The 8 Most Overeducated Porn Stars
IT’S GREAT THAT PORN STARS HAVE AN EDUCATION AND SOMETHING TO FALL BACK ON LATER IN LIFE. On the other hand, it does create this odd disconnect to discover that somebody you’ve seen naked and boning on video is officially smarter than you. Which seems unfair, since they’re also better-paid, better-looking, and have more fun at their job.
Here are eight porn stars who actually have other career options. Although there are depressingly high numbers of education degrees in the mix.
8. T.J. Hart
Hart has been a multiple AVN Award nominee, including most recently Best Anal. However, she also happens to have a triple major from the University of Colorado: psychology, sociology, and art.
With a minor in early childhood education.
Oh, and in case you didn’t feel bad enough about yourself, she’s also an Olympic athlete. So, yes, she has not only achieved more than you, she’s had way more fun.
7. Shy Love
Shy Love has been in 250 porn movies, and she’s probably invested every dime responsibly because she has a freaking Master’s degree in Accounting. Also a second Master’s degree in Taxation. And once her student loans were paid off, she quit and became a financial comptroller. And a CPA by the age of 25.
We’re torn, because that makes her possibly the most boring person ever, the perfect stereotype of a nerd… and yet, she’s a porn star. So it’d make for a boring date with a great ending, maybe?
6. Nina Hartley
Hartley got into porn because she had bills to pay… for nursing school. She started stripping and discovered that strippers and porn stars had cleaner work and were better treated than nurses (which is pretty sad). Although considering one involves possible orgasms and the other involves cleaning up vomit, we’re assuming this was not the hardest choice Hartley has ever had to make. That didn’t stop her from becoming a registered nurse, and currently she’s a sex educator. Hey, she’s qualified in just about every way possible.
5. Ron Jeremy
Let’s muse for a second that a man with a Master’s degree in Special Education basically found being that creepy hairy guy in more porn than any other human being a better paying and more dignified job than working with special needs children. We’re not sure if it says more about the porn industry or the educational system.
4. A.J. Baily
Baily is in porn because, well, master’s degree’s from St. Andrew’s University in Museum Studies and Anthropology don’t pay for themselves (and we’re assuming they don’t really lead to well-paying careers anyway).
3. Lorelei Lee
Lee is currently juggling life as a gradaute student in NYU and life as a porn star. She’s going for her master’s in creative writing… and probably doing better than most of her classmates, having actual life experience to draw from. This doesn’t stop people from guffawing about how she’s getting a “liberal arts” degree, although we’d point out 99 percent of the people doing this couldn’t get into NYU to study Janitorial Services. So have some respect for the lady, folks.
2. Lexington Steele
Steele is basically porn’s go-to guy right now, but he also happens to have a double degree in history and African-American studies and he is also a licensed financial advisor. Before you ask, yes, porn is still more lucrative.
Porn also saved his life: Steele was a stockbroker and if he’d stayed in financial services, he probably would have been in the Twin Towers on 9/11.
1. Annie Sprinkle
Sprinkle tops the list because she got a PhD. To become a better porn star.
Sprinkle’s life is a bit complex, but she’s been working as a sex-positive feminist and trying to change the nature of the porn industry for years, including inventing entire genres of porn out of whole cloth; depending on who you ask, she invented gonzo porn and made feminist erotica mainstream. So as part of that, she’s gotten a BFA in photography and a doctorate in human sexuality in order to make better porn. Among other things.
Ms. Sprinkle, we salute your mission. In multiple ways.
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“The 8 Most Overeducated Porn Stars”
6:27 pm on January 11th, 2012
Don’t forget Kayden Kross (she seems to be a permanent student and you can tell from her blogs and tweets how smart she is) or Playboy’s Sabrina Maree who is now a porn star (She got a BS in History, I believe, and is going for psychology now)
9:50 pm on January 11th, 2012
I think it’s Asia Carrera who’s supposedly a member of MENSA
5:08 am on January 12th, 2012
I call BS on TJ Hart. According to the US Swimming 1988 Olympic Roster (http://www.usaswimming.org/_Rainbow/Documents/849d73fc-0d6b-427b-93f9-04a788481b6e/OLY%20Roster_1988.pdf), Hart’s real name of Amy Damkroger, nor hometown of De Kalb, Ill do not appear. So I figure if she lied about being an Oympian, she’s probably lying about the college majors/degrees.
12:06 am on January 14th, 2012
Dont forget Ela Darling: she has a Master’s degree in Library Science which she finished at age 21. She got into porn when she was a reference librarian and chose to take her career in a more orgasmic direction. Makes ya think twice about those bookish types.
11:57 am on March 16th, 2012
Feminist erotica? Are those the kind of videos where girls kick the guys in the stones as hard as they can?
6:18 pm on March 16th, 2012
Smart people like sex and money. Wow, whoda thunk it.
5:53 pm on March 17th, 2012
Bobbi Starr!
7:25 pm on March 18th, 2012
Annie Sprinkle got a PhD. To become a better porn star
1:57 pm on March 21st, 2012
I liked the write up on Shy Love, cause if you have ever seen her in action it seems like it would be hard to separate her education from the public perception and social label of her, um chosen profession-but very well balanced choices I think…especially the whole comptroller bit, very tech savvy…Patrick
1:37 pm on March 25th, 2012
I want to be porn actor would do anything anything please call 0522566746
11:37 pm on March 25th, 2012
“Porn also saved his life: Steele was a stockbroker and if he’d stayed in financial services, he probably would have been in the Twin Towers on 9/11.”
More than likely a trader would have been in the Twin Towers not a stockbroker. Traders tend to buy or sell securities based on the wishes of a portfolio manager (or managers) at an investment firm. Brokers tend to have direct contact with clients, either individual or institutional, and buy and sell securities based on those clients’ wishes. Nowadays you don’t even need a stockbroker because you purchase stock on-line w/o a broker.
Basically the stockbroker story is porn B.S.
“Hartley got into porn because she had bills to pay… for nursing school. She started stripping and discovered that strippers and porn stars had cleaner work and were better treated than nurses (which is pretty sad).” That is pure BULLSHIT.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the mean hourly wage for Registered Nurses was $31.99 in 2009, putting their annual salary at $66,530. States leading the nation for top earnings were New Jersey, Maryland, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and California, where annual mean salaries ranged from $75,000 to $85,000. NPs or CRNAs can make a 100k/year.
What you wrote above is pure porn spin Bullshit.
10:43 am on March 27th, 2012
Re. Loreli Lee: Many masters degree programs at NYU are not that difficult to get in to…. Believe me – I know as a graduate of one. NYU is WAY overrated.
12:09 pm on April 14th, 2012
Here I am with my high school diploma… Feeling like a chump.
1:31 pm on April 15th, 2012
Tera Patrick, also once a nurse, has a Masters degree in microbiology from University of California at Santa Barbara. UCSB is a hard school to get into and that is a particularly difficult subject area. She’s hella’ smart and waaay hot!
9:18 am on April 16th, 2012
What about Victoria Zdrok? She should definitely be #1 if it’s true that she earned a law degree and a Ph.D. in psychology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Zdrok
Definitely surprised by Shy Love though. Cite?
9:02 am on April 23rd, 2012
LOL. I never even heard or seen any of these people works.
7:19 pm on May 1st, 2012
This article, bleak as it is, says something about the current American educational system. Going into the erotic performance industry is an *actual* option that some people choose when figuring out how to pay their tuition bills, and that speaks volumes. I was a stripper for a year after I graduated with my BA (it was the only work I could find to fulfill the loan payments), I went down some of the wrong paths and ended up going back into “regular” work. Currently, I struggle to pay my bills and panic when my job is unstable. Truth by told, I admire the people on this list who were able to capitalize on the sex industry and use it to further their dreams. The porn performers I’ve met truly enjoy their porn job, and the money gives them freedom to pursue other things (if they want). It’s enviable, if not only admirable.
9:47 pm on June 10th, 2012
Don’t make fun of them
6:00 pm on July 9th, 2012
THIS ALONG WITH EBONY AYERS SWITCHING CAREER TO A FITNESS INSTRUCTER IS A SIGN OF CROSSOVER IN THE ADULT ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS. OTHERS INCLUDED SAMANTHA FOX AND HEATHER HEADLEY WHOM CROSSED OVER INTO THE MUSIC BUSINESS. THIS ARTICLE ON EDUCATION PUTS A LOT OF COMPETITION
ON MAINSTREAM EDUCATION.
12:50 am on December 1st, 2012
Just to correct the record, Lexington Steele certainly was a licensed stock broker after graduating from Syracuse Univ. He left finance after he himself was charged a huge amt. of money by his own brokerage because of some sort of error in the execution of a trade. I am not, as a New Yorker, aware of any retail brokerages as distinct from trading and other desks, that were located in the WTC-but if there were they’d have had to be in the huge basement retail area and people there had the quickest and easiest means of escape.
8:50 am on December 4th, 2012
How could you forget Asia Karera??? Or Kayden Kross! Or Stoya?? lol
9:20 am on February 21st, 2013
How follish all of them were . Yes ,, People adore them for turning themselves into product . But don’t we should forget the respect they would get if they were in real life ..
4:14 pm on February 21st, 2013
You know, I’m gonna go ahead and get my horn and call BULLSHIT. Most of these people found their way into porn through “exotic dancing” or high end prostitution. It’s a well worn line among all of them that they have a degree or are either working their way through college, when in fact they probably are in it to get the next fix or make it into the mainstream.
Im not saying that there arent any PS with degrees, but I am saying that they are few and far between.
11:52 pm on March 17th, 2013
Anthropology is actually quite sought after in the job market in relation to business intelligence. Businesses and governments alike want to see correlations between different races and different regions so that better planning can be established. Think about the Iraqi region and the US Government. Anthropologists are highly used, and their input is used in wide spread databases so that US Forces can compare Kurds, Shiite’s, and Sunni’s to find resolutions to conflicts, high risk targets, etc.
Don’t worry, I’ll be kicking classes all week.