The Gray Lady Goes Blue: 'Times' A-Changin' for Porn Stars

NEW YORK—As Kayden Kross' deeply personal essay about her unconventional love life hits newsstands everywhere in today's edition of The New York Times, a distinct harbinger of a new age of legitimacy for porn stars would seem to be echoing across the cultural landscape. This marks the second time in the past six months (almost to the day) that the Times—arguably the most resepcted newspaper in the entire world—has published a piece by an active adult performer. The first, not so coincidentally enough, came on a Sunday in March from the pen of Kross' former Digital Playground contract sister Stoya ... whose editorial contribution concerned the brouhaha surrounding "Duke Porn Star" Belle Knox, who herself has between then and now had an op-ed of her own printed in no less esteemed a periodical than Time magazine. The cynic might be wont to suggest that such revered publications as The Gray Lady and Time giving space to the writings of women in the sex trade is a mere grasp for sensationalism wrought by the current dire straits of print media. But maybe ... just maybe ... it's a sign of more enlightened mores among the intelligentsia acknowledging once and for all that just because a woman has sex for a living does not mean she does not have two brain cells to rub together. Somebody at the Times certainly recognized just how many more brain cells than that Kross is working with; she told AVN that the paper reached out to her (through Stoya) after reading the blog she wrote last February (on her Unkrossed.com) about giving birth. "I scrolled through [the email] about eight times to make sure it wasn't a practical joke," Kross said of the first contact she received from the Times. After coming to grips with its being anything but, she wasted no time churning out the requested piece. "I didn't write it until after I had spoken with the editor and knew the paramaters," Kross related. "And I already knew the story, having lived it and such. I did turn in a piece about 1,000 words longer than what went to print, and then there was a good two weeks of back and forth on what to take out. In the end they were respectful of what I insisted on leaving in or out and didn't hold running it or not running it over my head to get their way. I really appreciated that part. I'm very happy with how it turned out." The Times presumably is as well: Since debuting on its website Friday, the essay has bolted to within the top 15 most viewed stories across the paper's online iteration ... something Kross' contact there told her "isn't easy." Stoya offered us a few thoughts of her own on Kross' following her footsteps into the hallowed Times pages: "I'm so fucking proud of her. I hope this trend continues until a current or former sex worker being printed by such a prestigious publication is commonplace and no longer newsworthy, but until then: congratulations to the fantastically talented Ms. Kross."