Scott McGowan was driving down Las Vegas Boulevard with the windows rolled down in a rental SUV when his two backseat passengers began playing with their goody bag favors. At the Adult Entertainment Expo, goody bag favors aren't your chaste knickknacks and lollipops. Porn star Felicia Fox assisted playmate Raven Day with the anal beads she found in her bag while Day shouted, "Beat my pussy, Daddy," at innocent people walking on the street.
Just an ordinary day for McGowan, Charlotte's foremost porn writer.
McGowan has one of those rare gigs -- like an ice cream taster -- that is actually a job. As a porn journalist, he covers it all: weighs in on industry trends (like a four-part exposé on the ethics and appeal of the rough-sex genre), interviews prominent porn stars (one such star, in Charlotte for a promotional tour, was too coked up to coherently answer his questions) and critiquing groundbreaking films.
"I try to find the stuff that's good and interesting and write stories about it," McGowan says of his work, which can be found at www.eyeonadult.com. "Because Ass Bangers 36 -- that has been a mediocre series for six years. I'll be damned if I'm going to tell people to go out and buy that movie."
McGowan got his start working for AEBN, a major Internet pornography business in Charlotte. His writing ability was discovered while penning content policies for the company. Since the whole industry is based in Chatsworth, CA, being a porn journalist in Charlotte can be a challenge. Other than at major conventions, McGowan doesn't get to associate with industry members on a regular basis and must do the majority of his work over the phone.
McGowan finds the most intriguing part of the job is, "finding out if there really is a real person behind the pussy that they're selling, and most of the time there is."
Like anything else, converting a passion into work takes some of the fun out of it. "After awhile it's like it's another anal scene, big deal. It's another squirt scene, big deal." But McGowan reasons his threshold has simply risen since he discovered his dad's porn stash at age 13. "I'm not so jaded as to where I can't watch good-looking people having really good sex and not be turned on by it."
