i think the proliferation of "pornstars" is mostly driven by the market ... and the market demands more and more harder core hardcore! (not to mention "fresh meat")

Vivid contract girls probably wouldn't let themselves be spat on, choked and double-anal'ed by "Fat Fuck Tattooed Trolls"(TM) crazed on testosterone

i mean, think of Max Hardcore's niche market and its "market demands" ... and the steady supply of 18-yr-old girls that step off the bus at Hollywood & Vine looking to be a "pornstar" (or just make rent) ... these girls make up your rank-n-file "T-shirt & jeans" pornstars ... plus, some guys get off on seeing "the girl next door" defiled in a gang bang!

i read an article a while back about how the social taboo of being a pornstar is eroding, even in mid-America, with more young middle-class teenage girls thinking that being a pornstar is "cool" (or at least a legitimate way to make fash cash)

frankly, i'm all for it ... variety is the spice of life!

A real pornstar is one that has a contract with any of the biggest distributors of adult entertainment (Vivid, Wicked, Digital Playground, Jill Kelly Productions, etc.).  Any person that appears in amateur porn distributed by a company no one has heard of is not a real pornstar.

I agree with you 100%.  I'm amazed at the number of girls holding themselves out to be pornstars who did a couple scenes where it looks like they came right off the streets and started blowing.  There are local massage girls who look a lot hotter than some of the so called porn girls out there.

The majority of these women are just women doing porn but hardly pornstars...I'm old school going back to when the late Rene Bond was at the top...only a few in the late 70's/early 80's..Annette Haven, Leslie Bovee, Jennifer Welles, Taija Rae, then came the Vivid girls...wow..Ginger Lynn, Barbara Dare, Hyapatia Lee...my
personal favs were Savannah, Racquel Darrian, Alicyn Sterling,
KC Williams, Carol Cummings, Victoria Paris, and Cheri Taylor...
but there were so many other women...Dyanna Lauren, Jamie Summers,
Nikki Charm, Candie Evans, Dierdre Holland, Heather Hunter..et al

The way I see it there are porn chicks, porn actresses and Porn Stars.

A porn chick just does a few dozen or so gonzo vids. She may or may not be on the box cover but even if she is its only gonzo and thus forgettable. Some may move on to the next level but most just disappear within a year or so.

A porn actress has appeared in gonzos and may in fact still do them but she is also known for feature work usually as a second tier performer for the biggies like Vivid or as the lead for lesser companies. But at at least a third to half of her vid work is features. She'll always be on the box cover for her gonzos and often for her feature work as well. A good porn actress will usually be in the busines for several years.

A Porn Star is rarely seen in gonzos but is in dozens of comps. She works primarily in features and is frequently a contract girl for one of the majors. She always looks good even when "dressed down" for a shoot. She's always on the box cover of everything she does and is almost always alone on the cover unless paired with another Porn Star. She has often been in the industry for years having worked her way up like Anna Malle did, but sometimes a neo can rocket to the top and stay there as did Jenna Jameson. In a business designed to use up women, a Porn Star has the beauty, talent and starpower to write her own ticket.

Maybe if the "porn actress" entry in the search engine were change from "yes/no" to something using this kind of sliding scale it would get rid of some of the problem.

Just my $0.02

Well, market saturation is a fact of life in our globalized age. There were once a shortage of computer geeks, but now they're unemployed because there are so many other geeks in India and China who work for far less; a licence in the traditional professions was also a ticket to make good money, but that isn't true anymore.

The same is happening in porn - with the money, especially after the 60 Minutes program last year glorifying the industry, lots of people are flocking to it looking for glamor and cash. But don't worry, Eddie, the market will correct itself, and many of these so-called porn stars will drop out and find other work, as waitresses, housewives, or plain escorts. That's the way it apparently happens in Hollywood, and that's the way it happens in porn. Which will leave the Seka's and Brianna's and the other quality ones around.

This is an issue that has frustrated me for some time.  When you search for porn stars on TER a lot of providers that are not in the porn industry.  My suggestion would be that for a reviewer to qualify a provider as a "porn star" the reviewer link a web site that shows something that evidences movies the porn star has made.  I don't think that to qualify the star needs to have shot a movie with one of the major studios.  Entry level shoots like Hustler's Barely Legal, Dirty Debutantes, etc. are adequate entry into the business and I would surmise that providers of that level may be more affordable than the name stars.  An example is Gabriella of www.vip-companions.com who did a film for Hustler.  Where to draw the line is the question.  I don't think a provider whose byfriend shoots an amatuer porno should qualify, but should more organized amatuer shoots?  

Also remember that all of the pornstars from the 80's and early 90's were released on VHS with limited distribution. You had to go to a porn theatre or sex shop to buy videos, or choose from a small selection at your neighborhood rental store. Today with DVD's and the Internet it's easy to explore and shop from home so everything is much more available. And the movies and their stars are much less exclusive. Yes, I think gonzo girls can become "stars" e.g. Jenna Haze, Shyla Stylez, Monica Sweetheart ...but they are certainly the exception.

It isn't just the porn stars who've gotten to be "too many"... the regular provider pool has skyrocketed but with less than stellar looking women.

I got into this hobby for the reasons you described... the fantasy of screwing a hotter than hell, body to die for, willing to do anything babe.  Now the internet has become saturated with providers who are either plain or average looking at best.  I know this will start a flame war, but I feel insulted at the number of average looking providers popping up each day expecting guys to pay them.

I credit you Fast Eddie for saying what many of us are thinking. You can get away with it, if I said it... oooh would there ever be responses by hot-headed ladies!