Who Was Linda Boreman?

As Women’s History Month comes to an end, it’s important to acknowledge the achievements of influential women and their stories. During my research on some of the world’s most remarkable women, I stumbled across Linda Boreman - more famously known as Linda Lovelace. To be clear, Linda was no Oprah Winfrey or Rosa Parks, and I did not find her on any of the “Top 100 Women” lists that I endlessly scrolled through.

Yet somehow, by chance I did find her, and her story stood out to me. Linda Boreman is perhaps the most well known pornstar in the industry, according to Biography, and later turned anti-porn crusader with the help of feminist Gloria Steinem. She was much more than that though - Linda was a human being.

Made famous with her star role in the 1972 pornopgraphic film, “Deep Throat,” Linda was named “the new sex goddess” of the 1970s by the founder of Playboy, Hugh Hefner. The film itself was a popular success that encouraged the fifteen year “Golden Age of Porn” (spanning from 1969 to 1984) in which “porno chic” was embraced by sex-positive feminists who praised the film for its contribution to the sexual liberation movement.

However, many do not know the dark story behind the makings of the film or the abuse that Linda suffered through during its production. She has testified against porn in an investigation conducted by the Reagan administration in 1986, famously stating, "When you see the movie Deep Throat, you are watching me being raped. It is a crime that movie is still showing; there was a gun to my head the entire time."

As porn scenes were filmed, “Chuck kept a gun in his pocket and would click the trigger, letting me know what would happen if I did not look convincing,” Linda said on Daily Mail.

The young woman was also quite dependent on drugs by this time - meth and marijuana, which Traynor had introduced to her early on in their relationship. By withholding these drugs until she agreed to his demands, Traynor could control her behavior during the making of Deep Throat and afterwards.

Despite an estimated $600 million accumulated from the film, Traynor collected only $1,250 and Linda got nothing at all from her role in the movie. Instead, men like Deep Throat’s financial backer Louis Peraino profited off of her talent and abuse.

What Linda endured, at the hands of her then husband, Chuck Traynor, started way before the production of this film. The two met in Florida in 1969, as Linda was recovering from a car accident that had left her with an injured liver and jaw. Weeks later, 21 year old Linda moved in with the 27 year old Traynor, where his controlling nature became more and more extreme as time went on.

Throughout their troubling relationship, Traynor had seen Linda as nothing more than property and a way to make money as his own business declined. In 1971 Linda was gang raped by five men at the Coral Gables Holiday Inn, set up by Traynor, who pointed a gun at her and threatened to kill her if she refused to go through with the various acts.

In her autobiography, “Ordeal,” Linda says, “I have never been so frightened and disgraced and humiliated in my life. I felt like garbage. I engaged in sex acts in pornography against my will to avoid being killed…”

He continued to threaten her life and that of her sister’s son when she tried to leave him afterwards, though she had made a total of three attempts to escape during their marriage. This was only the beginning.

Traynor essentially kept Linda as a prisoner, pimping her out to men for money and beating her if she refused. In “Deep Throat,” visible bruises are seen on her legs from where Traynor had hit her before shooting. Members of the stage crew and other actors working with Linda have supported her claims and yet there is no record of anyone stepping forward to stop the abuse.

That is what I find so troubling - even when actress Andrea True stated that many people disliked Chuck and would side with Linda’s allegations against him, nobody helped her or intervened enough to make a difference. When Linda gathered the courage to come out with the truth about “Deep Throat,” and her relationship with Chuck Traynor in her 1980 autobiography, “Ordeal,” much of the public scrutinized her with doubt.

Skeptics posed questions about why she appeared smiling in the film, why Traynor was not in jail, why Linda did not escape from the situation, and so forth. Although Linda repeated her statements under a lie detector and passed in 1979, doubt about her story remained and Traynor was never punished for his actions (though he admitted to beating her).

These questions fail to consider Linda’s past traumas growing up with an abusive mother, her state of mind immediately following yet another abusive relationship, and disregards the typical responses to trauma seen in cases of domestic violence: the neglect or downplaying of abuse, feelings of helplessness, anger, and anxiety, drug use, etc.

Interestingly, Linda herself has also spoken out against other anti-porn advocate feminists that she worked with such as Andrea Dworkin, who she says has also used her for monetary gain. While Dworkin and others could casually drop Linda’s name as proof of victimization in the corrupt porn industry, none have bothered to help her out when she quit porn and struggled to make ends meet in failing health until her death in 2002.

Today in 2020, in light of the MeToo movement accompanied by more understanding about the psychological effects of abuse and trauma on victims, I have no doubt that women like Linda would be met with very different responses than in the 80s.

Her story reveals the consequences of negligence and corruption within the porn industry and how no story, especially one involving such a power imbalance and coercion, is ever so black and white.

While Linda’s story has been mostly forgotten, we should not forget the things that still occur to this day. Rape, abuse, victim blaming, sex trafficking and forced prostitution are still plights that disproportionately affect women all over the United States as well as around the world, and it’s important that we listen when people speak up.

Let us not forget Linda and what she suffered through for years, before making her voice heard. As March wraps up, we must continue to uplift the women around us, as we don’t know what anyone else may be going through. Remember that a human being is more than their previous or ongoing occupation - whether that be a lawyer, doctor, or pornstar - and always deserving of a second chance and compassion.