Jiz Lee is an

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

pornographic performer A pornographic film actor or actress, pornographic performer, adult entertainer, or porn star is a person who performs sex acts in video that is usually characterized as a pornographic movie. Such videos tend to be made in a number of dist ...

, considered a major star of queer porn.AVN – April 2011: Girl Powered
Retrieved December 22, 2011 Lee is an advocate for the ethical production and consumption of

pornography Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,

and for the

labor rights Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, these rights influen ...

and sexual autonomy of

adult entertainment The sex industry (also called the sex trade) consists of businesses that either directly or indirectly provide sex-related products and services or adult entertainment. The industry includes activities involving direct provision of sex-related ...

performers. Lee is

genderqueer Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...

and uses the

gender-neutral pronouns A third-person pronoun is a pronoun that refers to an entity other than the speaker or listener. Some languages with gender-specific pronouns have them as part of a grammatical gender system, a system of agreement where most or all nouns have a va ...

''they''/''them''.Jiz Lee » Bio
Retrieved December 22, 2011.

Adult film career

Lee's first

pornographic film Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, and 18+ films are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include eroticall ...

was ''The Crash Pad'' for

Pink and White Productions Pink and White Productions is an American pornographic production company, based in San Francisco, California, that focuses on explicit video web and DVD releases showcasing female and queer sexuality. The company's main director and producer is ...

, released in 2005.Peep Show – Interview with Jiz Lee, Part One
Retrieved December 22, 2011. Lee initially only did film scenes with lovers,Peep Show – Interview with Jiz Lee, Part Two
Retrieved December 22, 2011. and self-describes as a "self-

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...

", only working with

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''Di ...

s met beforehand first. Jiz Lee continued to work with

Shine Louise Houston Shine Louise Houston is a filmmaker and the founding director and producer of Pink and White Productions, an independent production company creating queer pornography in San Francisco. Houston makes feature-length pornographic films in addition ...

's feature 'SNAPSHOT'.

Screen credits

In addition to their adult screen credits, Jiz Lee has appeared in numerous other queer and trans projects, including African American director

Cheryl Dunye Cheryl Dunye (; born May 13, 1966) is a Liberian-American film director, producer, screenwriter, editor and actress. Dunye's work often concerns themes of race, sexuality, and gender, particularly issues relating to black lesbians. She is known ...

's queer romantic comedy of errors ''Mommy is Coming'', in which Lee appears with an international cast that included the Black Boricua porn performer Papi Coxxx. They had a recurring role as Pony, a

dominatrix A dominatrix (; ) or femdom is a woman who takes the dominant role in BDSM activities. A dominatrix can be of any sexual orientation, but this does not necessarily limit the genders of her submissive partners. Dominatrices are known for inflic ...

for the character Sarah Pfefferman, in the series ''

Transparent Transparency, transparence or transparent most often refer to: * Transparency (optics), the physical property of allowing the transmission of light through a material They may also refer to: Literal uses * Transparency (photography), a still, ...

''. They have also appeared in ''

Sense8 ''Sense8'' (a play on the word '' sensate'' ) is an American science fiction drama streaming television series created by Lana and Lilly Wachowski and J. Michael Straczynski for Netflix. The production companies behind ''Sense8'' included th ...

'', the science fiction television series created by the production team of

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

producers Lana and Lilly Wachowski. They also performed the role of the genderfluid conjoined twins in video for

The Residents The Residents are an American art collective and art rock band best known for their avant-garde music and multimedia works. Since their first official release, ''Meet the Residents'' (1974), they have released over 60 albums, numerous music vi ...

's theatrical stage production of the album '' God in Three Persons'' premiered at

MoMA Moma may refer to: People * Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist * Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician * Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher Places ; Ang ...

in January 2020.

Activism

Lee is known as an advocate of sex workers' rights, and self-describes as a "pleasure activist". They run the

philanthropic Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

porn experiment "Karma Pervs", which seeks to raise funds for sex workers' causes. Jiz Lee is also a significant figure in the genre of queer

pornography Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,

, and is considered to be a visible genderqueer person in porn. Finally, they are considered a significant contributor to

feminist pornography Feminist pornography is a genre of film developed by or for those within the sex-positive feminist movement. It was created for the purpose of promoting gender equality by portraying more bodily movements and sexual fantasies of women and member ...

and

women's pornography Porn for women, women's porn or women's pornography, is pornography aimed specifically at the female market, and often produced by women. It rejects the view that pornography is only for men, and seeks to make porn that women enjoy watching instea ...

. However, Lee does not use the term " feminist porn", and has stated that the term implies that porn cannot be inherently feminist. Lee's growing popularity may be attributed in part to the growing quantity of production of

and

queer pornography Queer pornography depicts performers with various gender identities and sexual orientations interacting and exploring genres of desire and pleasure in unique ways. These conveyed interactions distinctively seek to challenge the conventional modes ...

. These genres of porn have grown significantly in marketing and consumption in the 21st century. Lee is a writer, as well as the editor of ''Coming Out Like a Porn Star'', which compiles the stories of adult performers. The book was inspired by Lee's own struggles with "coming out" to their family about working in the adult entertainment industry. One review defined the book as ""a lesson in social behavior and prejudice" directed at adult performers. Porn scholar Lynn Comella described the book as "a testament to the power of storytelling and the importance of sex workers telling their stories in their own words." Lee has written on feminism and porn. Lee has been interviewed in multiple articles on feminist, queer, and trans issues, especially on queer pornography. Lee has spoken at academic institutions, such as

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

and

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

, on

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

sexuality and their experiences in porn. In numerous contexts, Lee, in their public statements, has specifically addressed the importance of using gender-neutral pronouns."Lgbtq – Cbrachyrhynchos." Accessed May 7, 2017. https://cbrachyrhynchos.wordpress.com/tag/lgbtq/.

Personal life

Jiz Lee is a graduate of

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

. Lee was assigned female at birth, and is

, and use the

''they''/''them''. Lee has been in a relationship with fellow pornographic performers Syd Blakovich and Dallas. With Blakovich, they created the four-year

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

collaboration "Twincest" in 2004.Remembrance (sic): The works of twincest « Execute:
Retrieved December 22, 2011.

Awards and nominations

Publications

* ''They came to see the ueerporn star talk''. In: ''

Porn Studies ''Porn Studies'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the study of pornography. It is published by Routledge and was established in 2014. The editors-in-chief are Feona Attwood (Middlesex University), John Mercer (Birmingham City ...

''. Vol. 2, No. 2–3, Taylor & Francis, London 2015, ISSN 2326-8743, pp. 272–274. * Jiz Lee und Rebecca Sullivan: ''Porn and labour: the labour of porn studies''. In: Jiz Lee und Rebecca Sullivan (Hrsg.): ''Porn Studies'', Vol. 3, No. 2, Taylor & Francis, London 27. Juli 2016, ISSN 2326-8743, pp. 104–106
Issue online
* ''Uncategorized: Genderqueer Identity and Performance in Independent and Mainstream Porn''. In: Tristan Taormino (Hrsg.): ''The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure''. The Feminist Press at CUNY, New York 2013, , pp. 273–278. * as Co-Editor: ''Coming Out Like a Porn Star: Essays on Pornography, Protection, and Privacy''. ThreeL Media, Los Angeles 2015, . * as a model: Dave Naz: ''Genderqueer: And Other Gender Identities''. Rare Bird Books, Los Angeles 2014, .

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Jiz Year of birth missing (living people) Genderqueer people American LGBT writers Living people Pornographic film actors from Hawaii LGBT people from Hawaii Queer pornographic film actors Sex-positive feminists Mills College alumni Sex worker activists in the United States American non-binary actors Non-binary activists