threatened into silence in 2011 about her liaison with
the then-mogul. According to the Times editorial, “We
live at a time when a porn star displays more credibility
and class than a president, the president’s lawyers
distinguish themselves through swagger more than legal
skill, and we seriously wonder just how thuggish the
man in the Oval Office is. It seems like a bad dream.”
On a far less political note, Samantha Cole actually
took the time to review one of Daniels’ movies for the
site Motherboard: a Wicked Pictures thriller from 2010
titled The Chatroom. Cole writes, “It’s feminist, empowers
sex workers, and is more than a little cyberpunk. It gives
us a glimpse into the creative mind of a woman who’s
now engaged in several legal battles with the president of
the United States.”
Hollywood-centric news site TheWrap.com also looked
more at the cultural significance of the story rather than
the political implications. “She’s helping legitimize porn
as a business,” Chad Kawalec, marketing consultant and
founder of the Brand Identity Center, told TheWrap.
“She’s representing herself as a strong businesswoman
and not a salacious adult film actor. And if she plays her
cards right, which it appears she’s doing, she should be
able to authentically extend her brand into more mass
market acceptance and opportunities.”
Speaking of brand management, few media outlets
would seem better equipped to address that topic than
Ad Age, which also waded into the fray with a piece on
“Decoding the Stormy Daniels Brand Strategy.”
Subtitled “The 7 habits of a highly effective porn star
(and Trump antagonist),” the piece posits, “If we’re
going to keep talking about Stormy Daniels—and it
certainly seems like another stiletto will drop at some
point—we should try to better understand why her
branding and brand messaging have been so successful.”
Those seven habits start off with “Have a catchy brand
name” and end with “Know your power.”
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On the seventh point, Ad Age media columnist
Simon Dumenco writes, “As Daniels tells it, part of her
connection with Trump had to do with the fact that
she called him out on his narcissism and self-regard,
teasingly spanking him with a copy of Trump magazine
because he wouldn’t stop talking about himself. He
was a bad boy, she mock-punished him for it and he
appreciated the discipline.”
Dumenco goes on to underline Daniels’ power
with a quote from Brian Watson, author of Annals
of Pornographie, How Porn Became Bad: “Stripping and
burlesque—and even porn, ultimately—overlap
significantly with parody, satire and thumbing your nose
at political, social and religious elites,” he says. “And
from the very beginning, pornography was essentially a
way of satirizing the ‘proper’ public sphere.”
The Washington Post had no dearth of Stormy
coverage, but one of the most unique pieces was by
Sydney Leathers—best known for her involvement with
disgraced politician Anthony Weiner—offering insight
into what it’s like to be inside a media maelstrom:
“People tend to assume that the women involved in
scandals like these are reveling in the situation. … What
people don’t see are the stress, threats and harassment
that come with being associated with a sex scandal,
especially if you’re a woman. There’s so little to be
gained by revealing the sexual misconduct of a powerful
man, as I tried to do and as Daniels has done.”
What’s missing in almost all of the articles written
about Daniels is one voice in particular: that of Daniels
herself. In this issue, Dr. Chauntelle Tibbals interviews
the director/performer, but with a focus that befits an
industry publication: her career, both past and present.
Aside from the ultra-high-profile interviews on 60
Minutes and The View, interviews with Daniels are few
and far between. One of the best profiles was a story
written by Denver Nicks for Rolling Stone. Nicks not only
went to the trouble of talking to Daniels—he embeds
himself during a feature dance appearance in Houston,
capturing Daniels’ interactions with her inner circle.
Nicks also articulates why someone with a
background in adult entertainment has a unique
perspective that befits the current political climate. He
writes, “A decade and a half working in porn imbues a
person with an unusual frankness, a kind of extreme
authenticity. A successful porn star with a career like
Daniels’ must be comfortable in her own skin and with
other people’s bodies, including the weird-looking
parts (penises and vaginas, anuses and perinea), and
with the various kinds of discharge the human body
produces – all things the rest of us would rather stop
thinking about when the erotic moment has passed and
we put our clothes back on. Porn stars also have to be
comfortable dwelling in the contradictions of porn: in
fans’ fantasies, but also in the mundane world of bills,
groceries, hobbies and, in Daniels’ case, being a mom;
in exposing the most intimate parts of themselves doing
one of the most intimate things humans do, while
maintaining a life as an authentic person who feels
passion and love. Maybe what America needs most in
2018, as we stew in rage, simultaneously enthralled,
bewildered and revolted by ourselves, is a porn star to
help us take a long, uncompromising, compassionate
look at our country and culture, gross parts and all.”
ad index
AdultCentro......................................................... 59, 61, 89
AEBN. ............................................................................... 55
Age ID.............................................................................. 33
Analized.com................................................................... 17
ASACP. ............................................................................. 94
AVN Show........................................................................ 85
CalExotics. .......................................................................... 2
CAMStar. ............................................Insert between 26-27
Chaturbate....................................................................... 25
Doc Johnson......................................................Back Cover
East Coast News........................................................ 79, 83
Eldorado Trading........................................... 69, 71, 73, 75
Elegant Angel.................................................................. 13
Eroscillator. ....................................................................... 77
Free Speech Coalition..................................................... 95
FuckingAwesome. ............................................................ 57
Gamma Entertainment.................................................... 49
iWantClips................................................................6-7, 8-9
James Deen Productions. ................................................ 15
Kelly Madison Media....................................................... 35
MyFreeCams.com. ........................................................... 27
njoy. .................................................................................. 81
Pascal’s Subsluts. .............................................................. 31
Pornhub. ........................................................................... 19
Pussycash......................................................................... 23
Satisfyer. ............................................... 62-63, 64-65, 66-67
Stripchat........................................................................... 29
Traffic Junky. ..................................................................... 21
Vixen. ................................................................................ 11
Webmaster Access. .......................................................... 99
Wicked Pictures. .......................................................... 3, 4-5
XR Brands. ........................................................................ 74