Being informed

I don’t feature Stoya very often on this blog, despite having a minor crush on her. She has a shining intelligence (clearly visible in her blog and tumblr), coupled with elegant and classically beautiful looks. Unfortunately, from the perspective of this blog at least, most of her films are either straight sex or skewed more towards a M/f dynamic. Hence, I rarely have an opportunity to post about her. Given the circumstances of this particular post, I really wish that could have continued to be the case.

She’s just published via her twitter account that her ex-boyfriend and occasional co-star James Deen had previously raped her. Given it’s just a couple of tweets there’s obviously limited detail, but she accuses him of physically assaulting her and ignoring her safeword. I’ve read negative comments about his attitude and approach to consent from other actresses in the past, but never anything quite as clear and unambiguous as this.

The reason I bring it up here is because I think it’s beholden to anyone who looks at pornography to be informed about how it’s made and who is involved. Some anti-porn people will claim that it can never be safely used, as you never know the circumstances in which it is made. That is, quite frankly, bullshit. I’ve no way of knowing about the person who made my shoes or stitched my shirt. Most things in life, from food through to electronics, come to us with very little background information. Occasionally there’s a scandal that makes the headlines, but most of us are blind to the source of 99% of what we consume.

Pornography, in contrast, is relatively easy to track. Actors and directors write blogs, post tweets, visit conventions and hold interviews. Some people visit sets and some companies conduct tours. That’s not to say all porn is made ethically and transparently. Like all part of life there are bad people doing bad things. But from a consumer point of view, it’s one of the easier industries to educate yourself about.

James Deen has made a lot of kinky porn over recent year, and has been featured regularly on the kink.com family of sites. Personally I’ll be avoiding any purchase that would potentially contribute to his bank account from now on. I can’t tell anyone else out there if they should follow suit. But at least if you’ve read this post you’ll be able to make a slightly more informed decision.

Given the context of the post I didn’t want to feature a particularly sexually explicit image. This is Stoya modelling as Neil Gaiman’s Death character from the Sandman series.