I've always been a
huge Jenna Jameson fan. Not of her movies because I've still only ever seen snippets of a couple but of her as a woman. Ever since I was younger I've thought she was one of the most beautiful women I'd ever seen and even though she doesn't
quite look the way she did when I became a fan, she's still a gorgeous woman and she doesn't have to try very hard.
You're probably wondering why I started the post this way and I have your answer: I might be a little harsh on Traci Lords because pitting these two women up against each other... well, Traci doesn't really stand much of a chance and now you know why. So let's get to it, shall we?
I just finished reading
Underneath It All (I bought it for myself for Christmas) and as someone who was a casual fan of Ms. Lords (Crybaby is one of my all-time favorite movies and I
loved her performance as Wanda) but never worried about any of the gossip surrounding her, I was curious to hear her side of the "scandal".
The whole time I read, though, I couldn't help but compare her to my girl Jenna Jameson. Both books were written by porn stars (ex in Traci Lords' case) but that's where the similarities ended. Let's take it back to my first paragraph and I'll state that as a slightly biased Jenna fan, I wasn't hugely impressed with
Underneath It All.
In
How To Make Love... Jenna lay it all out on the line and stated numerous times that she
chose the way her life turned out and that made me respect her. Traci, on the other hand, went the opposite direction and played the victim throughout the entire book. Now, I'm not saying she wasn't traumatized by the things that happened to her but at some point, don't you have to (wo)man up and take some responsibilities for your actions?
Traci, you
chose to use your fake I.D. and make movies. You could have worked at McDonald's and made lousy money like the other people your age but you chose (yeah, there's that word again) the easy* way by relying on your beauty.
*When I say easy, I am not actually implying that this was an easy decision. From reading your book, I know it was difficult and you've regretted it every day but I am saying that it was easy to get into this world for you and required zero effort on your part to actually
work for something. Easy is relative.
Back to my original point, the whole "feel sorry" for me tone of the book just aggravated me. It worked, sure. Through the whole book I was thinking, "Man, this girl had it rough!! The poor thing and at such a young age... and she's
still having to fight to gain an inch." Honestly, I know all the crap that is said about her from other people's point of view but I wanted to hear her be a strong woman, which obviously she is to have made it. But all I kept getting was "my life sucked; pity me; why won't anyone give me a chance?" No offense Traci, girl, but we've all had rough lives but we all have to, at some point, own up to the choices we've made and say, "Hey, I've screwed up in the past... but it's the past. This is me now!"
Another point of contention is that it's clear she wrote this herself (without the help of a ghostwriter). The dialogue was rough, the sentence structure was choppy and there were whole paragraphs I simple skipped because I was stuck wondering what it had to do with anything. Next book, give Neil Strauss a call; he worked on Jenna's book and did a fantastic job! (Oh come on, you didn't think she did that herself, did you?)
All in all (and all my complaints aside) it wasn't a horrible book; I've read worse. It had a relatively good story line and definitely put a spin on the popular opinion of her. I am going to give it 3 squees (out of a possible 5). There's a killer picture section housing photos from the set of Crybaby and for that, I can forgive it a lot.
OH! And as for who wins the battle - No contest. Jenna holds the crown this and every year.