The sexual revolution is over and those few scarred veterans who survive and refuse to surrender are marked forever with a digitalized scarlet letter.

At least that seems to be the message from the family values camp.

Mike Greene, head of the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, fired the most recent anti-sex salve. Upon learning porn star Jenna Jameson was to appear at the Grammy Awards with recording artist Kid Rock, Greene banned the blonde actress from the show.

He reasoned that a woman who earned her living by having sex on camera would be bad for the show's image. Oddly enough, he didn't seem to mind when Raylene, a lesser-known porn star, replace Jameson onstage.

Another bit of irony is that Jameson appeared as a guest star on the CBS series "Nash Bridges" the same week. She's also appeared frequently on E! and Howard Stern, but always as the jiggling blonde bimbo.

Greene's message to her could not be more clear--Jameson is nothing but a sex object and should stick to behaving as one in places where it's permissible for men to ogle women of loose morals. The Grammy Awards are not such a place.

So much for an enlightened society where women are allowed to better themselves.

That was certainly the case for Brandy Alexandre. After surviving a career of acting, writing and directing porn films, Alexandre said goodbye to the industry to pursue a life away from the cameras.

I'd like to say she worked her way up to the top, but that's not the case. Alexandre started at the top of her new profession. She became the executive secretary to the head of Forest Lawn. For three years, she was an exemplary employee with remarkable evaluations and annual raises well above the company average. Alexandre was a model employee during her seven years at Forest Lawn.

Until her boss learned of her former career.

It wasn't even Alexandre's fault her past life became known. She was content to remain anonymous. Unfortunately, a cyberstalker informed her supervisors that they had a former porn queen working within the hallowed halls of Forest Lawn.

Suddenly, Alexandre was an embarrassment who had to be disposed of quickly and quietly.

Once again, the problem seemed to be less that Alexandre had done porn, than that people knew she'd done porn. Perhaps more importantly, when confronted, she didn't fall apart and show the proper amount of shame for her past.

Both Jameson and Alexandre are women who have never been ashamed of their sexuality or quick to apologize for their lives. They have never claimed the evil pornography industry abused, duped or used them.

Had they hit the talk show circuit condemning the porn industry, they might be media darlings. It worked for Linda Lovelace and Tracy Lords. It seems the role of bad example is the only one open to former porn stars once they leave the industry. It's certainly the only way mainstream society seems willing to accept them.

Our society may have evolved since the days of the public stocks and scarlet letters, but the fate of women who chose to openly enjoy sex and--God forbid ... profit from their libidos is still much the same. They should leave porn, deny their sexuality and live a normal, moral life, but they should do it somewhere else.

There's no room for porn stars--even retired ones--at the Grammy Awards or Forest Lawn, or your local bank.

Women who have publicly embraced their sexuality should just go away, quietly wearing their scarlet letters. Society may forget them, but it will never forgive.

Copyright © 2000 Nick Adams All Rights Reserved

After 15 years working as a mainstream journalist, Nick Adams turned to writing erotica and working within the sex industry. Pornographers, he feels, are much more ethical than the corporations which own newspapers these days.

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