Whatever (sex) turns (sex) you (sex) on

The human form hasn't changed much in the last 200,000 years.

But the ability to capitalize on every body part, potential contortion and natural function has evolved into an industry of pornography peddlers who rake in billions of dollars annually.

And for four days each year Las Vegas is home to a tawdry display of the best -- and worst -- the lucrative business of selling sex has to offer.

The occasion is the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo at the Sands Expo and Convention Center, a trade show and convention for the multibillion dollar pornography industry and its fans.

It's an opportunity for pornography fans to ogle sex performers and see new products and for producers, retailers and distributors in the trade to network with one another.

It's also a rare chance to see under one roof a sampling of just about every sex-related product the industry produces, an inventory that generates more than $10 billion annually by some estimates.

The products range from racy to raunchy to just plain bizarre.

"Some people use them as a companion, some people use them just for a love doll," said Steve Mercsak, 28, describing a Real Doll, a product from Abyss Creations in San Marcos, Calif. "Whatever the customer wants."

The dolls are life-size, weigh from 75 to 135 pounds, have flesh made from a rubbery, silicon composite and lifelike orifices. They retail for about $6,500.

Mercsak helps to make the dolls' skeletons, stainless steel-and-aluminum frames that support the bodies and make it possible to pose them.

On a table in front of Mercsak was a replica torso of a Caucasian woman. He said the dolls come with any of 16 different faces, 33 expressions and in a number of races.

The silicon display model felt cool to the touch, but Mercsak said they can be warmed in a hot tub or bathtub and wrapped in a blanket to maintain the temperature.

"Our dolls have a lot of class," he said. "In all the photos, they are fully clothed."

The dolls were likely the happiest performers at the show, according to Melissa Farley, a researcher who has studied the sex industry and surveyed workers on the streets and in the brothels of Nevada.

Farley said the show glosses over the rough side of the pornography industry, a business she said exploits and traumatizes all but an elite few at the top.

She criticized the industry for spending "gazillions" of dollars lobbying lawmakers to ensure adult films and magazines are categorized as free speech instead of prostitution.

"The same acts are performed with women in pornography that men buy in prostitution," Farley said. "Pornography is prostitution with a camera."

In some ways pornography is even more traumatic to the female subjects than prostitution because the pictures and films can circulate online, in stores and in print for years, Farley said.

She said surveys she conducted among prostitutes indicated that more than 80 percent would like to leave the sex industry. And prostitutes who had been the subject of a pornography product, nearly half by Farley's count, suffered more stress than those who merely performed sex acts on an individual.

"The women who had that footage made of themselves had significantly higher levels of traumatic stress," Farley said. "When they know a picture is taken of them that is out of their control and on the Web, it causes greater suffering."

If women in the pornography industry are suffering they didn't show it at the Adult Entertainment Expo.

Models smiled and posed with lustful fans, moviemakers arranged interviews between journalists and stars and throughout the show barely-clad women shook their breasts and buttocks for anyone who wanted a jiggle.

Bella Violenza, 26, of New York, performs in a series of movies aimed at men who fantasize about women covered in tattoos.

Violenza, who in addition to performing is a costume designer and operates an Internet business that pays better than acting in pornography, said she chooses to be in movies.

She said she works independently, as opposed to signing a contract with a production company, which means she is in control of her on-screen career.

"I get to pick and choose what I want to do," she said. "I only work for people who treat me well and do scenes I want to do."

Pornography producers and performers aren't the only ones making money off the sex industry.

Las Vegas Sands Corp., the company that owns the Sands Expo and Convention Center, profits by renting space for the show. The company also owns The Venetian, a hotel-casino that's home to Tao nightclub, which is hosting parties featuring renowned pornography performers. Adult Entertainment Expo attendees were also patronizing Palazzo, a $1.9 million hotel-casino Las Vegas Sands opened earlier this month.

Parties in Strip nightclubs, a big part of the adult industry event, can generate as much as $200,000 or more in a single evening.

The pornography company Wicked Pictures is hosting an event tonight at LAX, a nightclub in MGM Mirage's Luxor.

Pure nightclub in Caesars Palace, a casino owned by gambling giant Harrah's Entertainment, will also host an event tied to the pornography show.

Farley said the Adult Entertainment Expo's success is evidence a greater share of the Southern California-centered pornography industry is migrating to Las Vegas.

"There is more money to be made in Southern Nevada," Farley said. "Every pimp in the U.S. has a list of the major Las Vegas conventions. And AVN is the biggest. Women from all over the country are moved into town."

Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or (702) 477-3861.