An AV idol (AVアイドル, Ēbui aidoru, short for adult video idol) or AV actress (AV女優, Ēbui joyū) is a type of pornographic film actress in Japan. It is a sub-category of the idol culture in Japanese pop entertainment. AV idols work in the pornographic business, often both as an actress as well as a model as the video performances vary widely, from suggestive softcore imagery to hardcore pornography. The industry is noted for having frequent turnovers; since the dawn of the AV industry in the early 1980s, hundreds of AV idols have debuted every year, with an average career span of about a year, appearing in five or ten videos during that time.[1] Some successful AV idols move into daytime television or other fields after their careers have waned, while the reverse can happen as well where actresses move into pornographic videos if their normal work has dried up.[2]
- ^ Fornander, Kjell (July 1992). "A Star is Porn". Tokyo Journal. Archived from the original on 2006-05-16. Retrieved 2007-02-18.
- ^ Iwamura, Rosemary (1994). "Letter from Japan: From Girls Who Dress Up Like Boys To Trussed-up Porn Stars – Some of the Contemporary Heroines on the Japanese Screen". Continuum: The Australian Journal of Media & Culture, vol. 7 no. 2. Archived from the original on 3 May 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-25.
In addition to the influence of pornography on mainstream cinema, the line between pornography and family entertainment, such as daytime television, is blurred. It is not uncommon in Japan for a waning female television star or singer to feature in pornographic videos. Similarly, there are women actors from pornographic videos who move into daytime television.