When my fiancé and I graduated from college, times were tough. There wasn't a single employer that was hiring. For a while I waited tables as we struggled to pay basic bills. After putting in hundreds of applications, I finally received an invitation for an interview from a company called QJ Productions.
I had never heard of this company before so prior to the interview I did some research. The first startling thing I discovered was that QJ Productions was a company that was involved in the porn industry and maintained several pornographic websites. Fearing I may have fell for some sort of scam, I called the person who I set the interview with and she assured me that the position they were looking to fill was a business management related position and although the company was involved in pornography, the job would in no way relate to filming / creating pornography. She said that QJ Productions serves as a middle man and does not create its own content.
When I was in college, I never would have even considered working for anything related to the pornography industry. I have always considered myself a feminist and I felt that pornography was disgusting and degrading to women. However, the reality was that I badly needed work and this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up.
I discussed the position with my fiancé. He was concerned that it was a scam and they would try to pressure me into appearing in films. I had to explain to him that it was a strictly business position. After I explained this to him and showed him the job description, he was supportive but warned me to watch out for "anything creepy" during the interview.
On the day of the interview, I dressed in my most formal clothing and drove to the address I was provided. As I gripped the steering wheel and navigated through traffic, I noticed my hands were trembling slightly. I was nervous and did not know what to expect. When I arrived at the address, I was pleasantly surprised to see the place that I was interviewing at was a nice glass office building. I turned off the engine to the car, took a deep breath, and headed for the entrance.
I walked inside and looked around. The office was pristine and very clean looking. There were doors leading to the left and right and a c-shaped desk manned by a young woman working as a receptionist. I approached her slowly and in a tone of voice as polite as I could muster, I reached out to her, "Good morning, I am here for the 10:00 interview."
The young women looked at me with a beaming smile that showed confidence. "Hello, I'm Becky," she said. "You must be Judith. Ms. Belcher will be right with you." She directed my attention to two black leather couches across from her desk.
I sat down and waited nervously. Eventually I was directed to an officer to my right. When I opened the door and stepped inside I was surprised to see such a large, swanky office. There was artwork all over the office of the avant garde variety and the office was lush with expensive looking plants. As alluring as the décor was, it was ultimately overshadowed by the large and, once again, pristine looking desk in the center of the room. Behind the desk stood an attractive older woman in a yellow designed suit with platinum blond hair.
"You must be Judith," the woman said as she walked from behind her desk and extended her hand in my direction. "My name is Charlotte Belcher and I am the owner of QJ Productions. I'm looking forward to interviewing you," Ms. Belcher spoke authoritatively as she looked me over.
"Hello," I said as I took a hold of her hand and shook it. I noticed her grip was very firm and confident. "You have such a nice office. I am very excited about this opportunity..."
"Have a seat," Ms. Belcher cut me off as she went back and sat down at her own desk. "I am surprised such a young attractive girl such as yourself is interested in working for my company."
I could feel a lump form in the back of my throat. "Well," I said. "Honestly, I never expected to work somewhere involved in... uhm... adult entertainment."
Ms. Belcher nodded her head at me. "When I first started out, the only women I know who worked in this industry were the performers," Ms. Belcher explained. "Now don't get me wrong, I know some adult actresses that are great business women and who are very wealthy, but I could never imagine exposing myself in a dirty movie for the pleasure of a bunch of skeezy men. That being said, starting this company and leading it as a strong woman, I have done very well for myself and shown that women can be just as a competent on the business side of things, perhaps even superior to men."
"I can tell you have done well... just by looking at your office," I responded respectfully. "I am new to this whole... adult thing but I have studied business and I... would certainly appreciate the chance to learn from someone experienced..."
"I like that you are eager to learn," Ms. Belcher responded warmly. "And I will tell you that what is most important in this position is business skills. You will at times need to be a saleswoman. We do not film anything ourselves. I have always had little interest in being involved in the production side of things. So everything we sell to our customers, we buy from someone else. This is a clean, professional position although we do sell pornography so you can't be too squeamish about these sorts of things. I also saw on your resume that you have experience with computers which is one of the reasons I chose you for an interview."
"I do have some experience working IT..." I explained. "I know how to maintain a website, I did that for my school."
"Excellent," Ms. Belcher stated enthusiastically. "One more thing," she said. "As I have proven, it is absolutely possible for a woman to succeed and even prosper in this industry. But there are parts of this industry that still operate like an old boy's club and there are men out there who will try to push you around. If you listen to what I say and call people out whenever they cross the line, you will be fine. I am just warning you; you will need to grow some thick skin. If you are smart, you can use this to your advantage."
"You seem to know a whole lot Ms. Belcher," I responded as I looked into her eyes with great interest. My voice was tinged with a hint of emotion as I felt I was finally close to officially being offered a real job.
"By the way dear," Ms. Belcher began. "Are you married?"
"Well," I stammered. "I am engaged to be married, so... sort of. I mean, I have a fiancé named Kyle."
"Oh," Ms. Belcher responded with a hint of disappointment in her voice. "You seemed like the type of young women who would not be tied down by a man. Well, I expect you will be spending a lot of hours here working, sometimes on the weekend so I hope that will not be a problem."
"Oh no," I said emphatically. "I am very eager to start my career, Ms. Belcher. Whatever you need, I will do it."
"Fantastic," Ms. Belcher responded. "You start tomorrow."
The next day I officially started working for QJ Productions. For the first few months, Ms. Belcher provided me a lot of smaller projects to work on. There were a few other girls employed at the office with the same job title as me but it seems like we all ended up working various miscellaneous projects. The hours were long but I was happy to finally have a paycheck. Still, I wasn't living as comfortably as I would have liked. My fiancé still was struggling to find work and we both had school debts to pay. Things did not improve until I received my first big break.
It had been a few months since I started working at QJ Productions and I was sitting at my neatly organized cubicle. I was reading emails when my office phone rang. When I picked up the receiver, I heard Ms. Belcher's voice inviting me into her office. I put the phone down and promptly walked down the hall and into the office I had interviewed at.
"Good morning Judith, my you look lovely today," Ms. Belcher spoke to me as she admired me with her eyes. I was dressed in a formal outfit befitting a professional, conservatively dressed woman. I had been trying to dress more and more like Ms. Belcher as she had become somewhat of a mentor to me. It was not easy to do on a shoe string budget.
