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" I&amp;#039;ve always believed that porn can spice up a lackluster relationship, but I&amp;#039;ve also been judgmental of the girls who pose. So when I received a call from a recruiter, asking if I wanted to be an editor for a popular porn magazine, I was surprised...and conflicted. It was a big name, and I was curious what the experience would be like. However, I had concerns. Did I agree with the concept of porn enough to work there? Was it a bad career move? Despite these worries, I hoped that I could give readers some fresh perspective. Plus, it was a nice title and pay jump. So after four years in the world of fashion and beauty magazines, I decided to go for it.  Photo Fallacies I quickly learned how different my new job would be. Instead of researching the merits of the newest night cream, I had to labor over layouts of girls with their legs spread open, trying to write sexy, fictional stories to accompany the photos. I also discovered that seeing is not always believing. We retouched these photos\u2014a lot. In the art department, I&amp;#039;d see layouts with notes on the page: &amp;quot;Reduce thighs&amp;quot;; &amp;quot;Minimize labia&amp;quot;; &amp;quot;Enlarge breasts.&amp;quot; It was comforting to know that it wasn&amp;#039;t real, though disappointing that the quirks that make a woman unique were changed to this uniform idea of what&amp;#039;s sexy.  Model Misbehavior The majority of the girls who posed for the magazine were between 18 and 26. They were strippers, porn stars, occasionally even a hot girl pulled off the street\u2014all recruited by women staffers so that they&amp;#039;d feel more comfortable. The same models would reappear in the magazine month after month, and when they&amp;#039;d drop by the office, all work would come to a screeching halt. They would sign autographs and pose for photos (sometimes topless!) with the male staff. The most shocking thing was when a model strode up to my desk and asked me if I thought her labia looked lopsided. Before I could say a word, she had pulled down her skirt and underwear and exposed herself. The girls were friendly\u2014at least to me. But there was a lot of tension and competition among the models. Snide comments about other girls&amp;#039; plastic surgeries were rampant. There was so much pressure to be perfect, one model had had 14 surgeries\u2014even her toes were straightened out!  The Real Deal Every month, I had to interview the centerfold for a Q&amp;amp;amp;A. I asked them about their hometowns, interests, and favorite sex positions. But I really wanted to ask &amp;quot;Why are you doing this?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;What do your parents think?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Don&amp;#039;t you want something more for yourself?&amp;quot; I wondered if they really got off on their &amp;quot;power over men.&amp;quot; I received an answer while chatting with one centerfold. &amp;quot;Some girls do it to get validation they never got growing up,&amp;quot; she said. &amp;quot;Others do it to express their confidence. Having guys salivate over you is flattering. And if you make it, you&amp;#039;re a star.&amp;quot; But stories from photographers told a harsher reality. Many models would be high or drunk at photo shoots. One male photo editor told me how depressed he was after his first girl-on- girl shoot because the models seemed so insecure when the cameras were off. But once the film started rolling, they&amp;#039;d turn on the &amp;quot;porn-star charm.&amp;quot;  Occupational Hazards One part of my job that remained a struggle was writing the text to accompany the photos. It had to tell a story, usually of two naked women engaged in sex. Since I am straight, I didn&amp;#039;t know where to begin. Then there were the effects of being surrounded by porn all day. One female staffer told me that she got turned on at work. I wasn&amp;#039;t immune either. I thought I&amp;#039;d get used to the visual stimulation, but I never did. In fact, my sex drive soared. People&amp;#039;s reactions to my job were varied. Some women were fascinated; some were disgusted. Men, no surprise, were very interested and would inevitably ask me out. I found it amusing that they assumed I embodied the sexiness of the magazine. After working there for about a year though, I quit. I was tired of being in a seedy, sex-saturated environment. And any influence I thought I had was as artificial as the pictures we published. I wish I had learned a positive lesson that disproved my previous judgments about the women who pose for these magazines, but I still think that they aren&amp;#039;t moving in a successful direction. They say that if they can make a good living while having fun, even if it&amp;#039;s short-lived, it&amp;#039;s worth it. To me, it wasn&amp;#039;t. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/confessions/a3185/confessions-of-a-porn-magazine-editor/?click=rel>