Let’s face it, gang: Many of you have been reading this site since it launched in 2005. That means that, even if I started it when I was 14, I’d still be 23, long past my prime in the porn business. I’ve seen some things. When I interviewed the charming Dakota Skye for Gamelink’s Naked Truth the other day, I sensed a fleeting moment of Prufrocking, that feeling of unseemliness for a person of my age to be doing what I’m doing, and that I should wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled, etc. (Prufrocking is merely a feeling, however; its far more serious cousin is Murtaughing: to actually be too old for this shit.)
Skye is 20 and her winsome, sylphlike form greets us from dozens of porn boxcovers. In our interview she made it clear that, though her upbringing was different from mine — mother a stripper, stepfather a former brothel owner — we both had similar feelings about steak. I asked her to take some selfies because there’s no better way of knowing how someone wants the world to see her.
I was reminded of Brandon Iron’s wonderful/chilling series “She Is Half My Age” from 2007, in which the depraved Canadian and similarly superannuated porn dudes made the basis of the pairing the fact that, when their female partners were being born, these guys were already out of high school.
I am sailing into Cautionary Tale territory, I warned myself. Whatever you do, Grams, don’t start wearing your baseball cap to the side, breaking into a rap, or showing them the cowbell app on your iPhone 4.
Throughout the interview, Skye is both exuberant and introspective. You should read it. But was I this sure of myself when I was 20, smoking joints in front of the cable guy, wearing hoodies to the airport, eating Carl’s Jr.? I thought, “You’d be able to see why someone might max out his credit card and wreck his life for this person.”
Of course, Skye would never be a willing participant in someone wrecking his life over her. “Oh, this old thing?” she’d say, a la Violet Bick, “I only wear this when I don’t care how I look.”
Q. Grams, why are you being all #rapeculture and #notallmen and #woodyallen about this? Do you think men lack all agency and get nutty about 20-year-olds?
A. This is why I never open up to you. I can’t trust you with my feelings.
All I’m saying is that, if you watch a POV movie starring Dakota Skye, you can bet the production had to spring for Mouthbreather Insurance, as that is all you hear from the other side of the camera.
I, myself, view Skye with nothing but professional detachment and admiration for her work, as I am America’s Beloved Porn Journalist. My own relationships are with age-appropriate women in their 20s.
i love you