Jincey Lumpkin, Esq., is the Chief Sexy Officer of Juicy Pink Box, a company devoted to making porn for women who like women. The first venture of its kind, the films offer women a new option in a world of lesbian pornos filled with fake tits, fake hair, and fake orgasms made by and for men. We caught up with Lumpkin to chat about moving from fashion law to lesbian porn, challenging stereotypes, and what she thinks makes for a really hot porno.
Out: What are your first memories of porn?
Jincey Lumpkin: God [laughs]. Well, I grew up in the South — in Georgia — and I come from a really small of town of like 30,000 people, so I did not know one single out gay person, man or woman. This was in the pre-Ellen [DeGeneres] days, so I had absolutely no concept of lesbians what so ever. So, the very, very first thing was that I found porn videos in my house where my dad had hidden them in between the drawers in our media room. I learned more about lesbians, actually, from The Howard Stern Show.
So then how did you get started in the industry?
I came here to New York — I’m a lawyer by trade — to practice fashion law, and while I was building up my practice, I took a job doing banking litigation, just to build up clientele. It was crazy; we worked like 70 hours a week, but we did nothing for months on end — like 10 months. Nothing. No work. And I sat study hostel-style with about 30 other lawyers in a team and we just talked. Like, what can you do? You can only surf Facebook for so long. We would talk — I was single at the time, this is in 2008 — and they said, “Why don’t you start writing a sex blog?” I was already writing a blog about fashion law. So I did. I started writing this anonymous sex blog, and it was crazy. It took off really well. And I saw that it was so different from the fashion law blog, in terms of the interest that was there, so I started thinking, “OK, people really like to read about lesbian sex. How can I do this for a living?” I knew I always wanted to do videos, but I was a lawyer, I didn’t have any contacts in the adult industry whatsoever. So, basically, I thought about ways to bring the lesbian community together to talk about sex. So in the summer of 2008, I launched DigiRomp.com, a lesbian social network where women come to talk about their sexual experiences. And so from that I was able to aggregate everybody into one place, and then the porn stars came to me, because that’s where their fan base was. So I was able to network with all these authentic lesbian porn stars, who were coming mostly out of San Francisco, because they have the dyke porn movement there. I don’t like to call it that, because I don’t like the word “dyke,” but that’s what they call it. So from that, I was able to really start that dialog with them, and then in January 2009 I started preproduction on my first series. Actually, before that, in August 2008 is when I left the law. So I’m a full-time porno lady.
What is your least favorite part lesbian porn made by men, for men? Well, the fact that it’s made by men, first of all because, I mean, we’ve all seen it. It’s just — for years and years, there were really no options. You go to the porn store, everything looks the same, it’s mostly all women with huge tits and blonde, fake hair, long nails, and they’re fucking each other with purple, sparkly dildos, and that is obviously not how most of us have sex. So that was frustrating for me to want to watch porn and to be totally not aroused by that. And so in 2006, I think, is when the dyke porn movement started in San Francisco, and I bought Crash Pad Series, which was their first big film. I thought, Wow, all right. This is real women having sex with women who like to do it. These are lesbians, or whatever, however they label themselves. But at the same time, that was very unglamorous, in a way, and kind of not necessarily a lot of attention to the aesthetics of it. So I wanted to do something that was a good mix between the two of those. Something that was glamorous but also real lesbian sex. So that’s where Juicy Pink Box came together.
We’re forever hearing that women aren’t stimulated visually and therefore, they aren’t interested in porn. Well, that’s not true. That’s a myth. And recently, I think it comes from the fact that women have had a hard row to hoe. It’s gotten a lot better in the past couple of years, but I think the sexuality part of us was sort of denied for a long time. We were supposed to be sexual creatures but not talk about it. And so for a long time, we never even talked about masturbation, or anything like that. And I think shows like Sex and the City and The L Word helped to sort of bridge that gap. So now, we are much more comfortable talking about sex in public. It always went on kind of behind the men’s backs. Because women, that’s like the number one thing — they love to talk about sex. They love to talk about it, they love to read about it and they love to watch it, too. It’s just that they don’t necessarily like to watch the same kind of porn that men like to watch. They want to see something that isn’t just 20 minutes of straight vagina shots. They want to see something with foreplay, they want to see a connection. Now, a lot of people have said that women have to have a story, and I don’t believe that that’s true. Everybody that I know who watches porn just fast-forwards right to the sex scenes. So for Juicy Pink Box, that’s what we do. It’s like sex in a movie, but just the sex scene itself. Cinematic and classic, but just that five-, seven-, 10-minute long sex scene.
Right, you don’t need the pizza delivery woman ringing the doorbell.
[Laughs] The softball coach, totally.
What would you say to someone who tells you “No matter what kind of porn it is, it’s objectifying women.” I hear that all the time, actually. As far as porn objectifying women, I don’t believe that that’s true. First of all, there’ve been pornographic images since the beginning of time. There’s been prostitution since the beginning of time. We’re all here because somebody fucked somebody, so let’s not kid ourselves. I think it’s OK, you know, if the women are fine with it, that’s OK. I try to make sure that in my porn the women feel empowered, and I never make them do anything that they don’t want to do. They are there doing it because that’s what they like to do. They enjoy doing that for a living, they find fulfillment in that, and I feel like I’m giving this space to them for them to grab that power. Now, that said, I, for instance, don’t feel comfortable going in front of the camera like that. So I think each person has to reach their own comfort level, and I would never want to force somebody to do that. I think that that would be, if there were any sort of objectification, it would be forcing somebody to do something that they didn’t want to do.
What exactly is your role in the production of the films?
Well, I’m the Chief Sexy Officer of Juicy Pink Box, so I run everything day to day — I do everything that comes to the video series. For the first series, I did not direct, I just produced. But that pretty much means everything from casting everybody and hiring all the crew, to seeing it out even through post-production. I do 85% of the editing myself. I’m kind of like the Hugh Hefner of Juicy Pink Box. So, I’m not in front of the camera, I’m behind the scenes — I’m creating everything, I’m building all the concepts and I’m building the image that is Juicy Pink Box.
How has it been received so far?
Everybody loves it. We’ve had a real spurt in membership growth, especially lately. Everybody is really happy. I screened here at CineKink in New York, this kinky film festival, and so many women came up to me afterward and said, “Thank you so much for making something like this. This is the kind of porn that I’ve been wanting to see for a long time, but that nobody has made.” So that is a big success to me, when somebody can come to me and say exactly like the way that I felt. I mean, I really did this because, you know, I never saw out there what I wanted to see. So to be able to provide that for the market I want to provide it for is huge.
You’re engaged. How does your fiance feel about your job?
She’s great. She’s fantastic. I actually met her in that period of time when I was single, and I started writing the sex blog. So I had to have the discussion with her, on one of our early dates, that I was writing this blog. I didn’t feel comfortable going through that process and getting more serious and dating without being honest with her. So after a bottle of wine at dinner, I said, “So listen. I’m writing this sex blog, and I’m writing about you. So here, if you want to go and read it, read it.” And it was really hard for her, at first, to read about the sex that I had with other people, and I think that that’s difficult anytime that you’re dealing with that. Like, who wants to ever hear about that stuff? But, since that day, she really came to a decision that she was going to support me 100%, and she has. She’s there for me if I have a bad day, I cry on her shoulder. Like, she’s there for me in the happy times, when we want to celebrate. And she comes by the set. You know, she’s great. She’s my number 1 biggest supporter.
What do you think the biggest misconception about the porn industry is?
Well, that it has to be one specific way. That’s, really, is what I’m trying to do with my porn — to create this new niche. And, so, I would say to people, whatever you think lesbian porn is, it doesn’t have to be that. It doesn’t have to be these like big, fake nails and, like, nasty sex, it can be hot, and it can be sexy. And also, with that, what’s prevalent in sex is girl-on-girl stuff. So it’s like very feminine girls having sex with an even more feminine girl. In my stuff, I try to encompass a range of feminine beauty, from really feminine, to more butch, and kind of everything in between. But everyone is really hot, styled, and lit well. And, yeah, it can be sexy and it can still be real.
Lastly, what do you think makes a porno really hot?
Real attraction between the people. I can usually tell how the scene is going to be between the two people before they start shooting together. You learn these things on set. Sometimes the two will go away and kind of make out in a corner because we don’t have fluffers, obviously. So they’re going to fluff themselves. Sometimes they’ll do breathing exercise together. And you can tell when they’re — it’s like their eyes lock together, and you can see that real connection there. And when that’s there, you know that whatever happens, whether it’s more passionate love making or more, like, hardcore S&M-type fucking that it’s gonna be a good scene.
Originally published by Out Magazine on May 27, 2010
