Why Mia Khalifa Is Not What the Porn Industry Wants You to Think She Is
No one is going to do those acts on a Wednesday night with the person they love.
Did you know despite having millions of views, Mia Khalifa was paid only $12,000 for all the work she did in the porn industry?
“People think I’m racking in millions from porn. Completely untrue. I made a TOTAL of around $12,000 in the industry and never saw a penny again after that,” She tweeted long after quitting the porn industry.
But wait! Is that the reason why she quit the porn industry?
Many people think porn industry as a place where you get paid for unlimited fun and sex. But Mia Khalifa, one of the most-searched former porn actresses, tells you something different.
My biggest insecurity was my breasts.
Born in 1993 in Lebanon, Mia Khalifa was raised as a catholic. She attended a French private school in Beirut before immigrating to the USA in 2001 (to avoid the South Lebanon conflict). In that school, she learned to speak English, although she was not very good at it then.
Coming to the USA, Mia started living in Montgomery County, Maryland, with her family. But living in a new country was tough for her because only two weeks after she started school, 9/11 happened.
Mia was bullied at school for her brown skin, looks, and weight. Others even went too far and started calling her a terrorist. She was “the darkest and weirdest girl there.”
In an interview with BBC in 2019, she recalled those memories by saying,
“I struggled my entire childhood with weight and I never felt attractive or worthy of male attention.”
But the wind changed its direction when Mia was in college.
Adopting some small changes, Mia gradually lost around 50 pounds of weight. And by the time she graduated, she felt a lot of difference as her physique changed completely.
“I felt extremely self-conscious about my breasts because that was the first thing to go when I lost all the weight,” Mia explained. “My biggest insecurity was my breasts. So I wanted to more or less go back to what they normally were. And once I did that I started garnering all of this attention from men.”
She said she was never used to all the compliments and validation she suddenly got. And she thought it would go away if she didn’t hold on to it or do what she was asked or expected to do.
Well, it’s understandable.
The Lebanese girl, who immigrated to the USA only to find it a hostile place to live and get bullied by others for who she is, will definitely try to do everything to keep her newfound attention and validation intact.
But did Mia ever think this would take a terrible turn soon and ruin everything?
I hope not.
You’re beautiful! Would you like to do some modeling?
Mia graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso as a history major and then moved to Miami.
One day, a man from Bang Bros, a pornographic film studio, spotted her on the street and asked her if she wanted to do some modeling.
Socially isolated and desperate for male attention at age 21, Mia agreed to do some modeling.
Thus her fate was sealed.
She didn’t get a clue that soon, she would become one of the top-viewed porn actresses in the world. Even when she went for the first photo shoot, she didn’t realize she was getting involved in the porn industry.
“It was a gorgeous location. It was in Miami in Doral Florida. It was clean,” She recalled that memory. “Everyone who worked there was nice. All of their cubicles were decorated with family photos like it was nothing dodgy or that made me uncomfortable. And the first time I went in wasn’t the first time I filmed porn.”
She got compliments from the producers and others at Bang Bros studio for her breast augmentation surgery. And for the first time in her life, Mia was feeling sexy.
Soon, the modeling turned into nude modeling. Eventually, she was offered a contract to work in adult films. Mia, being overwhelmed, signed the contract with Bang Bros.
I was afraid it would go away if I didn’t do what I was asked to do.
Starting from October 2014, Mia worked only for three months in the porn industry and acted in 12 adult films.
You may think she did it for money. But that’s not true. Because for each adult content, Mia got a flat rate of only $1000.
Yes, you read it right.
Though her videos spread like wildfire and earned huge money for the industry, Mia got only $12000 for her 12 adult content. Nothing else.
But she didn’t complain because money or fame wasn’t what she wanted in the first place. She just craved validation from others. She was enjoying people’s attention, love, and admiration for her beautiful body.
In her own words, “I went back and shot a scene, and it was terrifying and temporarily validating, but afterward I felt a little empty. Though I still had that pit in my stomach where I wanted to chase that validation again… I think what made me go back and do it again was that the attention I was receiving, I was afraid it would go away if I didn’t do what I was asked to do.”
Mia thought it would be her ‘dirty little secret’ that the people close to her would never find out in the sea of porn films on the internet.
But she was damn wrong.
You guys are gonna get me killed.
Mia’s adult videos broke the internet. Especially, the video where she performed sexual acts wearing a hijab (an Islamic headscarf).
That video was highly provocative.
Within just two months, she became the most-viewed pornstar on Pornhub. Random people started recognizing her in public. Eventually, she realized that her dirty little secret is now the talk of the town.
Knowing what their daughter did, Mia’s family disowned her, and the people close to her closed their doors.
“I felt completely alienated by not just the world but by my family and the people around me,” she explained.
Besides, Mia got death threats from extremist groups for that provocative video. She also endured harsh criticism from all around the world. At one point, she was forced to leave her apartment and stay at the hotel for safety.
In an interview, when asked about that particular video and whether Mia knew how provocative this could turn out to be, she replied, —
“I verbatim told them (producers), you guys are gonna get me killed … and they just laughed.”
You might ask — Despite knowing the risk, why didn’t she step back and refuse to participate in that provocative video?
“Intimidation,” Mia answered. “I was scared. I knew that if I said no, they are not gonna force me, that point it’s rape. No one’s going to force you to have sex. But I was still scared… When there’re four white male producers in the room, and you say something like that to them and they all just laugh. I mean, it’s kind of devastating. And it makes you not want to speak up and say anything again.”
Mia lost everything (family, friends, privacy, dignity, mental health, and more) in exchange for a momentary validation from others. She got devastated both physically and mentally. And she realized her mistakes very late when she had no way to make them right.
But after taking some time off and thinking about everything deeply, she became self-aware and decided to stop this madness and move on.
So, in early 2015, after working for only three months in the industry and doing 12 explicit content, Mia resigned.
There are still millions of people who think I’ve done nothing but porn for the past five years.
Mia Khalifa left the porn industry long ago, yet millions of people think she does nothing but porn.
Why?
Because her horrible past is just one click away, and she can do nothing about it. There are around 4,000 videos tagged with Mia Khalifa’s name on Pornhub alone though she acted in only a dozen. Millions of people still watch those videos only to fill Bang Bros and Pornhub's pockets with money.
“It feels like being stuck in quicksand,” Mia told the Washington Post in 2019. “There are still millions of people who think I’ve done nothing but porn for the past five years.”
She still gets uncomfortable stares from random people in public as if they can see through her clothes. And it brings her deep shame.
But despite all odds, Mia moved forward. She didn’t want her past mistakes to define her future. So, like a phoenix, she rose from the ashes of her shameful past.
Now Mia Khalifa works as a sports commentator and an activist.
From October 2017 to February 2018, she and Gilbert Arenas hosted a daily sports show named Out of Bounds. She also co-hosted Sportsball on RoosterTeeth.com.
In May 2020, Mia appeared as a guest in the Hulu show Ramy.
No one is going to do those acts on a Wednesday night with the person they love.
After quitting the porn industry, Mia revealed some hard truths about the industry we didn’t know before.
She mentioned how the actors and actresses are compensated for their work is extremely poor. Most pornstars (males/females) work for a flat rate like $1000/video or so. No matter how popular the pornstar gets, they get nothing in return. The industry sucks all the juice.
Mia also thinks the way women are brought into porn should be changed because many women signed the contract without fully understanding its terms and conditions — and how it will affect their lives in the coming days.
According to her, women shouldn’t be pressured into porn or forced to sign the contract right in front of the producers, right there on the spot. Instead, it has to be looked over by a lawyer, and they should be given enough time to read it at home before they sign it.
To the young people obsessed with porn, Mia warns — “The things that men see in videos they expect from the women in their lives, and that’s just not reality. No one is going to be that perfect. No one is going to do those acts on a Wednesday night with the person they love.”
The takeaway
I find Mia Khalifa’s story very inspirational and moving.
Her story shows how a person can move forward in life despite doing something terrible in the past. She teaches you to be a better version of yourself despite the wrongs you did in life.
Before I go, one more thing —
If you deliberately or accidentally come across one of Mia’s terrible videos on the internet, tell yourself — it’s just a tiny dark part of a 21-year-old girl who craved validation from others. That girl no more exists.
Long ago, she moved on in life — and it’s time for you to do so.
Sources: The Washington Post, Daily Beast, BBC, Fight The New Drug, Megan Abbott — YouTube, Wikipedia.
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