Alana Evans, Porn Star, Discusses Motherhood, Parenting On Dr. Drew's HLN Show (VIDEO)

Porn stars are good mothers. That's what Alana Evans, an adult porn star, expressed when she appeared on Dr. Drew's HLN program on May 1.

The mother of one took questions from viewers and discussed what it's like to juggle motherhood and an x-rated career.

"Porn saved my life. It gave me a way to be with my son, to be with him every day after school," Evans said on the show. "It gave me enough to take care of myself to take care of him, to pay our bills without being on welfare and stay off public assistance."

Evans even came to the defense of "Octomom" Nadya Suleman, who shortly after filing bankruptcy, has reportedly signed on to star in a masturbation video for extra money.

"Any woman who's willing to do whatever she has to to take care of her children -- even if that means doing porn -- good for her," Evans said. "Other people may not agree with it, but ... in reality she is putting her kids first."

And Evans isn't the only parent to note the financial benefits the adult film industry has to offer.

Tyler and Berkley, a young couple who films sex sessions for money, began doing amateur porn to support their baby girl.

"I wanna be able to live a comfortable, happy life -- porn's giving it, so I'm gonna take it," Tyler said in a segment that aired on "Our America With Lisa Ling" in October.

Still, Shelley Lubben, a former prostitute and porn star, said kids never escape the stigma of the job.

"I was in denial that I hurt my child," she said on Dr. Drew's show, as she elaborated on issues her now 22-year-old daughter struggled through because of her job.

"She thought her mom was a big movie star, and she watched the video and goes, 'Oh my gosh. What's going on with my mom?'"

But sometimes taking a job in the adult entertainment industry isn't a matter of right and wrong.

When desperate times call for desperate measures, some parents turn to jobs they'd normally shy away from, just to make ends meet.

"Most sound a little embarrassed," Chris Durst, head of Ratracerebellion.com, told ABC's "Good Morning America" about moms who reach out for jobs in the phone sex industry.

"They say, 'I've tried everything. It's come to the point my family is on food stamps... This is the fastest way for me to get my family back on my feet again.'"

Nevertheless, the jury's still out on whether taking risque jobs to support a family is the right choice.

A February 2011 post on Cafe Mom asked users to weigh in on the question, "Are strippers 'bad' moms?"

"I think I would work 3 jobs of something else just to not strip. I would never want my child to know what I did," one user responded.

However, another user remained adamant against propagating stereotypes.

"I really hate these type of stereotypes...especially if you haven't walked in someones shoes. Choice of occupation has nothing to do on whether or not someone is a good mother or not," she said.

So, do porn and parenting mix? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Comments

[Nikole Reedd]

02:18 PM on 05/11/2012

In this economy I could see why mother's would resort to the phone sex industry. They should do phone sex instead of porn because at least your identity won't be known. http://www.easygirls.com

[Andrea in the City]

04:04 PM on 05/04/2012

Its anyone's right to provide for their family however they wish however a mother must think a little into the future. Its got to be awkward to a son to see a video of his mother in a gangbang or taking a facial...even worse when his friends see it.

[Kalzakath]

01:37 PM on 05/04/2012

Hey Mitt romney destroys lives to provide for his kids, the people from blackwater murder to provide for their kids, i find it extremely difficult to condemn a woman who sells her body as a bad parent. I wouldnt want to be in the room when she tries to tell her kids her job or why their friends are so fascinated with mommy though

[viciousvirago]

01:14 PM on 05/04/2012

The idea that I could have gone into porn because I refused to work at McDonald's or be a janitor because it didn't pay enough is no rationale for me.

Can you imagine the embarrassment these children feel when they're old enough and get teased unmercifully at school and everywhere else? What if their neighbor's father watches the mom next door do her 'thing' and blabs to the whole neighborhood.

I'm sorry but this is just disgusting. You wanna do porn, fine. But make sure it's years and years before you want to have children. What are you gonna tell them that mommy does for work? How are you gonna explain that sex with anyone is wrong, but mommy 'had' to do it.

Does not pass the test of good parenting.

[JamieS86]

02:46 PM on 05/04/2012

Realistically, what are the odds that the kids at school would find out? Maybe if the mom were a porn star, a big name on the DVD cover, but most people in porn remain obscure.
Even if the kids do find out, I remember a girl being teased because her mother was single and unemployed, another kid teased because her dad was the school janitor, the list goes on. That isn't a sufficient reason not to take the job. If the choice is between work that will keep you away from your kid at 12 hours a shift and still won't pay for him to be properly cared for, or work that will allow you to spend time with the child while paying for their needs, I don't see how you can say that's bad parenting.
As far as being an example for the child, I can think of several jobs off the top of my head that I would find much more difficult to justify morally. Guard on death row? Executive at a cigarette company? Owner of a company that uses foreign sweatshop labor? At least you aren't killing anyone when you do porn.
Finally, what do you mean "sex with anyone is wrong?" Based on what? We're talking about consenting adults, here.

[viciousvirago]

05:05 PM on 05/04/2012

I find it terribly interesting that the most replies I get are ALWAYS about sex. We are a sex-obsessed nation. We want it, but feel guilty when we get it. We have unspoken rules about it, especially when it comes to women and being homosexual and lesbian. Puritanical rules, no rules, special rules for women...the list goes on.

If my mother were a porn actress, I would be more than mortified. I would ask if I could live with a relative.

If there is nothing wrong with it, why do you have to go to special video stores to buy it. Why does NetFlix not carry hard core porn? We don't we sit the family down and watch together.

Guard on death row? What's wrong with that? Executive at a cigarette factory: is she forcing people so smoke?

And I was referring to a l2 year old asking why she cannot have sex with a boy since mommy does it with everyone except the dog..and that's another story.

I've always been against porn for various reasons, the primary of which is the 3 men to gang raped me for hours were stoked by watching nothing but porn for days. I'm lucky I didn't die.

[red derfed]

11:48 AM on 05/04/2012

If you have to resort to working in the porn industry then thats what you have to do, but I think it does say alot about the quality of the choices a persons made in their life.

[acarroll418]

09:13 AM on 05/04/2012

"I really hate these type of stereotypes...especially if you haven't walked in someones shoes. Choice of occupation has nothing to do on whether or not someone is a good mother or not," she said.
I completely agree with the woman who posted this comment in regards to the question "Are strippers 'bad' moms?" My mom was a waitress at a strip club before she had me and a little while after I was born and she was friends with some of the strippers. They did a great job parenting and were only doing the stripping because they needed the money to provide for their kids. Any woman who is willing to do anything so they can provide for their children are winners in my book.

[Fran Jaime]

12:04 AM on 05/05/2012

I actually watched Dr. Drew that night and thought that Alana was really centered. What I liked about her was that she said she had been really upfront with her son about it as soon as he was able to understand. She then said that when he was about 12 years old, older boys from the school's football team had asked him if his mother was a pron star and he said that she was. There was no further problem because she had prepared him for that day. the other woman, Shelley Lubben, said she hid it from her child and her child grew up thinking mom was a movie star (I wonder if she ever went to the movies), until the day she found one of her mother's tapes. IMO, that's why the child was so hurt, because of the lie. I've taught children whose mothers were prostitutes and the majority were very good moms who made it a point to stay informed on their kids' education.

[bluespagan]

08:40 AM on 05/04/2012

I think you do what you need to do in order to take care of your family. If you can make a good life for you and your family doing porn or stripping then more power to you. There is nothing wrong with sex, sexuality and consenting adults doing these things. And a job does not make a good parent.

P.S, listing Cafe Mom as a source for opinions was a bad choice lol. I frequent Cafe Mom and lets just say that there are some extremely judgemental and that forum is a great place to say things you wouldn't say IRL.

[chagea]

08:43 AM on 05/04/2012

So the ethic is to provide a living. What sort of living? Is making sure that your child has an XBox worth potentially contracting AIDS? Is it worth the shame that your child feels or the ridicule that they suffer? I guess this is the American way, money is king and nobody cares how you get it.

[bluespagan]

08:51 AM on 05/04/2012

You do realize that in a legal and regulated porn industry the use of protection and STD screenings are usually mandated.

As for the shame and ridicule your child will face, why do they need to know what mom and dad dofor a living? Once again, keep your family life and your work life seperate. And there is no shame in porn. Our country makes it an issue though because of the extreme puritanical views the people her hold.

[chagea]

08:40 AM on 05/04/2012

You have to be kidding me. Is this a question? A person commodifying themselves and objectifying themselves because they don't want to work or they want easy money, how could that ever be a good example for a child?
This has nothing to do with puritanical values (saying nothing of the fact that this industry is teeming with diseases--some of which may shorten the life of the parent). How can you teach your child to respect themselves when you have made yourself a pleasure toy for someone else? How can you tell your child that hard work will get you far, when your work is done on your back and the level of difficulty has to do with what position you choose? The problem is we want to make this false dichotomy between what we do and what we say, "Do as I say, and not as I do." A better question to ask is whether or not there is anything that a child can learn from having a parent working in the porn industry. We should be asking the parents to explain how they can instill values that run counter to their lifestyle choices. The burden of proof is on the porn star to prove that what they are doing can be innocuous, at best, to the child. It is for them to prove that this lifestyle is conducive to being a good parent--and simply meeting material needs does not count.

[JamieS86]

02:59 PM on 05/04/2012

Many porn performers do not see acting in porn as objectifying themselves or "making themselves into a pleasure toy." Look up interviews with Nina Hartley or Sasha Grey, they explain their choices in articulate and thoughtful ways and clearly do not see themselves as victims. We may not agree on a personal level (I certainly have no desire to do porn) but how can you pass moral judgment on something that harms no one and involves consenting adults? I cannot see how being in porn could possibly relate to parenting ability. I think it's pretty offensive for you to assume that porn performers have no work ethic. What is that statement based on? I will never understand how porn opponents start with "Porn is exploitative and objectifies women!" and end up with "Porn stars are lazy and immoral!" Which one is it? Because the logical inconsistency of those arguments looks to me as if this is about being personally uncomfortable with porn and needing to declare somehow that it is objectively wrong without any evidence.
As far as serving as an example for the child, by your logic we should not allow people to have children if they are unemployed, if they dropped out of college, if they are divorced, if they have made any questionable personal choices. So why is porn singled out?

[xgomazx]

07:56 AM on 05/04/2012

The sooner this country looses it puritan attitude about all things sexual the better.
How screwed up is our society where we glorify killing. And condemn sex?

Do porn and parenting work?
No less, nor more then being an inner city cop or combat vet.
Unless your bringing your kid into combat with you. On a bust on a dviolent drug dealer or onto the set.

What you do for a living is irrelevent to how well you raise your kids. Im sure she isnt the only porn star who has had kids. Yet I coudnt tell you the last time I hear a news story of "John Soinso, son of porn star Lucious Lips" is being arraigned today on charges of..

[xgomazx]

08:03 AM on 05/04/2012

In fact. Just did a google search of "child of porn star"
and Children of porn stars"

Results turned out to be less then interesting. Quite boring actually. Literally nothing
So how bad could it have been for them?

[dlp7202]

06:08 AM on 05/04/2012

Children grow up, and they will know. Kids do not understand.

[xgomazx]

08:07 AM on 05/04/2012

Kids are far more understanding and resilient then we give them credit for

[Rubicks]

08:25 AM on 05/04/2012

"One must be very carefully taught to hate." It's a pity that some parents have to teach their children to be judgmental because they grow up to be so, or worse, sometimes. And the cycle continues instead of ending with a good and tolerant person who will teach their children to be so.

[oldwolf49]

05:23 AM on 05/04/2012

It's porn, get over it. Been around for ever and won't go away. Quit damning others for doing something and accept, it's the christian thing to do.

[BlackbirdHighway]

05:19 AM on 05/04/2012

Well, it's better than a career that involves a gun and a ski mask.

[ratpusscan]

11:43 PM on 05/03/2012

I just hope her kids don't ever get to see her films...

[chef2beart46]

09:54 PM on 05/03/2012

I can't say that these women are bad parents because I don't know them personally (None of you do) but I'm a little concerned as to how these children are going to react when they're older. How all of this is going to affect their lives once they are in junior high or high school. I say take the money you've made now and put it toward an education for a career they can be proud of.

[Fran Jaime]

12:11 AM on 05/05/2012

Alana's kids know. She said in the interview that she had explained it to them as soon as they were old enough to understand. She also commented that her son, when he was 12 was asked if she was a porn star by other students and he said yes. That was it. No problems.

[Genesis2012]

07:15 PM on 05/03/2012

In response to Michael Whiteacre:
'The process of filming and distributing pornography is considered protected speech, under the Supreme Court's First Amendment precedents. However, the First Amendment does not insulate the commission of crime from prosecution just because someone with a camera records the crime and intends to sell that recording to customers.

In keeping with this portrayal, one could reasonably characterize pornography as the payment of prostitutes for having sex in front of a camera. Though the film itself might be protected by the First Amendment, it could constitute evidence of paid-for sexual encounters -- that is, evidence of prostitution -- if a statute were designed to extend to that sort of prostitution."

[Michael Whiteacre]

07:40 PM on 05/03/2012

California, New Hampshire and New York have already adjudicated the issue -- prostitution and pandering laws may NOT be used for this purpose. The issue has never been adjudicated in other jurisdictions, although the reasoning of California's Freeman case has been widely cited. In my view, based on the case law, in states with liberal speech protection in their state constitutions (such as Oregon, Arizona, and others) the interpretation would be the same, or virtually the same.

[KDog76A]

08:25 PM on 05/03/2012

You must be what they refer to as a Hobbyist.