but when men do it, most seem to have gotten into the industry because they wanted to have sex with multiple women and get paid for it at the same time.
My understanding, and I admit that this is hearsay and not from actual experience with professional male porn talent, is that most western male porn actors get paid very little compared to their female counter parts. Most of them have to do boy/boy scenes to make a living wage even though they may be exclusively hetero in their personal life.
There are a few, who basically film, direct, edit, act, the whole shebang who make money simply because they are small operations and only really have to pay the female talent plus the cost of a hotel room for the daily filming expenses. But managing to open that type of site and pay the bills is very difficult when most consumers of porn don't actually pay for it. I only know of a few sites who actually use that type of business model and continue to survive.
Below are the shooting rates for kink.com, a large producer of bdsm porn in San Francisco:
MODEL RATES - STUDIO SCENES
Model pay varies according to content, sexual contact and website, as well as industry experience, but the following rates should give you, a potential model, a general idea of what kind of pay is to be expected when shooting for Kink.com. Pay rate is determined at the time of booking.
Female Models
- Female Models make $500 - $600 in a solo scene.
- Female Models make $500 - $800 as a top or bottom as a participant in a girl/girl scene.
- Female Models make $600 - $1300 as a top or bottom in a boy/girl scene.
- Female Models make $700 - $1100 as a bottom in a TS female/girl scene.
Male Models
- Male models make $500 as a bottom in a boy/TS female scene.
- Male models make $500 as a bottom in a boy/girl scene.
- Male models make $800+ as a top or bottom in a boy/boy scene.
- Male models make $200 - $400 as a top in a boy/girl scene. Pay is highly dependent upon experience and performance in this category.
TS Female Models
- TS Female models make $800 - $1200 as a top in a TS Female/boy scene or a TS Female/girl scene.
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source)
As you can see, for males there is no option at all to shoot solo, max pay is $800 and that's only if you bottom. $400 is highest rate if your topping and could be as low as $200. Women meanwhile get at least $500 to be shot solo, have a significantly higher top end pay for being a bottom in any scenario, and the lowest they get for topping is $200 higher than the HIGHEST a man gets in the same role. The only way a male actor is going to compete with the women wage wise is in boy/boy. Therefore I think very few of them are in the industry because they are getting paid to have sex with multiple women. And remember this is a specialized segment of porn that often pays higher than normal due to the additional risks involved.
Add to that fact that porn acting truly is acting. Someone says cut and you got to stop, start a scene over wait for people to adjust lighting etc etc. All the while you have to stay hard and be ready to go when they shout "Action". Oh and you don't get to cum when your ready. You have to cum on demand, for the specific scene at the specific moment. Pretty demanding.
While there is less stigma for straight male sexworkers, I’ve been wondering if they ever think or care about their privacy. With men being the biggest consumers of porn, I can easily imagine the scenario where their porn content is discovered by their fathers, brothers, grandfathers, uncles, sons, male coworkers, male friends, etc..
Today, it's seen as sort of empowering for women to go into porn and own that fact and be proud of it. I don't think the same is true for most male actors. I mean, I can't really think of a time when I've thought to myself, I really wish I could be like <insert male porn actor here>. That is if we talk about being in their daily life, not the actual onscreen moment of being with an insanely hot women. I think there is still very much a stigma to being a male porn actor and since many of these heterosexual men must shoot homosexual porn for financial reasons I think they have real fears and concerns about privacy. Especially when there are still huge problems with violence against homosexual men I would think a lot of these western actors live in fear of the day someone recognizes them.
So, my question is, would you ever consider becoming a male pornstar? And how willing would you be to show your face?
Having said all the above I would still totally consider being in Porn but not willing to show my face. Why wouldn't I show my face?
I don't think many people are actually going to want to see me in porn or hire me for a scene. Knowing that the pay is so much lower for men I couldn't quit my day job and just like some escorts work hard to protect their civilian life I would do the same since it's still where most my money would be made.
One of my SB's has opened a manyvids account and is planning on selling amateur porn. We have discussed it and I'm quite sure I'll make an appearance from time to time but I plan on keeping my face hidden and voice disguised in case anybody I know were to buy/watch her porn. She is also debating about showing her own face. She would really rather wear a mask but doesn't think people would pay porn where you couldn't see the girls face.