You may decry the court of public opinion, but until sex workers are given equality before the law, we will use it, because it’s the only one open to us. – Mistress Matisse
If you’ve been lost on a spelunking expedition, on vacation in the Amazon basin, or in a coma for the last two weeks, you may not have heard that the popular porn star James Deen has been accused by almost a dozen women of rape, sexual assault, nonconsensual roughness and other violations of porn actresses’ sexual boundaries. I first discussed the matter last Friday; if you missed that, you may want to go back and read it in its entirety, but here’s the newsy part:
…the porn actress Stoya…accused [Deen] of having raped her; another ex-girlfriend, Joanna Angel, supported Stoya, tweeting that Deen was “dead on the inside” and “literally the worst person I’ve ever met” (though she declined to say more until Wednesday). By Monday two other actresses had revealed similar incidents (one sexual assault and one attempted rape), and by Wednesday two more came forward to explain that on-camera rough sex scenes with Deen were actually rape. In the meantime, many sex workers had expressed solidarity with Stoya, and some had sided with Deen against his accusers (weirdly expressing sanctimonious bullshit about the law, as though US law ever treats sex workers fairly or reasonably); several video companies and websites severed ties with him, and he resigned from the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee. Naturally, neofeminist vultures like Meghan Murphy descended with lightning speed to blame porn for Deen’s actions, or even worse to claim that there’s no moral difference between rape and consensual sex work…
When I wrote that column I didn’t know how far the story would go in the mainstream media; often things that are huge news in the demimonde “barely even register on the radar of society at large,” as I put it last week. But this one was obviously an exception; by Sunday the New York Post published an ugly neofeminist hate screed which, among other absurdities, touted the idiotic claim that every whore in the US makes a living on the once-in-a-lifetime contribution of a small minority of men:
There’s nothing cool or enlightened about participating in the exploitation of women…The latest porn outrage is rape: Five women have accused co-worker Bryan Sevilla, a k a James Deen, of sexual assault…Sevilla’s alleged rapes were part of his work. Read “performer” Amber Rayne’s accusation…mainstream porn…“glamorizes and encourages sexual violence,” says [another prohibitionist]…Read the story of Ashley Brooks, a porn survivor whose abusive husband forced her into the business. “It was filthy and disgusting…I felt like a complete and total prostitute”…A porn performer, like a prostitute, submits to impersonal sex acts for money…all you need is common sense to see the reality of prostitution…being violated by strangers multiple times a day because they have no other practical choice, for not a lot of money and being terrified of being killed or infected while doing it…Thankfully, the vast majority of American men — around 86 percent — haven’t exploited a prostitute…
I made sure I tweeted Nicole Gelinas to call her on her crap, because I don’t think prohibitionists should sleep well at night after pretending they have the right to control other women’s lives and income. The Washington Post reported a day later; in keeping with the paper’s apparent lean toward sex worker rights, reporter Caitlin Gibson was not only sympathetic, but also interviewed actual sex workers:
Deen’s accusers…have…faced a backlash that highlights the particular challenges facing women who work in porn and the sex trade…Some…have scoffed that it shouldn’t be possible for a porn star to consider herself having been raped — that these kinds of violations are, essentially, part of the job…Pornography — especially the BDSM (bondage, dominance, sadism and masochism) genre that was Deen’s specialty — might convey a sense of erotic danger, said Mistress Matisse…But…it’s standard to establish clear guidelines before intimacy begins…“Boundary violations,” she said, “are taken very, very seriously within the BDSM community.” And in the allegations against Deen, she added, “it wasn’t like he did one thing wrong, and then he stopped. These were not rookie errors”…Margaret Corvid…said that [anti-porn activists make]…matters worse for women working in the industry…“The stigma they’re putting forward makes it harder for sex workers to report rape or assault, because they will have very good reason to believe…that the authorities…won’t believe them, or will marginalize or ‘otherize’ them”…
Matisse also wrote her own take for Seattle’s The Stranger:
Over the last two weeks, I have had a lot of conversations with people who say things like Deen is being tried in the court of social media. His professional reputation is ruined because he can’t prove himself innocent. None of them made a police report at the time, so how do we know it was REALLY rape?…But no one has filed criminal charges against Deen. He has exactly the same access to social media as his accusers do, he can talk to the reporters of his choice, and he has an agent and a lawyer to advise him…When you say, “If it was rape, why didn’t you go the police?” here’s what it really means: If you don’t go to the police, you’re not allowed to talk about your sexual assault. Rape is like a ticket in a parking garage, apparently—if you didn’t get it validated by the powers that be, you will pay for that later. This is a silencing tactic, nothing more…And the law certainly does not give a shit about sex workers…
Dr. Marty Klein used the case to argue for decriminalization:
The women pursuing their rape cases against him are able to do so because they are legally employed…if they were raped while acting as prostitutes…they couldn’t go to the police, because they’d be arrested themselves. Or, as many prostitutes can attest, they’d be extorted for sex by the police in exchange for not being arrested…Decriminalizing sex work also helps reduce illicit trafficking by enabling sex workers to report suspicious-looking arrangements without putting themselves in jeopardy…
Then on Tuesday, Deen himself finally went beyond mere denial to give his side, which basically amounted to a combination of “nuh-uh”, “I don’t remember that”, “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is”, and “Bitches be crazy”:
…I am completely baffled…The reason Stoya made this claim could be as simple as her finding out that my current girlfriend and I are moving in together…It could be as calculated as Stoya trying to drive traffic to her website…All of the accusations are from either ex-girlfriends or events that happened on set…I could describe the events of the scene I was in the other day and it could be just as dramatic…There are certain exaggerations and inaccuracies in these stories…The claims are inaccurate or out of context…
Of course, none of that explains why he was on so many porn actresses’ “No” lists:
Shy Love, a longtime porn performer who runs the adult talent agency The Vip Connect, represents more than 80 women. Roughly 20 to 25 of them, she estimates, refuse to work with James Deen. “They just thought he was too aggressive, they didn’t like his style of shooting,” Love [said]…the clients she has who won’t work with Deen signal to agents and directors their preference through the use of something called a “no list,” a tally of individuals a performer will not work with. These lists, which are not necessarily about people who have done something objectionable—an actor, including Deen, could show up on someone’s no list for a reason as mundane as lack of chemistry— are a widespread practice in the porn business…
And though Deen hasn’t been charged with any crime, at least one government entity is interested:
…Cal/OSHA…the state’s health and safety regulatory and watchdog organization, announced that it has opened an investigation of James Deen Productions…for serious workplace health and safety violations. OSHA’s investigation came about after AHF filed a formal ‘Notice of Alleged Safety or Health Hazards’ complaint against Deen with OSHA…
Note that the investigation was triggered by the vile AHF, notorious for its crusade to shut down the porn industry by forcing it to produce creepy goggle-and-glove festooned condom commercials instead of fantasy entertainment. Prohibitionists (including AHF), don’t give a damn about the safety of welfare of the women Deen assaulted; they just want to capitalize on the free publicity to promote their own attacks on sex workers. No doubt others will similarly attempt to exploit the situation; I’ll keep you posted on such developments as they arise.
