Mia Khalifa is a former Lebanese pornstar born in 1993. She is a curious case, the example of how making a lot of noise is often worth more than talent, of how a snowball can turn into an avalanche. If it were not for the controversies in which she was involved, nobody would remember her. Physically she does not stand out in any way, she is not very pretty and her body is not particularly striking compared to other top actresses.

Seeking controversy

Born into a conservative Catholic family, she learned English at a French private school in Beirut. Her family had to leave Lebanon in 2001 due to instability in the region. In the United States, she made a normal life and studied a history degree. She debuted in porn in 2014, after working for a few months as a waitress in a fast food restaurant. She had the dream start for all, in just a few months she emerged as one of the leading figures in the industry. Furthermore, she didn’t have to work hard. She didn’t do anal sex. She never performed well, she was too passive, she didn’t feel like giving blowjobs, although she had good deep throat skills, her technique was amateurish.

Her beginnings were surrounded by controversy because of a video where the actress practiced sex with a hijab. The issue was international, the newspapers of her native country talked about her and the controversy exploded into irreconcilable positions; religious vs. atheists, conservatives vs. progressives. Everyone was talking about the young Mia Khalifa, meanwhile, her videos accumulated millions of views and her cache multiplied.

The renegade pornstar

Her career was short, she filmed few scenes and left porn, very disillusioned with the industry.

I guess it was my rebellious phase. It wasn’t really for me. I kind of smartened up and tried to distance myself from that.

Maybe so, we can’t know, but probably what led her to leave the job early is that she already had what she needed, fame and followers to develop a lucrative career away from the rigors of porn. Nothing wrong with that, but then she took advantage of her position to disavow her past and criticize porn. Even in her Onlyfans, as she told in one of her interviews, she is dedicated to scam her followers. When a user asked her for sexual content, she would send him a normal photo with a paper that said XXX, another clear example of hypocrisy, why would they pay Mia Khalifa if it was not for that?

However, her popularity was already skyrocketing, in just two months of career she managed to overtake the consecrated pornstar Lisa Ann in the ranking of views on Pornhub. She started a career as a commentator, sports and video games, she even worked for ESPN, in addition to publishing videos on her YouTube channel and doing live on Twitch. In July 2020, she started a campaign against Bangbros on her social networks, more than 1.5 million people signed a petition campaign on Change.org to have her videos removed. The company responded:

We have tried to stay silent and allow Mia Khalifa to have her publicity stunt without responding. Unfortunately, Mia has taken our silence as an “all clear” to not only continue but ramp up her false statements. Mia has repeatedly stated she “only” made $12,000 in the adult industry. Mia received in excess of $178,000.00 from BangBros and its affiliated entities alone. We have no idea how much she made with the other 3 Adult Brands that she performed for before she performed for BangBros.

Mia Khalifa has spoken openly about the effect her time in the porn industry had on her, her regrets and the feeling that she was taken advantage of. While it is acceptable for performers to express personal regret and talk about their experiences, and while exploitation and harassment do occur, as they do in many industries, others in the adult industry have criticized it; porn performers and sex workers in general are already stigmatized by society, and some are being accused of having worked in the industry against their will or out of desperation. This narrative is very negative for many volunteer sex workers.

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Last Updated on August 2, 2023