I hadn't heard of the term "pegging" before, but it was originally coined to mean anyone being penetrated by a strap-on. Now it has become exclusively the province of males being done by females. While the term is relatively new, the practice has been around for a while, such as in Carol Queen's movie Bend Over Boyfriend.
The sense of history did nothing to relieve the tension.
Aside from the women (Tyla Wynn, Kinzie Kenner, Annie Cruz, Jeanie Marie, and Vixen), almost everyone was uncomfortable, and that expressed itself in different ways.
For example, I have never walked onto a set in which women were fucking women or men were fucking women to hear, "Are you into this?" The answer would be obvious: "of course, dude" and then high-fives would be exchanged.
"Are you into this?" was a challenge. The androgynous photographer wanted to let me know that he definitely wasn't. (Or was.)
The scenarios were simple. In one, a teacher counsels a female student, calling her a bad girl. She fucks him in the ass with a strap-on. It happens all the time.
In another, a man undertips a stripper. She and a girlfriend fuck him in the ass with a strap-on. I think that happened to Jack Ruby.
I talked with Black Widow owner Ric Williams and asked what I now think was a stupid question.
"Are you expanding into the gay market?"
"This isn't gay," he said.
"Sure it isn't," I said.
I was on set for parts of three scenes, interrupted by a quick trip down the street to Norm's at which I had to have a steak. The male talent, while not exactly unknown, were secured over Craigslist for $200 each. I don't know if the HIV test was part of that amount or not. If it wasn't, then the male talent made $100 for their scenes.
Did they want to be there, did they need the money, or was it both? The same question underlies all of porn, but on this set everyone was asking it.
I think if I had been on the set of a movie in which come was slurped out of someone's ass and siphoned into a wine glass and then spoon-fed to someone else, I would have been a little disturbed, or if I had gone to a pissing movie or the set of Battlefield Earth. Still, there was something about this particular set that was unlike anything I'd experienced.
For one, I was not sure if the guys were into it or not. If I was sure they wanted to be there, that would have been different. I was told Kurt Lockwood now asks for $3k for a pegging scene. Publicist Wayne Hentai said he would consider pegging in order to pay off his car, which is $35k. There was also talk about that sort of thing being OK if one was in prison.
My figure would be much, much higher and would include all sorts of conditions, like everyone would have to be blinded, Oedipus-style.
$200 is not a lot of money. There are other ways to make $200. Using that logic, either the guys wanted to be there or they really needed the money. One guy traveled from San Diego.
I watched a movie a while ago in which I think I saw the exact moment when a woman decided to leave the adult industry (it was Natalie Knoxxx in Baker's Dozen 5). I worried that I would see that happening. Maybe even to me.
The people on set were the makeup ladies, the female performers, Williams (who was also shooting the movie), two fellows from a message board (I found this out later) and Gordon Liu, the other photographer.
Few people knew the word "pegging", though many of the women had done it before.
"I have a pirate fetish," said Kinzie Kenner.
"I used to date a guy with a wooden leg," offered Vixen. I would like to think she would do anything for someone in need.
"Pirates used to fuck each other on the ships and that's how AIDS was started," said Kenner.
No one said anything. It was one of those times when it became clear that boobs go a long way.
The first male talent was white, and a little flabby. The second was a light-skinned black man who resembled Tucker Smallwood from the public television show "Jabberwocky" in a way that proved oddly descriptive. The third was Asian, and looked petrified. Especially when he walked in and Annie Cruz said, "Hi, I'm Annie and I will be fucking you up the ass today." Annie Cruz is a take-no-prisoners type of dirty girl.
The reason I feel some of the male talent weren't committed to the job and were there because they needed the cash was because they didn't inhabit the roles of traditional submissives or bottoms. There was a lot of nervous talking. Luckily, people like Kinzie Kenner, Jeanie Marie, and Vixen did their best to shut the guys up.
Black Widow is covering as many bases as possible with this movie, the first in what it hopes will be a series, pending sales. It is not a traditional D/s movie, because there is not a level of humiliation depicted that would qualify. Also, the guys are allowed to fuck or be blown by the girls. I imagine it will be marketed to couples or to women, as the guys aren't really the point.
The second guy, whose professional name was Anton, was the most ridiculed person I have ever seen on a porn set. From the moment he walked into the studio, interrupting the filming of a scene by shouting, "I hate L.A." (he'd had trouble finding the place), he was the object of derision and scorn.
This had a lot to do with his nervous talking, as well as the fact that he was about to take one in the ass. The dialogue, as is the case with most gonzo movies, was mostly improvised, so his choice of words was his own. Everything he said was a dumb joke. It made the bystanders want Jeanie Marie and Vixen to do something about it. During the times when still photos were shot, he actually tucked, like Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs.
"He's a fag," said the warehouse guy, taking pictures on his camera phone to send to his cousin.
And I think that was the source of the uncomfortableness. None of the guys on set knew which side Anton played on, and that was awkward. If he had been submissive as his pegging suggested, that might have made sense. Instead, the sound of his wisecracking lamely through his scene filled the air with ambivalence. Porn is, in general, very straightforward (with emphasis on the "straight") so Pegging 101 is hard to distill.
For that reason it is a very interesting movie.
Except where the guys got in the way, this movie is a smorgasbord of solid female talent and intriguing up-and-comers. Particularly Vixen, who stood about 6'2" in heels and still could put her leg over my shoulder (she said she could, anyway, and I believe her).
While Pegging 101 breaks various rules of BDSM as it relates to porn (people into the scene will cite violations of established structure), this is a great movie for bachelorette parties or for women tired of the traditional porn guy/porn girl relationship.
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