Tori Black

The AVN award this year for female performer of the year went to Tori Black, and after carefully studying her work for the past few weeks I agree wholeheartedly. She's one of a new breed of performers, who are both beautiful, uninhibited, and business savvy--her name is trademarked.

Back when I wrote adult film reviews I used the phrase "too beautiful for porn," because I'm old enough to remember that women in the adult industry were usually moderately attractive, but if they were too attractive a person would wonder just what the hell they were doing in this line of work, which was known for being the province of drug addicts and mobsters. That kind of thinking is old hat, though, as women, who are attractive enough to be other types of models have chosen to to adult work, either to satisfy their own sexual urges or for financial reasons, or both. To me, that's the feminist ideal--a woman has choices, and as long as she makes them not out of desperation, it's all good.

Black is a willowy five-foot-nine, and has the air of a tomboy about her. In some of her scenes she gets dolled up in all manner of exotic lingerie (in her interactive DVD she wears angel's wings) but she's the kind of gal who looks best in a t-shirt and cut-off jeans, or better yet, nothing at all. She also looks best with minimum makeup, that allows her large dark brown eyes to dominate her lovely face. She could be a fashion model, but in an interview scoffs at the idea, saying she likes eating too much, and doesn't want to purge what she has consumed.

From a small town outside of Seattle, Black is 21 years old and, par for the course, already has over a hundred films to her credit. I took a look at a handful, including the aforementioned "interactive" DVD, in which she plays to the camera, allowing the viewer to imagine himself the recipient of her talents, and Tori Black Is Pretty Filthy, in which Black stars in all the scenes and in between relates her biography and her philosophy about things. Both of these DVDs won their respective categories at the AVN Awards, and deservedly so. The latter was directed in glossy, high-art fashion by Mason, and is one of the better lit pornos I've seen in a while. Black, effusive and friendly, and showing off her pets cats, expresses an almost goofy charm, and gets emotional imagining that there are some women who die without ever having an orgasm.