Mirror, Mirror

Girls rule, boys drool

(image credit: Rachel Lena Esterline)

In this week’s edition of The Reverse Cowgirl: a female photographer exposes the strip club hustle, an elementary comic about drawing boobs, an interview with a woman who wrote a memoir about her career as a porn movie editor, and more.

1. Photographer Rachel Lena Esterline has spent years photographing the strip club scene. Her evocative, intimate portraits, like the one above, reveal what it’s like to dance for a living and revel in the beauty of a girl on a pole. She’s also a personal friend of mine who believes “SISTERHOOD IS POWERFUL.” (Instagram)

2. IndieWire has an interesting piece by the always insightful culture savant and Slate sexpert Rich Juzwiak about an effort to revive, restore, and recirculate the sort-of-lost sexploitation films of Russ Meyer: “How Russ Meyer’s Body of Work Was Saved from Obscurity to Rescue These Sexless Times.” (IndieWire)

3. I don’t know if a “pit diaper” is a fitting subject for this newsletter, but why not? For those who need to pee while moshing and don’t have time to run to the toilet, the canned water brand Liquid Death has partnered with disposable adult diaper brand Depends to create a low-rise, one size fits all, faux leather pit diaper. The slogan: “RELIEVE YOURSELF WITHOUT LEAVING THE SAFETY OF THE MOSH PIT.” This is no fake product. The $75 big boy diaper for rockers and headbangers is already sold out. You can see the commercial here. (People)

4. “When i was in elementary school I got in trouble for selling boob drawings.” I really adored this funny comic by Soy Pepperoni: “That One Time I Drew Boobs in Elementary.” It’s a hilarious recounting of the creator’s elementary school business venture selling drawings of boobs for a dollar. (via Kean Soo)

5. I was underwhelmed by filmmaker Sean Baker’s latest outing: Anora. Sure, the beginning is fun, with the strip club and such, but the rest is a lot of running around screaming starring Mikey Madison as Ani the stripper with a heart of gold and the brain of a chief strategy officer. That said, the bald, Russian Yura Borisov was fantastic as Igor. Oh, and I guess Obama liked it. (YouTube)

6. Have you ever heard of bisexual lighting? I had not, until today, that is. According to Wikipedia: “Bisexual lighting is the simultaneous use of pink, purple, and blue lighting and is used to represent bisexual characters” in films, TV shows, and the like. Recently, I watched I Saw the TV Glow, which is saturated in … queer-signaling colors? Can I say that? Is that a thing? Put another way by someone on X: “I Saw The TV Glow is if bisexual lighting was a movie.” (via Marc Bernardin)

7. A bill that would help sex worker rights is back in action, thanks to California Representative Ro Khanna and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren (both democrats, obviously), reports Elizabeth Nolan Brown for Reason: “The SAFE SEX Workers Study Act, a Bill Aimed at Ultimately Repealing FOSTA, Is Back.” The Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act known as FOSTA created a chilling effect when it comes to free speech for sex workers on the internet when it was passed in 2018, and the new bill would move in the direction of repealing FOSTA. This is a step to regaining power. (Reason)

8. Accused CEO assassin Luigi “The Adjuster” Mangione had some feelings about porn, apparently. In his view, passive, excessive online porn consumption by men was part of a broader phenomenon of NPC behavior. Interesting to contrast with the widespread ways in which Mangione is being positioned as a sex symbol across social media platforms. Now, he’s the thirst trap. (CNN)

9. Looking for a last minute gift? Kourtney Kardashian’s Poosh recommends the Satisfyer Pro 2 Vibrator. The Amazon reviews include one that begins “Let me set the scene: I’m a middle aged accountant from the Midwest who has never orgasmed” and has a happy ending. Happy holidays, lady. (AVN)

10. For nearly 30 years, Sonny Malone edited porn movies. Over time, she became one of the adult movie business’s leading editors. In 2011, she was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame. This year, she published a memoir of her career cutting X-rated movies: Smutcutter: How I Survived Porn. In The 5 Questions Interview With The Reverse Cowgirl, she shares why she wrote a memoir and whether or not she’s out of porn for good or has returned to the fine art of cutting smut.

    

    The Reverse Cowgirl: Your memoir reminded me of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle or Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation. It exposes how the sausage gets made in Porn Valley. Why did you decide to write it and what was the process like?

    Sonny Malone: I decided to write the book about a year after I moved from adult to mainstream work. Even though I had a long adult career, I always dismissed it as it was “only porn,” as if my work didn’t count, no matter the accolades. I thought being out in what I called the “real world” would bring only judgment, but I found the opposite to be true. People who found out what I did in my past were fascinated! I began to tell stories of my past work, and I realized I was telling the same stories more than once. I thought I needed to write them down. Once I started the outline and looked back on all my years in adult, I was a little shocked at all I had accomplished. It gave me a boost of confidence.

    TRC: As a woman and a lesbian, you're really an anomaly as a porn editor. Do you think there are ways in which the fact that you weren't "one of the boys" made you better than them at what you do?

    SM: There are ways, I think, I simply had a better eye for making the female performers look even better. Rather than stare at her boobs while I edited, I’d notice if her nails were not done. Or if she had a flaw she was trying to hide. I would look at the female (and male) performers through a female eye rather than an “I’d like to jump that person” lens. Rather than just roll my eyes and say “That’s the way it is,” I edit for the best shots and best performance, for the good of the feature or scene. I would notice if the girl was bent at an angle that made her look like she had a gut, and not use that shot. Many others would not and do not have that eye.

    TRC: This is a real warts and all account of cutting smut. There are highs—working with the top companies, attending the so-called "Oscars of Porn," being named to the Hall of Fame. But there are lows, too—struggling to get paid, being disrespected by the (mostly men) for whom you work, and watching some performers get caught up in the dark side of porn. How did you manage to survive decades in what Martin Amis called "a rough trade"?

    SM: I was very lucky to have married well. My partner of 36 years is the one person who kept me grounded. She has been there since the first day of my career and has been there with me through all of it. If I had not had her, I can guarantee my ride would have been a lot bumpier. She is still the one person I truly rely on to get me through each new pothole. I got through it because of my wife. However, as my wife reminded me, when I am thrown under the bus, I go through the five stages of grief, and then I put them in my book.

    TRC: Can you share a bit about what a porn editor actually does? You weren't just sitting at a monitor. Sometimes you're on set, shooting footage, really shaping the narrative of the movie.

    SM: I did get around! At first, I said I shouldn’t be on the set so I wouldn’t see anything beyond what was filmed. My eye would be for the footage only and not the excuses as to why a shot wasn’t there. One director asked me to use a shot of this rose rising into the camera lens for something. Every shot was blurry all three times he did it. He was upset that I couldn’t unblur it and didn’t use it. Now, had I been there, I might have been able to fix it. Once I did go to a set, I would start editing in my head and already know which take to use for each scene or set up. I did enjoy shooting behind the scenes for people. I used to love getting to know the performers and a few of us are still friends! Knowing more about the person, in the end, did make me a better editor and ultimately made for a better scene.

    TRC: The ending of Smutcutter reminded me of that line Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part III delivers about trying to escape a life of organized crime: "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in." By the conclusion of your book, I think you've left porn behind you, having gone to work as an editor for a mainstream company. But I still hear the desire to not leave the porn world entirely behind you. Can you speak to that?

    SM: For a while, I tried to distance myself from the names SmutCutter and Sonny Malone. At work, I was Madison. I was proud to see my name on the computer screen. I was proud for eight years.

    I was actually laid off from that mainstream job a year ago.

    The panic was palpable, and I searched for work like any scared person in my position. One month to the day of being officially let go, I sent out texts and emails to literally everyone on my contact list. Even [adult] directors I hated and swore I would never work for again. I got the usual texts and emails back with “great to have you back” and “will keep you in mind” and then the unthinkable happened. My. Phone. Rang. I had not talked to this person for nearly ten years. I explained my situation, trying to hide the lump in my throat. He said “Did you forget I am now the CEO of (this massive adult company that’s been around since the Stone Age)?” I sort of gulped and said, “No, no. I did not know that.” He asked what I needed. I said, “Work.” He said, “Gimme a day.” Within a week I had work. He told his post supervisor, “This is Sonny Malone. She is the best. Hook her up.” I’ve been working part-time for him since then.

    Also, since my book has come out, I have embraced my writer side. I have also ghostwritten a memoir for the daughter of a Golden Age performer and started a Medium.com page. I’ve started a fiction series, and the first of three has been published, called Free Fall. And it goes without saying that I am writing a sequel to SmutCutter.

Thanks for reading The Reverse Cowgirl! If you enjoyed this, please subscribe, like, or share my newsletter. You can learn more about me, work with me through The Fixer, or buy my book. Let’s connect on X, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, Facebook, and LinkedIn.