A Field Guide To Madison Montag

If you read this (awesome) Salon article about the treatment of transsexual pornstars--or if, you know, you ask your transsexual pornstar friends--you'll learn that many T-girl performers felt pushed aside by the AVN Awards. It's been a long bunch of weeks since Las Vegas, but we figured it's never too late to give some love to the transgirl community by taking a close look at one of our favorite performers, Madison Montag.

Madison Montag was born on April 25, 1992 in Texas (some say Austin, others say elsewhere to the west). Although she spent her childhood as a boy, Madison says she was always interested in exploring her feminine side: in elementary school, that meant playing with Barbies and rummaging through her mother's jewelry, and in high school, she began cross dressing. She thought she was a homosexual male up until she was seventeen when she graduated early from school, began taking college courses, and learned about transsexuals in a psychology class. Madison describes what happened next:

I was kind of like emancipated from the horrible high school I went to. I got my braces off, wore more makeup, dressed more feminine, grew out my hair, and got hair extensions. I still denied I was transgendered. Most my teen years I battled depression and anxiety and I think mostly because I wasn't happy with myself at the end of the day. Washing off my makeup and seeing that I still was a boy wasn't enough for me. I dropped out of college my second semester and started seeing a psychiatrist who finally made me realize that I in fact was transgendered. I was 18 at the time and very scared. I can't get a normal job in my town for me being who I am which is why I chose to do porn so I could start saving money for my transition.

As far as her transition is going, she started taking testosterone blockers after she turned nineteen. However, Madison notes, "I don't need tons of plastic surgery or a shitload of hormones to look like a girl. The only thing girls in this biz have on me is boobs and I can care less, because I'm younger and my lack of breasts sells with my current image. Just know when I do get a boob job, heads will roll!"

She entered the adult industry through a friend of hers (now her personal assistant) connected with Grooby. She then did a big photoshoot for Shemale Yum which got the attention of Devil's Film, and then her popularity quickly started snowballing.

Madison has yet to win any awards for her work, but the industry definitely has an eye on her. She was nominated for Best Up & Cummer at the Tranny Awards, and was also in the running for Transsexual Performer of the Year at the 2012 AVN Awards. However, the latter nomination caused some controversy in the T-girl community. Brittany St. Jordan (as well as a number of other transsexual pornstars) felt that Madison shouldn't have been included in the category, and around the end of January, Brittany wrote a letter to AVN in which she described the ways AVN had disrespected and marginalized the transsexual genre and the people who make it run. Madison Montag is mentioned quite often in the text. For example...

From the moment the nominations for the TS categories came out there was a large portion of people wondering how Madison Montag was nominated. She is known in the TS world as being difficult to work with, unappealing and not well received by fans. For these very reasons she has had very little work this past year and was rumored that she announced she was retiring from adult entertainment after only being around for a little over a year.

The letter goes on to say how she suspects Madison got her nomination thanks to a certain large sponsor of the AVN Awards who was also hyping her with a booth and large banner at the Adult Entertainment Expo. Madison's responded with a brief statement:

to the woman who wrote the FALSE post about me, you are so wrong and don't even know me. she just has no class and it was a low blow to single me out when i clearly had done nothing personally to her. but she's entitled to her opinion so she can keep running her mouth. i know who i am and i know the truth. that's all that matters. i'm taking the high road and leaving it at that

Anyway, we're not taking a stance on the issue, we just thought it was interesting. You know what else is interesting? Madison's relationship with her family! Let's travel back in time for a moment, shall we?

It's never easy to tell your folks that you're transgendered, and Madison comes from a strict conservative Catholic family headed up by a father who spent time in the Army, so she was terrified to tell them the truth. However, she says her parents were very accepting of who she is--especially her mother, who generously bought Madison makeup and girls' clothing in high school.

It was much harder for Madison's parents to deal with their daughter's career, and to this day, they still wish she'd quit porn and return to college. Still, they support their daughter however they can:

I mean my daddy pays for my plane tickets and my mom pays for my pornstar clothes, HAHA! My mom is one of my biggest fans in some strange way. She will ask me on a daily basis "Oh how are your fans liking your new set at Shemale Club?" and stuff like that. She was so happy for me when I got my FIRST boxcover of my FIRST DVD/Hardcore, "Transsexual Babysitters 14"! She has an autographed copy in her room on her dresser, no joke! So I have it really made when it comes to my family. My siblings are like "don't ask, don't tell!" Although my older brother has been a fan of porn for years and hopes I can hook him up with Shyla Stylez, haha!

What can we expect from Madison Montag next? Lord only knows! She's expressed interest in getting bigger boobs, having sex with women on camera (though she has yet to do it off camera), and a bunch of other stuff. Regardless of what she does, it seems like things are looking up for Madison.

Want to learn more about Madison Montag? Check out:
· Madison's Blog (madisonmontagblog.com)
· Her official Facebook page (facebook.com)
· Her Twitter (twitter.com)
· Her YouTube photo journal, In the Life of Madison Montag (youtube.com)
· An interview with Scottie Heartz via A! Entertainment (tonybatman.com)
· Her interview with X Critic (xcritic.com)
· Three interviews (over a long period of time) by Caramel's T-Girls (caramelstgirls.com)
· The Salon article about transgender pornstars: Porn's taboo transsexual stars (salon.com)
· And you can see her in Reality Junkies' "American Tranny" (store.fleshbot.com)

[At top: Madison will blow your bubble, too, via Shemale Yum (shemaleyum.com)]