Though Howie Gordon walked up to the front of the room making a bold fashion statement ““ a UCLA jersey paired with USC shorts ““ he was there to discuss something possibly even more sensitive ““ life in the adult-film industry.
“Say it with me: “˜It is OK for me to experience sexual pleasure,'” he said, introducing his personal philosophy to a classroom of students.
Gordon, who is better known in the pornography industry as Richard Pacheco, spoke on campus Thursday about his life as an adult-film star, which began in 1976 and ended in the mid-1980s.
Now he gives lectures at colleges about his life in the business, works as a freelance writer, and markets his book, “Hindsight,” to publishers.
Invited to speak in communication studies Professor Mark Huppin’s class on the evolution of mass-media images, Gordon talked about HIV/AIDS in the adult-film industry and gave advice on sexuality in today’s society.
Gordon said his career began in 1976 after he responded to an advertisement in the San Francisco Chronicle for a casting call for an adult film. He said he wanted to “have sex with an X-rated lady” and figured it would be a good topic for his writing career.
At the audition, he was dismissed along with the rest of the men, but was called back a few days later and offered a part in the movie. He said he accepted, and that his then-girlfriend, who later became his wife, was supportive and helped him get ready for the first audition.
On the set, Gordon received $200 for one scene in which he performed oral sex. He compared this to the day before, when he had earned $5 an hour to break up cement blocks and decided that adult films were the life for him.
He said while growing up, “nobody ever said it was OK to experience sexual pleasure,” and that he did not believe in the conservative values of adults around him.
“We are all (screwed) up about sex. Way more than we need to be,” he said.
Before beginning his speech, Gordon wrote its overall theme on the board: “When sex is accepted and celebrated for the goodie that it is and can be in this life, it takes on a much less obsessive place than when it is denied, vilified or repressed.”
Students in the class said they were very impressed with Gordon’s speech and his forward way of dealing with the sensitive material.
Chelsea Cooper, a second-year sociology student, said she appreciated Gordon’s perspective on the industry.
“Porn is normally presented as something hidden or bad, something “˜over there’. Here it was presented in an upfront, frank way,” she said.
Gordon described his view of human sexuality as something beautiful and worthy of embrace.
“Sexuality is a rose, but it has thorns,” he said.
Those thorns include HIV/AIDS. After a front-page article in The Chronicle in 1984 declared the risks of HIV/AIDS for heterosexuals, Gordon said he decided to retire from the adult-film industry.
“I would tell (someone entering the porn industry now) to be careful. A culture that entrusts its sexuality to amateurs and morons deserves what they get,” he said.
But Gordon did say one of the most challenging aspects of his career was finding a way to tell his kids.
When she was 12 years old, his daughter Juliana Gordon found something unusual in a family photo album: Gordon’s Playgirl Man of the Year 1979 spread.
“Dad, is this you?” she asked.
“Yes. I wouldn’t tell your younger sister,” he responded.
Gordon also brought two of his children to the speech ““ Polly, a USC graduate, and Bobby, a third-year world arts and cultures student.
Polly found out about her father’s career a few years after Juliana.
When the phone rang for “˜Richard Pacheco,’ she said she was supposed to give the phone to her dad, but was only told that he “made grown-up movies.” After some prodding, she discovered that sex was the “grown-up” aspect of her dad’s film career.
Though Gordon has not been on the set of an adult film since the mid-1980s, he shared some of his thoughts on the current industry and how it has evolved.
He said if he could change the porn industry today, he would “bring wit and intelligence to it ““ not just the rage.”
“The art we produce is a function of who we are,” Gordon said, “Back (when I was part of the industry), acting mattered. Now, there’s no plot.”
Gordon said his proudest work includes the movie “Talk Dirty to Me” about a mentally disabled boy who experiences sex for the first time, though he added that he does not think “a good porn movie has ever been made.”
Overall, Gordon said he considers his time in the porn industry a positive experience.
“I enjoyed being able to portray sex as something not worthy of scorn,” he said.