Linda Lovelace: Willing Participant or Victim?

I watched this documentry about a porn actress from the 70s. She stared in a popular movie called "Deep Throat" and countless 8mm movies. During the release and after the release of the movie she was in several tv interviews were she apparently seemed to enjoy the lifestyle.

But years later she released an autobiography called "Ordeal" which claims that she was not a willing participant in any of these movies at all, and that her former husband and manager dominated her and controlled her. According to her, he beat her and continually humiliated her, forcing her into prostitution and making movies. The kinds of movies she has been involved in are sick, vile things that no person could possibly enjoy, and i'm as open minded as they come. The former husband even admits to have lost his temper with her and beating her from time to time, and admits to telling her what to do, how to dress, and how to act. But he insists that she was completely willing.

Some people actually agree with him. I think some interesting debate could be brought up on this if anyone knows anymore about it.

 

Isn't she dead now?

I haven't seen any of the 8mm films so I can't really comment, but I doubt she was forced to do whatever acts she commited for the camera.

She became a born again Christian if memory serves me correctly, so I think it's a case of blaming someone else for her actions.

 

Maybe not physically forced (i.e. at gunpoint), but psychological pressure and co-dependency can force you to do alot of things you may not think you are capable of.

 

From here:

Linda Lovelace's
Biography

Porn Star Linda Lovelace is one of the best-known names in porn history, despite appearing in only a handful of films in the early 1970's. She's a well-endowed brunette with a typically 70's body -- slightly rounded in all the right places. Linda Lovelace was thrust into the national spotlight in 1972 with her starring role in 'Deep Throat,' one of the all-time classics of erotic entertainment. It was a groundbreaking sex film that starred Linda as a woman who can't have an orgasm until she realizes that her clit is in her throat. What follows has made Linda's name synonymous with oral sex for over 25 years.

'Deep Throat' was virtually Linda's only completed film. Linda Lovelace appeared in a few late 60's and early 70's loops before she was catapulted to sexual superstardom. Her post-'Throat' work reached a high point with her lusty oral romp with John C. Holmes in 'Exotic French Fantasies.' Linda's name on a marquee was a 70's guarantee of success, so she popped up in numerous quickie compilations, but never again filmed a full-fledged sex film.

Linda Lovelace disappeared into a haze of drug use and sexual excess, re-emerging in the mid-1980's as an outspoken opponent of the porn industry.

Linda Lovelace died on April 24, 2002 from internal injuries she suffered in a car crash. She was 53.

 

She may have been co-erced, and xcertainly felt she was in retrospect. However at the time she was a willing and indeed eager participent.
#This can be seen by the archive film and eye witness accounts of her early career which er, I just happen to know a lot about.

 

I dunno... people can be good actors under the threat of violence. Do you really, honestly believe she got off on half of that stuff??

 

her lusty oral romp with John C. Holmes

ummm...wow. that's impressive. did she have a detachable jaw like a boa constrictor or something?

Do you really, honestly believe she got off on half of that stuff??

you'd be surprised what people can, will, and do get off on. if you're talking about the bestiality, i know people who have done it and enjoyed it who were definitely not coerced.

i am a bit skeptical of her claims. i think she probably had a lot of issues and a lot of bad relationships in the industry, and huge drug problems, and some Bible-thumpers picked her up when she hit bottom and convinced her that she had never actually wanted to be involved in the industry. it's too inconsistent with her public behavior previously and dovetails too neatly with her conversion experience for me to find it credible.

even if her allegations aren't true, the implications anti-porn crusaders try to draw from it don't hold water. the majority of people in the porn industry are involved by choice.

 

Ah, "Deep Throat". From the golden age of porn. Brings back memories.

 

Well, think of it this way. AT THE VERY LEAST, her ex husband and manager was an extremely abusive, extremely controlling person. He admitted to it, and it's clear from listening to him talk how little respect he must have had for her. I believe he must have coerced her into at least a couple of the things. In the movie "Deep Throat", you can clearly see the bruises on her body in certain scenes.

 

Naw. She was just a "method actor".

I know...that's in bad taste...but so was her career! Oh! I've got a million of 'em!

 

I think you just don't like the thought that you've masterbated over rape. A disturbing thought.

 

Who said anything about RAPE? ?

 

Someone using intimidation and the threat of violence on someone to commit sexual acts is rape, believe it or not.

Are we to believe the ex husband? That she loved every second of it?

Or do we believe her? That she hated most of it? And that she only did it because she was afraid of what the husband would do to her?

The available evidence points to the latter. The ex husband confesses to have beating her on occasion. There are very visible bruises in the movie "Deep Throat". This is nothing to make jokes out of. If she loved every second of it, why would he feel the need to beat her?

 

So the guy was an abusive a******. That doesn't mean he "forced" her to do adult movies. Surely, with the money she eventually made, she had enough to get away from him or quit the business if she was so opposed to doing it. I think physical abuse and RAPE are not the same thing in this case. I've seen nothing to make me believe she did these films "against her will".

 

"The kinds of movies she has been involved in are sick, vile things that no person could possibly enjoy, and i'm as open minded as they come."

What sorts of things are you talking about? The only thing she did that someone could consider "sick" and "vile" was the thing with the dog, and I don't really think that's that bad.

 

I don't buy it. If she really didn't want to do the films, she wouldn't have. I think it was her vein attempt to redeem herself later in live.

 

I can't name the other kinds of movies she did because i wouldn't know the fancy words for them and the words are too lude for this board. Sex with a dog, in my book thats pretty low. If only for the reason that the dog isn't consenting or intelligent, and it's just very unhealthy, not to mention something that would be extremely humiliating for most people to endure.

You could ask why didn't Linda get out of the abusive relationship earlier if she hated it that much. But there are thousands upon thousands of abused wifes that don't seek help out of pure fear. Women that are literally mentally and physically tortured like this could be convinced to do any number of things by their controlling abusive husbands.

I don't buy that Linda was the perfect sexual "loved every second of it" being that her husband tried to make her out to be.

 

Keep it civil here, please. If things keep up, this will be locked.

 

I don't see what your point is. She's dead right. Why does this individual case matter? And if she didn't leae an abusive hsband well that's her fault. I don't get all these phsycological things. If someone's beating on me I'm not sticking around.

 

I read her book, I saw her bruises, and NO ONE can make up feelings that she described in her book.....unless you feel these emotions yourself, you can not convey them.

That thing with the dog is digusting..

She tried to escape her abuser many times:

Remember Folks, this was a different times, and when the cops were called on her husband, he offered his deep throating wife as a pay off. Sammy Davis Junior was one of her "fans". Gives a different look at the candy man now does it??

As for her drug use, that is text book. She used drugs to escape from the things she was forced into, after she got out of the business, she tried to get off of them. She never really succeeded because she always had her memories, and they could not be escaped.

As for "all the money", she did not own her name, her husband did. She ended up making little or no money off of the movies that she made. No point there.

Ok, so having sex with a dog is "not that bad", well, is it "that bad" when your forced into it?

The porn industry has changeed immensely since the 1970's, the vast majority of the woman who film the movies are there because they want to, because it is no longer a male dominated field. Woman are being treated with respect, and we are no longer made to feel ashamed when it comes to enjoying sex. Ofcourse there is a darkside, but that dark side is no longer the norm.

Remember, in the 70's, there were no domestic abuse laws that protected woman...a woman divorced was STILL a scandal, woman were just starting to get a real voice. (thank you birthcontrol pill )

Don't assume that just because she was in the movies, that she enjoyed it. Take a close look at her legs in Deep Throat.....she describes in great detail in her book how she got them, believe me, that movie will be viewed with different eyes.

Oh, and by the way, I have no problem with porn...great marital aid..... as long as it is not violent, and the participants are of age, and willing.

 

Jarik, i like to think the life a person has lead matters, even after they die.

Sure, it's allllllllll her fault. Just like it's a woman's fault when she gets raped if she was wearing a short skirt and flirting with the rapist. Hell, why not go a step further and say that rape doesn't exist at all? After all, it's only something thats in our minds, and you don't buy that physchological crap.

I suppose those wifes that try to escape their abusive husbands after years of abuse only have themselves to blame, or their liars. Surely you would leave the person you love after the first beating, right? It's nothing but physchological bull, isn't it Jarik?

 

I think that many people still confuse sexual arousal with consent. That Linda Lovelace was probably aroused by (and climaxed to) the activities forced upon her is irrelevant; the fact that she was coerced into these acts still makes it wrong, pleasure or no pleasure. Biological response != consent.

Of course, the porn industry is entirely different today and a case like Linda Lovelace's has become the exception, not the nor.

 

I think men simply WANT to believe that women working in any form of 'sex business' must be doing it because it "turns them on". While that may be true for some, I highly doubt it is the norm. Most women become strippers, porn actresses and prostitues for one reason only: money. You really think the topless dancer is smiling seductively at you because she thinks you're cute and she's fantasizing about what you look like naked? It's an ACT, folks. One that is designed to lighten your wallet, and is very easy to do once you get used to it.

That said, I also read "Ordeal" and found it to be a very disturbing account of what Linda's life was like. The constant beatings, fear of beatings and the ever present guns in the hands of those around her are mentioned again and again. Fear can be as big a, if not bigger, motivator than money. No one should ever be put through what she lived during those years.

 

I don't see what your point is. She's dead right. Why does this individual case matter? And if she didn't leae an abusive hsband well that's her fault. I don't get all these phsycological things. If someone's beating on me I'm not sticking around.


With time, you will get those psychological things. And that individual case brings light to the FACT that these terrible things DO happen in life, and empowers us with the knowledge to try and PREVENT it from happening again. That is why we are required to take history in school.

Life is not black and white..there are infinite shades of grey.and those shades need to be recognised.

 

TeeBee - surely you don't think men are that stupid do you? Men understand that women are doing what they do for money. Men PAY the money. I am sure that some women do enjoy it though, but money is the main motive.