Porn star Stoya has alleged that her ex-boyfriend and sometime co-star James Deen raped her, in a series of tweets made on Saturday.
The tweets have been shocking. First, from some of the responses they’ve prompted (apart from the heartwarming #SolidarityWithStoya), which suggest that, because Stoya works in porn, or because Deen was her boyfriend, that it can’t have been rape. There are also people suggesting that if Stoya was really raped, she’d speak to the police. But as victims of sex offences know all too well, sometimes it just doesn’t feel worth it to go to the police. The second reason the allegations are so shocking? Because James Deen was meant to be different. He was meant to be a good guy.
In the time since, Tori Lux, another porn star, has alleged James violently, then sexually, assaulted her on the set of a film. She explained in an essay the reason she didn’t go to the police at the time: ‘people—including the police—tend to believe that sex workers have placed themselves in harm’s way, and therefore can’t be assaulted’.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.