Some real life stories indeed are stranger than fiction. North Carolina-based Norm Self lived many fascinating lives before he found his true calling – that of a porn star – at the age of 83. He’s a former priest and war veteran, who also served as a campus minister during the civil rights era. And in 1997, while he was still working as a campus minister, he met a group of men who identified as gay. This interaction led him to think that he may prefer swinging the other way as well, and came out as gay.
Almost 20 years after he first came out, Self got an opportunity to star in a porn film alongside two younger adult film professionals, and surprisingly, he took it. Since his debut as an adult performer last year, Self has starred in four porn movies, and while he’s not made any money from these ventures, he’s definitely having the time of his life, describing his experience as “delightful”.
In an interaction with HuffPost, Self revealed that he agreed to appear in the adult film as it is his personal mission to make sure that “sex-negative norms are removed from our society’s vocabulary and replaced with the implicit message that our birth right is to enjoy erotic joy and bliss.”
Self also says that he’s happy to wear the label of a porn star at his age but he does have some reservations about the word ‘porn.’ “I support those who are exerting great effort to bring to justice those who are trapping and trafficking helpless persons for (fraudulent) erotic gratification. May their efforts flourish in bringing the guilty ones to justice! But for those who have grown up in a sex-suppressive society where everything outside conventional norms/mores is labelled “porn” in order to suppress it — and who, therefore, find a kind of titillation in being “outside the norm” of suppression — I’m happy to wear the label.”
Self is also of the opinion that the older you get, the more you are able to enjoy sex, and he’s currently having the best sex of his life. “The more I let go of old messages ― installed early on by well-meaning but ill-informed advisers ― that sex is “bad,” the more free I am to accept who I am as an embodied erotic being.” He also says that it gets better with age only because you’re more willing to let go of the preconceived notions of sex and take pleasure from the fact that it feels good.
Interestingly, Self has been dubbed as the “minister of erotic education and a sacred intimate” by his friends. He has been through just about every course offered by the Body Electric School – a school founded in 1984 that’s devoted to erotic education – and has also completed two 3-year-long intensive trainings in Tantra, the ancient lineage of evolutionary consciousness originating in India.
Apart from his thriving porn career, Self offers spiritual guidance and sex intimacy coaching at a private home in Asheville, NC. So maybe you can look him up the next time you’re in North Carolina, just out of curiosity!
Source: GQ
