It's a sad announcement, and one that sucks on many levels (which, of course, I'll get into down below). And I guess it's especially sad for me because of my personal connection to the company. You see, years ago, when I was in college, and Fleshbot was but a twinkle in a pervert's eye, I worked as an intern for Nerve.

I applied to be a Nerve intern in the summer of 2002. I was on the verge of entering into my senior year of college, and though there were many things I was still unsure of, there was one thing I knew for sure: I wanted to get an internship some place cool. Specifically, some place doing interesting work around the field of sex and sexuality. Nerve was a perfect fit for me.

What I loved about Nerve—a website devoted to "alternative stimulation" and "literate smut"—was the intelligence that it brought to the topic of sex. Through a range of essays, Nerve touched on topics deemed too shocking for most media outlets, discussing them in a thoughtful, highbrow way. I loved it.

And then, of course, there were the pictures, which solidified Nerve's commitment to destigmatizing sexuality. It's (relatively) easy to write about sex and still distance yourself from the arena of "smut" or (gasp!) porn; bringing naked pictures into the mix makes it harder to defend yourself against charges that your project is about more than simple titillation. But Nerve braved that barrier, unafraid to showcase the work of erotic artists like Clayton Cubitt, Autumn Sonnichsen, and Chase Lisbon—and, what's more, to showcase sometimes unabashedly sexual photography alongside thought provoking essays, treating them with the same level of respect.

But those days are now over, it seems: apparently, showing is more shocking than telling, and Nerve must now do away with its naughtier bits and fall in step with the rest of the media. And it's truly sad to see Nerve attempt to conform to a model "that's a lot better for more conservative companies," to shift the nudity to something "occasional and relatively incidental." Dare we say it? It feels like we're witnessing the tragic fall of one of our allies in whatever war this is that we're waging on the American attitude toward sex.

It's a sad day for smart sex on the web. We can only hope that somewhere out there, there's another brave soul willing to pick up the baton that Nerve has dropped.

· Nerve.com Hires New CEO, And New Plans To Downplay Nudity (businessweek.com, via Gawker)
· Photos from "Nerve: The First Ten Years"

In a recent blog post, the lovely Ms. Flores took an adult industry magazine to task for publishing a demeaning, offensive article on the BBW porn genre. We won't reprint the gross statements included in the article (far better to read them alongside April's commentary), but we did want to give her props for her closing paragraph:

The reason I am so upset is because I have met so many amazing plus sized women in the industry. They are proud, hard working, sexual, smart, business minded women. My fabulous peers and I deserve the same respect given to the thinner women written about in the magazine. Being a plus sized girl in this industry takes strength, courage and nerve. This article could've been pretty effective, groundbreaking even, but instead the writer took it as his opportunity to let us all know how much he does not enjoy bigger women. Aside from BBW porn being a means for fat lovers to jack off to, it's also very important in helping other curvy girls in becoming comfortable with being sexual and expressing their sexuality. I can not explain in words how wonderful it feels to read an email or meet a woman in real life who THANKS me for being out there representing fat girls. I've heard many women's struggles with feeling beautiful and desired. They tell me how seeing women who look like them makes them feel better about their bodies. In my world THIS is the respect fat girls get in real life and THIS is the respect I give all my plus sized sisters.

Sing it, sister!

· Heifers, Bovines, and Baconators (fattyd.com)
· Photo by Mr. Cooper (flickr.com)

We doubt that Jenni Perez meant to raise the ire of the lovely Ms. Grey while penning a sex column for her college newspaper, the Daily Nexus. But Jenni Perez should have known better than to slander the name of Sasha Grey. In a column titled "Fake Orgasms Facilitate No Fun," she likened Sasha's performances to an eighteen year old faking orgasm; a few weeks later, she made a snide remark about Sasha when discussing her distaste for swallowing semen. But Jenni Perez apparently underestimated Sasha Grey.

To make a long story short: upon learning about the articles, which had made their way around the blogs, Sasha decided to fight back, penning a letter to the editor that ran in yesterday's edition of the Daily Nexus. Some highlights:

I am neither ashamed or reluctant to admit what I do is performance art... This resonates two of my primary objectives in the adult business... one: challenge the idea of what women are supposed to like or be like in bed, and two: most of the porn I used to watch was boring and I wanted to make it more fulfilling for myself and viewers. These statements were made in order to challenge the one dimensional, romanticized Hollywood-idealized perception of "couples friendly sex".

I am a very sexually healthy young woman and I take pride in the liberation of female sexuality, I have a cause, I am determined, and I am a hard worker (pun intended). As a sex symbol, with an intellectual stance, I am and will continue to be vilified, and I am ok with that…in fact I am content; it gives me the opportunity to shed the light on the darker areas of sex and validate the insecurities of sexually repressed women. The days of victimized, disturbed porn stars (and civilian women) are fading away… I am the new breed.

If this whole "porn blogging" thing doesn't work out for us, we're strongly considering submitting an application to be head priest in Sasha Grey's Church of Sashatology . Do you think we could get paid for that?

· Sasha Grey Speaks Out (dailynexus.com)
· Fake Orgasms Facilitate No Fun (dailynexus.com)
· Drink It Up or Spit It Out: The Fellator's Dilemma (dailynexus.com)
· Porn Star Talks Sex, Fetishes and Pushing the Envelope aka My Opinion Editorial (myspace.com)
· Photo by Richard Kern (newnudecash.com)

Of course, we'd be hard pressed to say that we get Sasha ourselves: she's a pretty unique person—and not just because she's a pornstar with a brain (we know quite a few of those, actually). But we suspect that any attempt to categorize her into any tried and true story lines will ultimately fail: if there's one thing we're fairly certain of, it's that Sasha is anything but ordinary.

The reigning theory seems to be that Sasha is attempting to parlay her porno stardom into a more mainstream (and therefore "legit") kind of fame—hence the music videos, the indie film projects, and, of course, the Soderbergh film—and that, perhaps, this was her plan all along. After all, didn't she draw comparisons to Jenna Jameson very early in her career—Jenna Jameson, the crossover star who now clings so desperately to her mainstream identity, rejecting her porno past with every opportunity?

Except we have a hard time imagining a girl with hopes of mainstream stardom launching her career with titles like "Slut Puppies 2" and "Fuck Slaves." You don't do the kind of porn that Sasha does because you want to be a Hollywood star: you do it because you want to make porn, because you don't care what having "Slam It! In A Slut!" on your resume does to your credibility.

So then, what are we to make of Sasha's mainstream stardom? Is it an accidental by product of her porno fame? Probably not: she seems far too smart to "accidentally" wind up in a Soderbergh film. If anything, we suspect that Sasha is attempting to remake the notion of what a mainstream star is, and does—much the way she's remade any notions of what an 18-year-old pornstar looks and sounds like.

We can't even pretend that we know what Sasha's grand plan is, or if she even has one. But if the Soderbergh film is a success, it seems that there are a few likely outcomes. Sasha could very well go the way of Jenna Jameson, abandoning her porn roots for a shot at mainstream fame; though whether she'd ever break out of the sex worker pigeonhole and move beyond roles as a stripper, prostitute, or other sexy girl is difficult to tell. On the other hand, it's also possible that Sasha could rise to fame in the mainstream cinema while continuing to work as an adult star—perhaps completely remaking our notions of what it means to have crossover appeal.

It's probably not that hard to guess which outcome we're hoping for. How it all turns out, of course—well, only time will tell.

· Steven Soderbergh Looks To Porn Star Sasha Grey For ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ (moviesblog.mtv.com)
· Soderbergh casts porn star as lead in The Girlfriend Experience (guardian.co.uk)
· Porn star cast in Soderbergh film (variety.com)
· Thumbnail from nsgalleries.com via Ask Jolene

Of course, by "porn culture" what he really means is "sex"—which is not the same thing although they are obviously linked—and he is correct that our world is more open about than it has ever been. Yet, it many ways our culture is more prudish and alarmist than it has ever been. There is a battle going on, but it's not the one he thinks it is. It's a battle between the natural desires that people feel and express everyday and those who want to suppress those desires and keep them out of the public sphere at all cost. Sooner or later, those people will lose.

Humans are sexual beings and nothing will ever change that. Their interest in porn is not a perversion or addiction, it's simply an outlet for what they already desire. In fact, "porn addicts" are not addicted to pictures and videos—they are addicted to the ideas those things represent. (Or they're "addicted" to masturbation, which is the same as being addicted to eating or sleeping.) A couple that has sex twice a day would never be accused of being addicted to each other.

Is sex becoming too pervasive? Perhaps. There's a place for sex within our public lives, in the same way that there's a place for it within our private ones and where that place belongs is a debate worth having. You see it in the arguments over Max Hardcore, as even staunch freedom of speech warriors find it difficult to stand up for something that personally disgusts them. Should a father have to explain to his children what that Viagra ad means while watching TV? No, probably not. But should he also ignore it, try to push it under the rug, and pretend that sexuality doesn't exist? That seems even less helpful.

What I object to most are media outlets that use porn for attention and ratings, while simultaneously wagging their finger at it. They employ salacious headlines and blurry images, and a knowing wink to tell half the viewers that they're on their side (sex is wrong and dangerous) while letting the other half in on the joke—they're loving it too. We're all into it, but we aren't allowed to admit it out loud. We can all hunt across the internet for a Britney Spears sex tape, but can't talk about that tape in polite company ... even though all of your neighbors have already downloaded it. It can only be discussed as an ironic joke or with a snide remark and never with the respect deserving of something so meaningful to so many lives.

There's no way any of this will get solved with a book or a few blog posts, but here's hoping that we can at least be a little more honest and open with each other—and with ourselves. I never set out to become a porn writer, but in the time I've been doing this I've learned a lot about sex and media and how important both are to people's lives. I hope they can learn to get along.

In any case, this will be my last post at Fleshbot. After two-and-half years in the porn mines, it's time for me to move on to something new, but this experience has certainly been a memorable one. This site and this company gave me a chance at a time when I really needed one and I'm grateful for all that opportunity has led to. Thank you to all the readers who came here every day and gave us a reason to keep writing. I know that Lux will continue the tradition that's been established over the last five years—respect for the performers and the audience combined with a spirit of adventure and fun. There is not another site like this one anywhere on the web and I'm thankful that I got to be a part of that.

· Lewis Black's Root of All Evil (more video @ comedycentral.com)