Reena Patel, Kink’s vice president for marketing, who has an M.B.A. and previously worked at Merrill Lynch, told me, “I actually apply my education to this job.”

Everyone at the company works 10 to 6. Matt Williams, who directs both Hogtied and the hard-hitting girl-on-girl wrestling site Ultimate Surrender, told me: “I like this because when eight hours are done, I’m done. I go home, and my job doesn’t follow me.” Williams used to shoot for a smaller, more sinister-seeming S-and-M site that is now shut down. He lives in the suburbs and has a child. “My wife and I watch ”˜American Idol,’ ” he said, as if to show how average he is.

It was a recurring theme. Patel acknowledged the image of pornographers as “a bunch of sleazy guys that are drunk all day.” “I probably had some of the same misconceptions,” she said. “But we have 401(k) plans.” [ more ]