When you tell people what your job/profession is, you usually get the same few reactions. Working in the Adult Industry we get two different reactions, and have come to expect them.
The first reaction is: They brush it off because they don’t care, or are embarrassed so the subject gets changed. After this happens, I’d love to tell people to grow up, remind them that sex isn’t only natural but it is fun too. Then add that sex isn’t dirty, so it is O.K to give yourself permission to talk about it.
The other reaction we get is: The “Wow, what a job, you must get a lot of weirdos in there!? What is the weirdest (person, video, things people ask you)?
My first reaction to this is to put weird into perspective. I ask them to define weird, then remind that person that just by being IN an adult store like Nitecap Video could be considered weird by many people. Their rebuttal question is always “ok, fine, then, what was the weirdest thing brought up to YOU personally?”
Which is actually a worse question to ask us due to our education in sexuality (knowledge IS power) and our jaded been there – done that attitude over-exposure to the entire adult industry. Because, yea, we’ve even seen the eel videos and had more questions about safety before we thought to get grossed out.
We don’t label anyone weird until they creep us out… not because they bought a particular movie.
Actual Example: A guy came in and he looked like The Unabomber, smelled like a dumpster, grunted often, ignored us if we asked to help him pick something out, spent an hour picking through the BDSM section for simulated Forced Entry (Rape Play) porno, successfully put seven of them on the counter and then tossed us a wet wad of money before leaving… we called him the weirdo of the day.
Watching some rough porno doesn’t bother us – but if you resemble that client you have high potential to be a sick twisted fucker and we should have put him on sex offender watch. Personally, Jane Blow’s preference for porno isn’t the soft core stuff like Vivid is famous for, so the rough stuff doesn’t bother us.
(Yes, we know not all sick twisted fuckers look like that.)
For the most part, we file away stories like that for the “Do’s and Don’ts of Adult Store Etiquette.” Most clients become great story telling fodder. Like “Boner Guy.” Without fail, every time he comes in to pick out movies his pecker is hard and he only wears cloth shorts. Boner Guy is also a great tipper if we talk to him a little (but we liked him before we discovered this)!
Or “Really Sweet Rental Guy” – who not only talks to us, but remembers little things and asks us about what happened the following week when he returns his rentals.
Moral of the story – don’t give off weirdo vibes, and let your freak flag fly high because you aren’t the only one who likes what you do!
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