Nina Hartley
American pornographic actress (born 1959) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marie Louise Hartman (born March 11, 1959), known professionally as Nina Hartley,[1][2][3] is an American pornographic film actress and sex educator.[5][6] By 2017 she had appeared in more than one thousand adult films.[7] She has been described by Las Vegas Weekly as an "outspoken feminist" and "advocate for sexual freedom",[8] and by CNBC as "a legend in the adult world".[9]
Nina Hartley | |
|---|---|
Hartley at the AVN Awards, 2013 | |
| Born | March 11, 1959[4] Berkeley, California, U.S.[5] |
| Other names |
|
| Education | Berkeley High School San Francisco State University (BSN) |
| Spouses | unnamed
(m. 1986; div. 2003)Ira Levine (m. 2003) |
| Mother | Blanche Hartman |
| Relatives | Marge Frantz (aunt) Joseph Gelders (grandfather) Emma Gelders Sterne (great aunt) |
| Website | nina |
Early life and education
Hartley was born on March 11, 1959,[4] in Berkeley, California,[5] to a Lutheran father, Louis Hartman, and a Jewish mother, Blanche Hartman (née Gelders).[10][time needed] Her grandfather was a University of Alabama physics professor who was a Communist Party USA (CPUSA) party member in the 1930s.[11] Hartley's parents were members of the CPUSA[10][time needed] who converted to Buddhism when she was young.[12] Her father was blacklisted in 1957 for his communist beliefs.[13]
Hartley grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area,[14][15] and as a teenager self-identified as a feminist, influenced by the slogan "my body, my rules".[5][16][8] After graduating from Berkeley High School in 1977, she attended San Francisco State University's undergraduate nursing school and graduated magna cum laude in 1985,[11][14][17] receiving a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.[1] She was a registered nurse[18][12] until her license expired in 1986.[19]
Adult film career
Summarize
Perspective
Hartley sought a career in pornography as a way to make a living by having sex,[5] later telling Las Vegas Weekly, "Porn gave me easy access to women without having to date them or have a relationship."[8] She writes that part of her reason for choosing sex work was to be able to indulge her exhibitionistic and voyeuristic streak.[20] She has said she chose her life's work when she saw the 1976 erotic film The Autobiography of a Flea alone at a theater in San Francisco.[21][10][time needed]
In 1982, during her sophomore year of nursing school, Hartley started working as a stripper at the Sutter Cinema and then the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre.[22][15] She told an interviewer that she chose the name "Nina" because it was easy for Japanese tourists to say during the time she was a dancer in San Francisco, and "Hartley" because it was close to her own last name, and she "wanted a name that sounded like that of a real person."[15]
Her pornographic film debut was in Educating Nina (1984),[5][23] where she was cast and directed by fellow performer Juliet Anderson.[22][24][25] For many years, she toured the United States and Canada as a stripper and made personal appearances at sex shops.[26][27] In 2013 she described her father's reaction upon learning about her occupation:
He asked, 'Why sex? Why not the violin?' I know now that I'm sexual the way that Mozart was musical [...] a life of public sexuality has, from my very first time on stage, been as natural to me as breathing."[16]
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Hartley starred in several of the Debbie Does Dallas film series spin-offs such as Debbie Duz Dishes (1986) and Debbie Does Wall Street (1991).[26] In 1992, she directed her first movie, Nina Hartley's Book of Love.[28] She also produced and starred in a series of sex education videos for Adam & Eve.[29] In 1994, she began her line of instructional videos marketed under the Nina Hartley's Guide brand.[27]
She played the part of Hillary Clinton in the 2008 satirical pornographic film Who's Nailin' Paylin?,[13] with Lisa Ann in the role of Sarah Palin.[30] As of 2015[update], she was still actively performing,[22] and by 2017 had appeared in more than one thousand pornographic films.[7] She has been described by the San Francisco Chronicle as "one of the best-known actresses in the industry"[24] and by CNBC as "a legend in the adult world".[9]
Mainstream media appearances
Hartley acted in the 1996 Canadian film Bubbles Galore[31] and has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show.[9] In the 1997 film Boogie Nights, she played William H. Macy's character's serially unfaithful wife who is murdered.[14][27] She later remarked, "The only movie I ever died in for having sex was a mainstream movie."[14]
Hartley has appeared in several documentary films: she was interviewed in The Naked Feminist (2003)[32][33] was featured in After Porn Ends (2012), and appears in Sticky: A (Self) Love Story (2016),[34] in which she discusses masturbation with regards to education, the forced resignation of Joycelyn Elders, and her opinions on the blackballing of comedian Paul Reubens after his arrest for masturbating in a public theater.[citation needed]
Activism
Summarize
Perspective
Las Vegas Weekly has described Hartley as an "outspoken feminist, sex educator and advocate for sexual freedom" and "a guiding force for a generation of feminist porn stars".[5][8] She has described herself both as a "classical liberal feminist"[35][36] and a democratic socialist.[13] Hartley began engaging in feminist activism in the 1980s.[37] She has said:
Based on my experience as a woman and a sexual being, and my understanding that I had the right to decide for myself what to do with my life – that’s what I understood to be feminist, to give everybody choices – I didn’t choose to be a mother but I chose this [porn] because it suits me.[38]
Hartley has also been involved in socialist activism[39] and has also been affiliated with the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee (APAC), a labor union founded in 2014 for pornographic film actors.[13]
Hartley was elected to the board of the Free Speech Coalition in 1995,[40] and is a long-time board member of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation (founded in 2003).[41] She has made frequent appearances at academic conferences, workshops, and in the media to promote sex positivity.[42] She has given lectures at Dartmouth College, Harvard University, and the University of California.[3][41]
Writing
In 2006, Hartley co-authored Nina Hartley's Guide to Total Sex with her husband Ira Levine. The book includes sections on sex toys, swinging, threesomes, dominance and submission, and erotic spanking.[14] Library Journal called the book a "well-written guide" that is "strong on both safe sex and a permissive approach", saying Hartley "handles the material frankly, accurately, and with sensitivity".[14]
Personal life
Hartley is a self-described bisexual, swinger, and exhibitionist.[8][11][43] She married her first husband, a former Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) leader,[11] in a three-way marriage with a second woman in 1986.[22] She describes the relationship as a "very unhappy marriage" to "someone who was not a good candidate for mating with a sex worker".[44]
Following her divorce in 2003,[22] Hartley married Ira Levine, known professionally as Ernest Greene,[44] a director of bondage films and editor of Hustler's Taboo magazine, with whom she had had a secret relationship in the 1980s.[45] They are openly polyamorous.[44][45] As of 2014, the couple lives in Los Angeles.[45]
Publications
- Hartley, Nina (1993). "Reflections of a Feminist Porn Star". Porn in the USA. Gauntlet: Exploring the Limits of Free Expression. Vol. 5. Springfield, Penn.: Gauntlet Inc. pp. 62–68. ISBN 978-0-9629-6594-4.
- —————— (1994). "Confessions of a Feminist Porno Star". In Jaggar, Alison M. (ed.). Living With Contradictions: Controversies In Feminist Social Ethics. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press. pp. 176–178. ISBN 978-0-8133-1775-5.
- —————— (1997). "In the Flesh: A Porn Star's Journey". In Nagle, Jill (ed.). Whores and Other Feminists. New York: Routledge. pp. 57–65. ISBN 978-0-4159-1822-0.
- With Levine, I. S. (2006). Nina Hartley's Guide to Total Sex. New York: Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-58333-263-4.
- With Morpheous (2012). How to Be Kinkier: More Adventures in Adult Playtime. San Francisco, Calif.: Green Candy Press. ISBN 978-1-9311-6094-0.
- Hartley, Nina (2013). "Porn: An Effective Vehicle for Sexual Role Modeling and Education". In Taormino, Tristan; et al. (eds.). The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure. New York: The Feminist Press. pp. 228–236. ISBN 978-1-5586-1818-3.
- —————— (2015). "Culture Clash". In Lee, Jiz (ed.). Coming Out Like a Porn Star: Essays on Pornography, Protection, and Privacy. Berkeley, Calif.: ThreeL Media. pp. 255–256. ISBN 978-0-9905571-6-6.
Awards
Summarize
Perspective
AVN Awards
Hartley has received eight Adult Video News Awards,[2] including:
| Category | Video/Film |
|---|---|
| 1986 Best Couples Sex Scene - Film | Ten Little Maidens |
| 1987 Best Actress - Video | Debbie Duz Dishes[46] |
| 1989 Best Supporting Actress - Film | Portrait of an Affair[47] |
| 1989 Best Couples Sex Scene - Film | Amanda By Night II[46] |
| 1989 Best Couples Sex Scene - Video | Sensual Escape[47] |
| 1991 Best Supporting Actress - Video | The Last X-Rated Movie[48] |
| 2000 Best Group Sex Scene - Video | Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women[49] |
| 2005 Best Specialty Tape - BDSM | Nina Hartley's Private Sessions 13[50] |
| 2005 Best Specialty Tape | Spanking for Nina Hartley's Guide to Spanking[50] |
| 2009 Best Non-Sex Performance | Not Bewitched XXX[51] |
| AVN Hall of Fame[52] | |
XRCO Awards
Hartley has won a number of XRCO Awards:
| Year | Category | Video/Film |
|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Best Couple Sex Scene | Ball Busters[53] |
| 1987 | Best Couple Sex Scene | Peeping Tom[53] |
| 1987 | Torrid Triad Scene | Every Woman Has a Fantasy 2[53] |
| 1989 | Female Performer of the Year[53] | – |
| 1990 | Best Supporting Actress | My Bare Lady[53] |
| 1990 | Best Girl-Girl Scene | Sorority Pink[53] |
| 1996 | Hall of Fame[54] | |
| 2000 | Best Group Scene | Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women[55] |
Other awards
| Year | Organization | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Free Speech Coalition | Lifetime Achievement Award[56] |
| 1990 | FOXE | Female Fan Favorite[57] |
| 1991 | FOXE | Female Fan Favorite[57] |
| 1992 | FOXE | Female Fan Favorite[57] |
| 1994 | Legends of Erotica | Hall of Fame[58] |
| 1996 | Hot d'Or | Lifetime Achievement Award[59] |
| 2005 | AEBN VOD Award | Lifetime Achievement Award[60] |
| 2006 | Ninfa Public | Lifetime Career Award[61] |
| 2014 | Exxxotica Fan Choice Awards | Fanny Lifetime Achievement Award[62] |
| 2019 | XBIZ Award | Best Non-Sex Acting Performance (Future Darkly: Artifamily)[63] |
| 2020 | XBIZ Award | Best Non-Sex Acting Performance (Girls of Wrestling)[64] |
See also
References
Further reading
External links
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