Sharon Mitchell

{{short description|American sexologist and pornographic actress (born 1950s)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Sharon Mitchell

| image = Sharon Mitchell.jpg

| caption = Mitchell in 2006

| birth_date = {{Birth year from age at date|46|2004|May|10}}{{r|Madigan}}

|nationality=American

|occupation=Sexologist, pornographic film actress, director

}}

Sharon Mitchell is an American sexologist and former pornographic film actress and director. In 1998, she founded the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation (AIM), which tested over 1,000 adult film performers per month before a 2011 data breach led to a lawsuit and the clinic's closure.

Early life and career

An only child, Mitchell was adopted and raised Roman Catholic in Monmouth County, New Jersey. She married briefly at age 17 before becoming an off-Broadway actress and dancer, performing with the Martha Graham Dance Company.{{r|Madigan}} In the mid-1970s, she began appearing in pornographic films such as Captain Lust and the Pirate Women (1977),{{r|Madigan}} Sexcapades (1983),{{r|Madigan}} Water Power (1976), and The Devil in Miss Jones 2 (1982).{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}} She also had small roles in mainstream films, such as Tootsie (1982) and The Deer Hunter (1978).{{cite news |last=Madigan |first=Nick |date=2004-05-10 |title=Voice of Health in a Pornographic World |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/10/us/voice-of-health-in-a-pornographic-world.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2021-09-27 |url-access=limited}}

Mitchell made approximately 1,000 pornographic films over a 20-year career, including 38 as a director.{{r|Madigan}} She is the subject of the 1986 verité film Kamikaze Hearts, directed by Juliet Bashore, which follows her behind the scenes of a porn adaptation of Georges Bizet's Carmen and explores her tumultuous relationship with then-girlfriend Tigr Mennett.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091323/ {{User-generated source|certain=yes|date=May 2022}}

During her years in the adult industry, Mitchell developed a heroin addiction.{{r|Madigan}}{{cite news |last1=Jablon |first1=Robert |date=24 April 2004 |title='Mother Teresa of porn' leads fight against AIDS |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=The Everett Herald |location=Everett, Wash. |url=https://www.heraldnet.com/news/mother-teresa-of-porn-leads-fight-against-aids/ |access-date=27 September 2021}}

In 1996, after a male stalker who was obsessed with her porn films assaulted, raped, and nearly killed her, she quit drugs, became a certified addiction counselor, and later obtained a MA and a PhD from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality{{r|Tannen}} while working a variety of jobs including video engineer's assistant, caterer, florist, dog walker, and maid.{{cite journal |last=Tannen |first=Terrell |date=2004 |title=Sharon Mitchell, head of the Adult Industry Medical Clinic |journal=The Lancet |volume=364 |issue=9436 |page=751 |issn=0140-6736 |doi-access=free |doi=10.1016/s0140-6736(04)16921-3 |pmid=15338566 |s2cid=36995044}}

In 1998, Mitchell founded the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation (AIM), an organization which provided information and STD testing to workers in adult entertainment. As of 2004, they were testing 1,200 pornography performers a month. According to the Associated Press, many in the adult industry credit her with raising the visibility of the risks of HIV/AIDS in the pornography industry.{{r|Jablon}} In 2011, a security breach led to over 12,000 adult performers' personal information being released publicly.{{cite web |last=Katz |first=Lyla |date=2011-02-04 |url=http://www.xbiz.com/news/news_piece.php?id=130302&mi=all& |title=AIM Healthcare Reopens Under New Name, Status |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925082406/http://www.xbiz.com/news/news_piece.php?id=130302&mi=all& |archive-date=2012-09-25 |website=XBIZ.com}} A privacy breach lawsuit was filed against the institute, and they closed their doors in May 2011.{{cite web |last=Pardon |first=Rhett. |date=2011-05-03 |url=http://www.xbiz.com/news/news_piece.php?id=133601&mi=all& |title=AIM Clinic Closes; FSC Responds |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925082430/http://www.xbiz.com/news/news_piece.php?id=133601&mi=all& |archive-date=2012-09-25 |website=XBIZ.com}} Oversight of the protocol was assumed by the Free Speech Coalition.{{cite news |last=Abram |first=Susan |date=2012-03-03 |title=Porn ordinance in effect today |url=https://www.dailynews.com/2012/03/04/porn-ordinance-in-effect-today/ |newspaper=Los Angeles Daily News |access-date=}}

Awards

Mitchell is a member of the AVN Hall of Fame{{cite web |url=http://www.avnawards.com/halloffame.php |title=Hall of Fame |website=AVN Awards |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070715074926/http://www.avnawards.com/halloffame.php |archive-date=2007-07-15}} and XRCO Hall of Fame (since 1988).{{cite web |title=XRCO Hall of Fame |website=bwdl.net |url=http://www.bwdl.net/XRCO-2/hall.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720064742/http://www.bwdl.net/XRCO-2/hall.htm |archive-date=2011-07-20}}

References

External links

{{official|http://www.drsharonmitchell.com/}} – {{webarchive |date=26 June 2014 |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140626194949/http://www.drsharonmitchell.com/}}
{{IMDb name|0593722|Sharon Mitchell}}
{{iafd name|id=Mitchell|gender=female|name=Sharon Mitchell}}
{{afdb name|id=182|gender=female|name=Sharon Mitchell}}

Category:1950s births

Category:20th-century American women

Category:21st-century American women

Category:actors from Monmouth County, New Jersey

Category:American adoptees

Category:American pornographic film actresses

Category:American pornographic film directors

Category:American sex educators

Category:American sexologists

Category:Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality alumni

Category:living people

Category:pornographic film actors from New Jersey