SAN DIEGO (TNA) – I’ve gotten to know a few porn stars over the past year and, you know what, they’re pretty down to earth. The one thing that chaps me, though, is when they refer to everyone outside the porn industry as “civilians.”

Come on. It’s not as though porn stars represent some sort of elite fraternity that protects our nation from its enemies. … It’s not as though Puma Swede and Nikki Benz are going to take a bullet for the rest of us,… or Sasha Grey is going to pounce on a grenade at AVN, … or Kurt Lockwood and ChristianXXX patrol the streets of Chatsworth, Calif., at night.

Merriam-Webster defines civilian as “one not on active duty in the armed services or not on a police or firefighting force.” That definition works for me, which means that nobody should refer to anyone as a civilian unless they actually protect people for a living. And I’d add that they also have to wear a uniform.

Last I checked, porn stars don’t protect us from much – except for, perhaps, bachelor sperm-buildup and fraternity-lounge boredom – so why do they use the word?

I called up a few to find out. As luck would have it, the first performer I got a hold of was Nina Hartley, a 24-year veteran of porn and the doyenne of female talent.

“Well, I think the word ‘civilian’ is entirely appropriate and descriptive,” said Hartley. “We have our own lingo, lifestyle, social structure, hierarchy, and manner. Normally, when I meet a woman on the street, I’m not allowed to touch her ass.”

“Ahh,” I replied. “But aside from ‘civilian,’ is there any other word you use to describe people who don’t do porn?”

She thought for a moment.

“Well, if a [porn actress] is referring to a guy, and depending on how much she’s had to drink, she may say ‘mark.’”

I was a ‘mark’ one time in the Mayfair section of London. Trust me, I prefer the word “civilian.” But she got me to thinking: What word works better than ‘civilian’?

A few hours later, Bobbi Starr, star of Naughty Office and Ass Parade, called.

“First off, I don’t use the word,” Starr began. “’To me, a ‘civilian’ is anyone who’s not in the military.”

“Thank you,” I said, smiling as I held the phone.

“Using the word leads people to believe that there’s a corollary between porn stars and the military,” Bobbi continued, “as though we’re a tight circle involved in a dangerous activity.”

“Couldn’t agree more! … And what would you call a non-porn person?”

“I’d just call ‘em a ‘non-porn person.’”

Brill, as the Brits would say. But before I could hang up, she wanted to leave me with an anecdote: Last week, she went on a date with a non-porn person and was forced to tell him that she was a pornographic actress. Days later, among industry friends, she recounted her confession, and referred to the man as a “civilian.”

“Ah, I see” I muttered, grimacing.

“Well, I took someone outside the circle and brought them into the circle,” she explained. “In that instance, the word ‘civilian’ was completely appropriate.”

Argh.

Next, I reached Amber Peach, who said that she uses “civilian” because it’s, well, just plain easier to use than any other word out there. She also offered the most cogent analysis of the word to date.

“In porn, ‘civilian’ is a loose definition,” she stated. “But generally, it’s anyone who’s been on a set and wasn’t visiting or watching,… and someone who’s been tested.”

As with other performers, she added that people outside the porn industry just don’t understand the life of a performer.

“Someone who’s a civilian wouldn’t understand when I say, ‘My ass hurts,’” she elucidated.

These porn stars seemed a bit biased toward the use of “civilian” in the porn industry, so to find objectivity, I sought comment from that utterly detached subset of the porn community: the porn journalist.

After e-mailing Gram Ponante, “America’s Most Beloved Porn Journalist,” he promptly e-mailed me back.

“I feel about porn people calling non-porn people ‘civilians’ the way I feel about cops calling non-cops ‘perps,’” he wrote. “It seems reflexively exclusionary, hinting that anyone not ticketing jaywalkers or dodging Chlamydia for a living COULDN'T POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND.”

I had a vague sense that he didn’t approve of the usage, but that his responsibility as a member of porn’s Fifth Estate prevented him from saying what he really thought.

Searching for true dissent, I contact a few military acquaintances. But to my dismay, they didn’t give a crap whether porn stars use the term “civilian” or not.

“They use the word the same way we do,” shrugged David, a Marine Corp Senior Drill Sergeant at Camp Pendleton. “They look at people and say, ‘They’re not us.’”

He then pointed out the similarity between porn stars and marines: “We shoot people. They get shot. It’s essentially the same.”

Matt, who enlisted in the Navy and now works in the porn industry, concurred.

“People constantly get judged in the porn industry or the military,” he explained. “The public thinks they’re stupid.”

It seems that no one, except – and this is going out on a limb here – Gram Ponante feel the way I do over the porn industry using the term “civilian.”

I ask, where is the outrage! Where is the diction in porn these days! And I ask, as Jasmine Tame did when she called, “Where did the term come from? Did the government create it?”

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