SXSWi speaker Nina Hartley on social media, torrent sites, and ...

When I found out that Nina Hartley (@ninaland) (bio) (wikipedia) was speaking at SXSW, I wanted to interview her. Linear made the introductions, and Marjorie Kase set it up. - Jana

Jana: Twitter and Facebook both have the potential for changing a private life into a public life. Although you are well-known, now many fans can follow you on twitter. How do you feel about that change from before, where your fans were probably more anonymous than anything else, to now having people read about your thoughts on life from day to day?

Nina: It's very interesting, to say the least. I've been very open about my thoughts for 26 years now, so this is just a new way of getting the message out there where it can, hopefully, be useful, or at least entertaining or thought-provoking. I've always been approachable by my fans. It's something I really enjoy: meeting someone on the street and just diving into a conversation with them about any and all things sexual. It's just always been that my thoughts were shared in person, one at a time or on my explicit site, with a few more at a time, or at my personal appearances, with a few more at at a time. Social media takes what I do and blows it up many times over, to say the least. The difference with these tools are that they are instantaneous and I can reach large numbers of people with one post. Twitter has been great for staying up on all the new ideas about sex and sexuality while Facebook has been invaluable in creating the conversation. And really, its not just about me helping people, but people helping each other. And when we can do that as adults who respect each other's choices we can actually create meaningful change in our lives. So these tools have been a real blessing to my cause.

Jana: In the fetish scene, social media has also changed the way people meet each other. In the days before Adult Friend Finder or Fetlife, everyone met at parties or through each other -- now, one can meet people not only with compatible sexual interests, but also correctly matched by describing on one's profile what you are looking for. How have the way the interactions in the scene changed due to the use of social media sites for finding sexual partners?

Nina: When it comes to something as complex and potentially dangerous as kink sex, meeting people through social media is a mixed blessing. Yes, it's possible to fine-tune likes/dislikes online, but relationships still have to pass the "do I actually like this person?" test. In the "good old days" one had to, gasp, actually MEET people face to face and get actual references from people who knew them and who had played with them. It was a little more difficult for a person to seriously misrepresent themselves for very long. As well, physical skill sets were passed along in person and you watched something being done many times before you tried it, yourself. In the end, no matter how good the match may look on paper, nothing beats a face-to-face meeting to see if you actually can stand each other's company.

Jana: Having been in the adult industry for over 25 years, you have a long body of work that once upon a time was only available in adult theaters or on video. Now, with the growth of torrents sites such as empornium and puretna, there are now people who have access to your early work who have never seen it before. Unfortunately, clips and full videos are being downloaded and viewed without the user paying for them. Do you think this new audience is good in terms of generating interest in your current work? What are your feelings as a perfomer, and, as well, on the illegal downloading and free viewing of your work?

Nina: It's not good at all. They're stealing intellectual property, pure and simple. I get paid only once, but if the companies can't make a profit, they can't hire me. So, piracy affects my bottom line as much as it does the producer's. There is a growing portion of consumers that doesn't think it needs to pay for porn, or for games, or for music. This is an unsustainable business model. Unless all a person wants is to watch amateur porn (which is posted free and I have no problem with people watching it w/o paying), new product using professional models must be paid for through sales. Stop stealing, people, or you'll force me into retirement!

Jana: Acknowledging that the internet has made pornography more readily available, how do you think this has changed public perceptions of the adult industry and pornography?

Nina: Again, a mixed blessing. It's harder for people who don't want exposure to porn to keep it out of their lives. On the other hand, it's served to normalize adult entertainment as an option in the entertainment firmament. Those who hate porn hate that it's online. Those who love it, love that it's online. I just wish the porn spammers would quit flooding people's inboxes with it.

Jana: Thanks to the internet, from the comfort of one's own bedroom, one can now simply pull up one of your educational videos on your website and watch and learn. Do you think that the internet has allowed for the improvement of people's sex lives?

Nina: For some, absolutely. It allows for marginalized or lonely people access to entertainment and education. This is valuable. On the other hand it's also used by people to avoid actual intimacy in their existing relationships, or to avoid going out and trying to meet actual humans.

Jana: Speaking of meeting actual humans, this is where I should tell people about your SXSW panel:

Nina Hartley: Porn Star, Sex Educator, Social Networker
Monday, March 15 at 05:00 PM at SXSW interactive.
http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/612

Jana:Where are the other places people can find you online?

Nina: My twitter account is @ninaland, and facebook is http://bit.ly/ninafanpage

( A special thanks to MarKyr Media's Marjorie Kase)