Women with any kind morals everywhere should be outraged at this whore for trying to make porn look like any other job while supposedly sounding "educated" while doing it. But sex for money, whether you're a "porn star" or a street hooker, is no different no matter what kind of
deceptive spin you attempt to put on it:
In what may be one of the splashiest media sagas of this year, a Duke University freshman
has revealed her secret porn performer persona after being "outed" to
her classmates by an insensitive male friend earlier in February. The
student, known now by her stage name "Belle Knox," has vociferously
defended herself through editorials submitted to the feminist website xoJane,
and has enjoyed a great deal of support from sex positive quarters,
though not without a good amount of admonition from sources both within
Duke and on the web at large.
Of course, a good chunk of the criticism Knox has received has been
of the reprehensible and personal sort, including threats and harassing
messages sent through social media. These attacks are of course odious
and inexcusable, and no amount of disagreement with Knox's message can
justify them. This kind of behavior is not only harmful, but
disproportionately aimed at women in the public sphere.
That having been said, Knox's agenda is misguided. Knox, a self-described
libertarian with reluctant GOP affiliations, believes that performing
in porn is a direct affront to the patriarchy, the term she uses for
general systematized and institutionalized oppression of women.
According to Knox:
We deem to keep women in a
place where they are subjected to male sexuality. We seek to rob them of
their choice and of their autonomy. We want to oppress them and keep
them dependent on the patriarchy. A woman who transgresses the norm and
takes ownership of her body — because that's exactly what porn is, no
matter how rough the sex is — ostensibly poses a threat to the deeply
ingrained gender norms that polarize our society. [xoJane]
Knox's mission, in other words, is to attack the oppression of women
by intentionally flouting sexual norms, such as the expectation of some
level of modesty or exclusivity in partners. But does that actually
undermine patriarchy? I doubt it.
It's notable, for instance, that the major media venues who are now
airing Knox's feminist editorial are only doing so because she's a
curious sexual tabloid spread. That women's bodies are easily marketed
is no strike against the patriarchy, and that a woman can get attention for her political views only after appealing to male sexual desire certainly doesn't seem to indicate any serious move in the direction of equality.
But let's leave aside whether this theoretically breaks the barriers
of sexuality and focus on a side of porn that has gotten far less
attention in this debate. What material good do women gain from the porn industry?
At the performer-level, porn is a notoriously treacherous place to
make a career. While female performers might make more than their male
counterparts, most of them just don't
get paid that well, thanks in part to the rise of piracy, cam sites,
and the glut of material online. And dwindling profits mean not only pay
cuts for performers, but an increased willingness to jockey to meet the
demands of a mostly male audience. This competition has two major
negative outcomes for Knox's anti-patriarchal project.
First, it means that male consumers dictate the terms of what's
depicted. As a result, male desire impacts the work and health of
performers. For example, a 2012 study found
that porn performers in LA had higher rates of STIs than prostitutes
working in Nevada; the study authors chalked the prevalence of
infections up to the reluctance of studios to enforce condom use because
visible condoms aren't arousing. In other words, the industry drive to
respond to male sexual desire could well be the reason performers like
Knox are in danger of contracting life-threatening illnesses like HIV.
Is this what bucking the patriarchy looks like?
Two, porn doesn't feature the kind of workplace a woman — or for that
matter, a man — should want to join. While one could imagine building
protections within the industry against unsafe sex practices, that's a
difficult task in the absence of any labor union, as porn performer
Jenna Jameson has noted. It is unclear to me how working without any collective bargaining power in an unsafe industry is a helpful move for women. Now,
I don't mean to imply that Knox is secretly unhappy in her niche, but
many women are surely suffering in a low-paying industry with little
control over working conditions that pose significant threats to their
long-term health.
The obvious retort is that while the material conditions of porn
performers might leave something to be desired, the work of porn
performers helps non-performing women at large by challenging gender
roles. (This is heavily disputed, of course, with many women expressing concern
that readily available porn imbues young men with disastrously
misguided expectations of women's bodies and committed sexuality.) But
it is difficult to imagine, even in that case, how porn really challenges gender roles.
Her assertion is that by making a choice — any choice — she's bucked
the patriarchy because she's asserted her decision-making capabilities.
But this is only a net increase in one particular woman's freedom, which
means both that it isn't any improvement for the status of women as a
whole, and also that it only signals an increase in liberties, but not
necessarily any gain in measurable well being. This is perhaps
satisfactory in a libertarian frame, wherein freedom is the ultimate
value, but for women who are interested in measurable material gains, it
leaves almost everything to be desired.
One hopes young women paying attention to Knox will choose not to
campaign for ambiguous increases in freedom, but rather in targeted betterments in
the arenas of life you can take to the bank: good and fair wages,
health, and safety in the workplace. In the world of porn, none of those
goods are on offer.
RELATED: Duke Porn Star Speaks Out: ‘I’m Not Being Exploited, I Love What I’m Doing’
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