Porn’s Good Guy: A Chat with James Deen

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James Deen, with his well-documented boyish good looks, has skyrocketed to stardom in a recent role in a film written by Bret Easton Ellis and a lengthy profile in GQ. Many porn stars have risen to mainstream prominence, but what is most intriguing about Deen’s newfound fame is that he’s been propelled, in large part, by his legion of female fans. Searching “James Deen” on Tumblr reveals endless female-curated blogs dedicated to Deen as if he’s a teen heartthrob.

He’s often associated with the genre of “female-friendly” pornography, though not for any calculated reasons. Deen says he just goes into his scenes and does the best job he can; women just happen to like him. It’s easy to see why. He’s smart and articulate on both matters of his personal sexuality and the politicization of the LA adult industry with the recent passage of Measure B. And, honestly, he just seems like a really nice dude. Over the course of our conversation he said that his favorite sex toy is whatever his partner likes: “That’s my favorite sex toy at that moment.” He also told me a story about visiting his grandma in the hospital.

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MOTHERBOARD: You know that you have a huge female fan base. I’ve come across countless Tumblrs run by women devoted to you. You’re also often associated with the term “female-friendly porn.” What do you think that is? What makes something “female-friendly”?
James Deen: Well, let’s see. Psychologically speaking, I guess males are visually stimulated and aroused, and women are more mentally aroused. So maybe female-friendly porn is more just porn that dances around the fantasy that arouses the majority of women. But at the end of the day sex is a very personal thing. 

For example, every girl I knew who watched porn when we were growing up, they didn’t want to see this soft, pretty, fantasy-driven sex stuff. They wanted to see their fantasy: Rocco Siffredi throwing them up against the wall and fucking the shit out of them and putting their head in the toilet and making them feel like a dirty slut. That’s what they liked, but that doesn’t mean that’s what everyone likes. I think female-friendly porn really just means… actually, I have no idea what it means.

Read the rest over at the new Motherboard.VICE.com.