A hot tidbit of gossip that everyone has been forwarding on their office computers in the past couple of weeks is the discovery of a porn star who is currently a freshman enrolled at a university. Not just any university, though; the 18-year old porn star in question attends Duke University, one of the nation’s most prestigious schools. A university like Duke is, ostensibly, supposed to represent values such as virtue and integrity, whereas the porn industry is often seen as the antithesis of these qualities. I guess one thing that both have in common is hard work.
When it was discovered that there was a porn star in the Duke’s freshman class, the whole nation was sent into a spiral of shock. How could this be? How could someone who represents the epitome of promiscuity, smut and all that is wrong with teenagers in our country simultaneously attend one of the nation's top tier universities? Message boards on the Internet have been abuzz with threads and links calling for this girl to drop out of school, calling her a "slut who needs to learn the consequences of her actions." People have viewed her as offensive and unworthy of her academic standing because of her history as a sex worker.
Well, the porn star herself has decided to share her voice. Recently, the porn star, who has tried very hard to keep her name from spreading, has taken to Internet discussion forums such as Reddit to share her opinion on the issue. She has decided that if people are going to talk about her anyway that she might as well have a say in the conversation in trying to steer this toward a productive dialogue. The points she makes are very interesting. She laments that being a sex-worker is considered a degrading position and argues that starring in pornography has been the most empowering experience of her life. People are quick to judge women who sleep with a lot of men but when the situation is reversed the man receives praise. She asserts that woman should take control of their sexuality, that society shouldn't be so quick to label people based on their sexual preferences and personal choices that have absolutely no affect on others. Since the secret spilled and proliferated all throughout the Duke campus a couple of months ago, she has been the subject of mass scorn and shame. The comments have been so hurtful that it is nearly impossible for this girl to continue her education at Duke.
