National Average Weight:
Men- 194.7 lbs Women- 164.7 lbs
Average Porn Star Weight:
Men- 167.5 lbs Women- 117 lbs
Average Height:
Men- 5’10”
Women- 5’5”
Black: 22.5%
Brown: 39.1%
Blonde: 32.7%
Red: 5.3%
Female: 70 percent
Male: 30 percent
*The sample did not include any performers that existed outside of the gender binary.
Caucasian: 70.5%
Black: 14%
Latin: 9.3%
Asian: 5.2%
Other: 1%
I have an experiment for you. Close your eyes and imagine the average porn star. Note gender, hair color and any other physical attributes. Do you think you have a clear picture of him or her? Chances are, your assumptions may be wrong, and because they are likely to be wrong, there is a value to be learned here.
Jon Millward, a self-proclaimed ideas detective and writer, published to his blog a look at a study he conducted on porn stars and how they are perceived. Called “Deep Inside: A Study of 10,000 Porn Stars and Their Careers,” the study involves analyses of biographical and occupational details gathered from the Internet Adult Film Database, a resource with the records of 120,000 films and 115,000 performers.
While the statistics do not point to the perceived stereotype of an adult industry performer, they do disturbingly point to an image that is unhealthy for the collective consciousness.
So, how would the average porn performer look? She’s average height at 5’5”, but 48 pounds under the national weight average for U.S. women, weighing in at only 117 pounds. Her measurements are 34B-24-34, which immediately breaks the assumption that a porn star would have double D breasts.
Though the average porn performer represents 70 percent of the market, her male counterpart makes up the other 30 percent of the market. He and stands at 5’10” and weighs 167.5 lbs. The most common names in the industry and the names of this couple are Nikki Lee and David Lee. Because Nikki Lee makes up the vast majority of the market, she will be the assumed porn star unless otherwise noted.
Another shocking detail comes from her hair. Nikki Lee would have brown hair, as 39 percent of porn stars are brunettes and only 32 percent are blonde. Nikki Lee would probably be Caucasian, the race of 70.5 percent of porn stars. Both she and David Lee are from California, and she started her adult film career at 22 years old, while David Lee did at 24. She will appear in 19 films and he will do 16 films.
While Nikki Lee does not meet expectations when it comes to hair and breast size because she isn’t a blonde with a huge chest, we have to ask two things: How did we get this image in our heads of the idealized, objectified woman? And how does Nikki Lee reflect the social attitudes that go into an objectifying industry?
Nikki Lee’s measurements reflect society’s pressures on body image more so than the assumed image of a porn star because in her weight and bust we see the results of an image of beauty held in many other industries like advertising and modeling. These same driving forces lead to eating disorders and low self-image in our sisters, daughters and selves. Her hair and height are simply a true reflection of the society she is from as both lean to the average for U.S. citizens.
One prominently disappointing conclusion comes from her racial profile. Because Nikki Lee is the end result of a society’s collective fantasies, her lack of ethnic diversity shows how limited we are in imagination. She shows that in this outlet of safe deviation from the norm, the drive toward an unflinching conformity — one that does not see variety as an option — still exists. If there is no room in the porn industry for racial diversity, then there is no room for other kinds of diversity. That is a sad notion indeed.
