Hanging Out with Pornstar Christy Mack Made Me Less Scared of Porn

Although I can’t say why, I’ve always been scared of porn. Maybe it all goes back to the time I was shamed by my Jewish grandmother for trying to look at Playboy in 1997. Or maybe it all stems from that anti-pornography feminism seminar I went to. Their message was porn = violence against women and in the context of porn, women = sex objects. Or possibly it could have something to do with my colleague’s experience at a porn casting party in Montreal.

All that said, the veil of porn-related terror began to lift when I hung out with Christy Mack—a big star in the sex movie biz. As she petted my furry lamb coat (not a euphemism) we talked about taking trips to Hobby Lobby—an arts and crafts retail chain in America—with her mom, along with pornography’s potential to both empower and degrade women, and she started convincing me that porn isn’t that scary.

VICE: So I was watching some videos of you for research purposes-
Christy Mack: Research, right [laughs].

Honestly all I could think while watching them was how much that must hurt. Do you get sore?
I do. And girls who say they don’t are lying. If you work like seven, eight days in a row with these huge guys, it’s impossible to keep up with it all. You’re going for an hour, hour and a half. Maybe you’ll get lube, maybe you have to work with a condom though, which dries you out a little more and you don’t get the lube that you needed. You’re doing these uncomfortable positions with a huge cock, and it’s just, you get sore.

Aside from that, how do you feel about being a porn star?
I was in the car with my mom yesterday going to Hobby Lobby and I’m like “sometimes, mom, it’s like I’m a real celebrity!” My mom downplayed it—she’s like, “no, you’re not even close.” She’s hilarious. Then we show up in Hobby Lobby and this woman freakedout because she saw me and she got to meet me, and she’s like “my boyfriend and I are such big fans, and it’s so great to meet you, I need to take like five pictures with you.” It’s cool to be a porn star and have that kind of recognition while having an awesome time having sex.

Do you have an awesome time?
I do. I love it.

What’s so awesome about it? Like, what’s the best part?
Well, I get to choose my males now. I choose guys that I have great chemistry with, give me the eye contact that I need, make me feel so comfortable in the scene, and make it a passionate experience. It makes things so much easier and so much better—it makes me really want to be there. I hope that they want to be there, too.

Some people think that porn empowers women, and some people think it degrades them. What is your take on the matter?
I think it can be both ways, honestly. There’s some girls that want to be absolutely degraded and they want to be destroyed on film and that’s what they go for. I don’t go for that. I play strong characters, never degraded, never hit, never choked out, nothing like that. Maybe some light domination but nothing that can be considered degrading. I don’t really see it as empowering or degrading. It can empower women a little bit through exploring sexuality and things like that but I don’t see it as degrading if you don’t want it to be.

What was your first sexual experience?
I was 18, and it was with boyfriend at the time. We were high school sweethearts and had been dating for maybe a year at that point. I lit candles in my bedroom and it was just all sweet and I was like: “It’s gonna happen!” [laughs].We went out to dinner and we came back home, at my mom’s house, and started making out, started touching and everything, and when we finally got to that point I sat on his cock and then it was over [laughs].Like, two seconds. And I was like, “Oh, so that’s it.”

It seems like you’ve come a long way from that point. How did you learn to be good at making porn? Did you practice?
Honestly, I didn’t do anything. I don’t look at my own films; I don’t really study other peoples’ films. I do watch porn for enjoyment but I didn’t really practice at all, but through filming they’ll tell you to turn a certain way, or they’ll tell you to do this position a certain way, and then you just kind of have to remember that. And you build on that. But other than that I just do what I want to do while trying to look good.

Photo via Instagram

How are things going with your boyfriend War Machine?

I call him Jon. Or Bitch Machine, when he wants to be a little cunt.

Oh, okay.
Everything’s good. We have our ups and downs, it’s a relationship. We’re about seven months in now, working on getting a reality show. Of course I go to all of his fights, and we just do what we do.

I saw you guys both on an interview on The MMA Hour, and you said you’re thinking about retiring from porn in the next two years. What do you want to do after that?
If everything goes as I had planned before Jon came along, I’ll have enough money to retire, and not have to do anything else after porn. I don’t shoot nearly as much as I used to, partly because I’m with Jon and I just want to spend as much time with him as possible. Going out and filming, it just doesn’t feel as natural anymore, even though I do love it, it doesn’t feel right when you have somebody you love at home.

Can I see your nails?
Sure.

Photo via Instagram

Wow, they’re long. What do your knuckle tattoos say?
Love Sick.

Oh cool.
Yeah, Jenna Jameson just got the same ones, though. She texted me the other day saying she got them but she hadn’t realized I already had them.

That sucks. Ok, bye!

Follow Kristy on Twitter: @kristy__hoffman

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A Piece in the Valley

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