Z

Porn star Pinky's father has been locked up since she was 17. In prison he watches whatever he can get his hands on, and he's a big fan of another p*rn star, Cherokee. When his own daughter shows up in the same orgy scene, he just fast-forwards to someone else. She was supposed to be the one who made it. A scholarship to a special high school in Minnesota, violin, ballet, a shelf of awards. Everyone knew she was going to college. She didn't, and after years of recitals her mom had one rule: "Tell me first. I don't want to know from somebody in the street." So before she shot a single scene, Pinky sat her mom down and laid out the whole plan. She'd do it independently, sell her own DVDs in the club, build a website, then shoot for other companies and blow up. Her mom kept repeating the same thing: "I don't want to hear it." Then she convinced herself, and Pinky's grandmother, that her daughter wasn't doing p*rn at all. She was just "taking nasty pictures." That lasted until Pinky started showing up in magazines and in the little ads in the back. People kept mentioning her name. Her mom couldn't believe she was that popular, and Pinky says she still doesn't understand how popular. Now it's "my baby, my baby." Telling her father was worse. She says it was hard enough admitting she danced at the club, and people from San Francisco had already told him. With p*rn, she was "really embarrassed." "That's embarrassing that my father sees me f*cking on film," she says. "But it is what it is." His answer came from a prison fire camp. "I love you," he told her. As long as she's protecting herself, as long as it's what she wants and nobody's making her do it. He still has 4 years left. He might get out early for good behavior. Half the internet calls it the most supportive dad in America. The other half says no father should ever be in that position. Almost nobody talks about the fact that he's not skipping her scenes out of shame. He's skipping them because he still has to watch. She was the kid who got the scholarship. Her dad watches her career from a prison cell, one fast-forward at a time. Was Pinky a grown woman who built a business on her own terms, or a girl who never stopped performing for a family that was never in the room?