LOS ANGELES – I learned several things in reading a recent Glamour article about the unfortunate demise of the BBW Performer of the Year AVN Award – including the fact there’s such a thing as a “prestigious” porn awards show, apparently.
More importantly, I learned if you want to have an AVN award category for any given porn genre, the content must be distributed on DVD.
“The BBW Performer of the Year category [was eliminated] due to a continuing decline in DVD content featuring BBW performers,” AVN stated on its website, according to the Glamour piece.
As requirements for award-consideration go, this one is a real head-scratcher for me. It seems both unduly rigid and completely out of step with the times.
Compare this with the Emmys, ostensibly a television-related award, for which a program can be eligible without ever being “broadcast” in the traditional, TV-rooted sense of the term. Shows which ‘air’ on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and other non-TV platforms aren’t left out in the cold, and they don’t have to publish on DVD the same content they stream to be eligible; they’re simply required to upload digital copies of the program for the Emmy board to consider.
AVN has responded to complaints about the BBW category being dropped by adding a new Favorite BBW Performer award in 2018, saying the new category will “give these performers – who are less active in DVD productions than on clip stores and cam sites – the chance to be celebrated by their fans.” There’s also the “Niche Performer of the Year” category, of course, but it’s clear many BBW performers would prefer not to be lumped into a catchall category which suggests there’s a narrow or shallow fan base for their work.
“We are sympathetic that some plus-size performers are not pleased that BBW performers’ body of work will now be considered in a category titled Niche Performer of the Year, but the opportunity is still there for their body of work to be recognized in that category,” AVN’s Sharan Street told Glamour.
Street also suggests the BBW category may return to life as a major, top-line category in the future. There’s a certain irony in how Street frames the potential return of the BBW award, though.
“While there might not be a BBW Performer of the Year category this year, that’s not to say it will never return,” Street said. “The adult industry is always changing, as are the performers, the types of content, and the way that content is delivered to consumers. We at AVN will continue to stay on top of trends and ensure the AVN Awards adapt as the industry does.” (Emphasis added.)
I don’t mean to be an asshole, but to go from saying in one breath an awards category has been eliminated due to a lack of DVD distribution of the relevant content, to then proclaiming your company to be “on top of the trends” in the next breath is quite a remarkable pairing.
To me, this is a bit like me saying I refuse to write for any media outlet which doesn’t distribute its editorial content in magazine form, but just because I’m such a forward-thinking freelance writer, one who likes to stay on the bleeding edge of technology and media trends, I’m not going to entirely rule out agreeing to write blog posts for them in the future – if this whole blogging thing ever catches on, that is.
I’d expand upon this thought some more, but it’s time for me to make my daily horse-drawn carriage ride to the local dairy for some milk and eggs. I’ll tell you, if only there was some way to keep that stuff cold once I get it home, I’d be a much happier netizen!
