The line which separates the world of pornography and the social mainstream is real. It always will be so as long as their are laws to protect children. That line, thanks to shows like "Family Business" is not becoming fuzzier - its becoming clearer.
A show like this doesn't "legitimize" the porn business any more than the internet does. Viewers do that. Since the internet caused porn to explode into mainstream consciousness so thoroughly, it's difficult to remember what it felt like to be scandalized about it. Therefore, it's smart and perfectly appropriate that this series document the progress of this shift public in awareness and a small part of it's impact by allowing cable viewers (whose porn fluency has become so much more engorged, so to speak) to gaze at it from another angle.
Showtime has made a bold move in trying to de-mystify some of the the mechanism within the sex industry by unveiling the rather charming personality of a successful porn film director. What I found most interesting, apart from the fascinating nature of the business and those toiling within it, was my own ambivalent response to the series and its subject.
One is forced to re-examine the tired clichés which have been the stock apprehensions about porn. The misgivings may still be legitimate, but they need to be thought through more carefully. This show is important as these issues are brought into the front of the mind. Adults, and parents particularly, should be equipped with genuine and complex answers about sexuality for children; the world has become so very much more complicated over the last six years.
I particularly appreciated an episode wherein a family friend from Canada who wished to enter the industry was disuaded by everyone. (A statement made by Lila Glasser that men can easily maintain public respect that is generally denied to women within that business was delivered with great, understated pathos). The young girl in question exemplified an important difference between girls who enter that business because they like sex and think that it'll be fun, and those other girls who are compelled into the business by motives which are more profound and intense than simply a love of sex. They both say the same thing yet the difference is clear to those like Mr.Glasser who have seen hundreds of girls enter the business.
(I am curious to know how Mr.Glasser's young son will be brought to understand the nature of his father's metier. Relationship, attachment and connection are important for youngsters; the sexual playacting staged by Daddy have the surface sheen of those things but in truth, have nothing to do with relationships in any meaningful sense.)
While it has the patina of a reality show or a docu-drama, the nature of the topic and the (mostly) bias free presentation lend "Family Business" a more complex and layered message. By appearing so pleasantly inoffensive and unconfrontational, it effectively reframes the question to the viewer: where do you stand on the subject of commercial sexuality?
