Cheers to N.Y. Times reporter Sharon Waxman for writing one of the nerviest (let alone unusual) pieces I’ve ever read in this very staunchly establishment newspaper, renowned for its rigorous prose style and well-deserved reputation for being libidinally restrained (to say the least), if not disinterested altogether. Waxman has certainly sidestepped that attitude in the 12.31 edition by taking a look at “The Graying of Naughty” — i.e., how a new type of porn film starring older, grayer and saggier performers is broadening the market.

“The mature-woman genre,” Waxman writes, “represents one of the fastest growing areas of video pornography, say leading distributors and retailers, and next month it will be inaugurated as a category at the AVN Awards, the Oscars of the skin trade.” Porn film director Urbano Martin tells Waxman that the market for beautiful, airbrushed young women “is oversaturated…this is [about] more normal people, more meat on the bone, like what you have at home.”
The focus of Waxman’s piece is a fairly attractive 50 year-old sex actress named De’Bella, and the somewhat mindblowing element — for a Times reporter, I mean — is that Waxman apparently stood nearby and took notes as De’Bella and her 54 year-old “performing partner” Rod Fontana did the mambo nasty.
“‘What’s the premise on this one?’ Fontana asks De’Bella before starting. ‘Pizza boy?’
“Whatever,” Waxman writes. “Within a few unscripted minutes they’re mostly unclothed, panting and moaning for the camera, engaged in sexual contortions and obviously unbothered by visiting onlookers.”