LOS ANGELES — Adult performer and UCLA student Tasha Reign addressed a Psychology 101 class at UCLA on Monday, participating in a panel also including veteran performer Nina Hartley.
An estimated 30 undergraduate and graduate students attended the class, along with UCLA Speech and Communications Studies chair Dr. Neil Malamuth, himself a researcher in Sexually Explicit Media.
Reign said students lingered 30 minutes after class formally ended, asking questions and taking photos.
"This was my first paid speaking gig, and I'm glad I could do it in an academic setting, especially here at my own school," Reign said.
She added, "If you ask me, the hardest thing about working in the adult industry isn't the industry itself, it's the stigma you have to deal with when you are outside of the industry. I don't know if we changed any minds, but at least I told them my own experiences, instead of those friend-of-a-friend, secondhand rumors that can turn up whenever people get together."
The course curriculum has included viewing "The Price of Pleasure," a 2008 documentary about the adult industry and its effect on viewers; reviews of studies of exposure to pornography to men and the effect on their attitudes on a variety of subjects; and readings by sex-positive feminists including Wendy McElroy and anti-porn activist Robert Jensen, the course professor David Frederick, Ph.D. noted.
"Nearly everyone thought Playboy should be legal," Frederick said, reflecting an informal survey of the class. "Most thought hardcore porn should be legal, most thought 'gangbang' scenes should be illegal — though I think maybe a bunch of them thought 'gangbang' meant 'simulated rape.'"
Reign has been attending UCLA while working as a perfromer, dancer in gentlemen's clubs and doing nude modeling. She started performing on-camera in 2010 and has appeared in more than 50 adult video productions.
The starlet recently gained notoriety when a photo of her with former President Bill Clinton and adult performer Brooklyn Lee at a fundraiser in Monaco went viral.
