Margaret Corvid penned an open letter to James Deen. I would like to share it with you all. Margaret Corvid writes and punishes the naughty at mistressmagpie.com in the South West of the UK. A feminist, socialist, and sex worker rights activist, she is a contributing editor for Salvage.zone. She blogs for the New Statesman and appears regularly in the Guardian, metro.co.uk, and Cosmopolitan.com.
Last night, world-famous porn star Stoya told her 200,000 Twitter followers that you, James Deen, world-famous porn star and Stoya’s ex-boyfriend, raped her. She says you held her down and raped her, over her protests, ignoring her safeword. (Not surprisingly, you have since denied these claims on Twitter.) And she kept silent about it for years, only disclosing what happened when she couldn’t stand to see people idolizing you as a paragon of consent, of respect for women, for one more second.
I am writing this in a white hot fury that I have not felt since I learned that CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi was a serial rapist. Like Ghomeshi, you have been known to be a dangerous man in your industry for years. But until now, Stoya and the other women you’ve likely violated have publicly kept silent about you, because rape and assault victims don’t get believed in any part of society, and because you’re an adult industry megastar, and speaking up about you could easily damage their own careers in porn. As Cliff Pervocracy put it so well in the Pervocracy blog, you’re a “missing stair”—a dangerous problem that people might be warned about, but that nobody will risk fixing. With Stoya leading the way, they’re speaking up now. You’re another Cosby; another Ghomeshi.
Although you’ve actually said “I’m not a feminist because I have a penis,” many feminists have supported you and your work, particularly the way that your videos seem to show the enthusiastic consent of the women you have sex with on camera. In 2012, one mom said the following in a blog post about why she would love for her daughter to have a crush on you one day:
“When James Deen is ‘working’ he is the physical embodiment of consent culture. He is the most attentive partner a teenage girl is likely to see in this world. In most of his videos this is visible in his continuing to do whatever fabulous thing he’s doing at his lady’s enthusiastic-consent-eyes/breathing/nod/whatever, but you always get the feeling that if she winced for just a moment he would stop the action no matter what the director said.”
She said that she would much rather her pre-teen daughter grow up to have a crush on you than on known abusers like Cosby. I bet she’s horrified now—but I don’t blame her, or any feminist watching you from a distance, for having liked you. I’ve liked you. I’ve found your scenes hot. At a remove, none of us could see the double life you were leading.
What you, Cosby, and Ghomeshi did is made possible by rape culture, which pervades every industry, every walk of life. I have a special rage for you, though, James Deen, because now all of the people who hate sex workers, porn and women, from the radical right to second-wave feminists, are using your rapist behavior to justify their anti-porn and anti-sex work viewpoints. In one breath, the sex-work-hating Meghan Murphy says she believes Stoya, and in another she says that your disgusting abuse is inherent in porn itself. Sarah Ditum posted, and later removed, a tweet claiming that porn can’t be distinguished from rape.
“Your behavior strengthens the voices of those who would criminalize every form of sex work.” _
Your behavior gives ammunition to scumbags like MMA fighter War Machine’s lawyers, who claim that Christy Mack, his former partner whom he beat nearly to death, must have consented to the beating because of her work in porn. It strengthens the voices of those who would criminalize every form of sex work, including porn. Although nobody called for the end of broadcasting because Ghomeshi and Cosby were discovered to be rapists, you and I know that people can and do call for an end to the porn industry and all kinds of sex work. Given your fame and public pronouncements about consent, your behavior could unleash a conservative backlash that might place the safety and livelihoods of thousands of porn performers at risk.
People are talking about believing women, which at least reflects reality; almost nobody lies about rape, particularly when the accuser is high profile. People are also beginning to talk about enacting various, uninformed ways to make porn safer, launching feminist porn companies (and supporting existing ones), and developing new systems of accountability for abusers. Nobody is talking yet about what really needs to happen, which is that men in every industry need to stop raping people and lying about it, and other men need to drop rapists from their social and economic circles when they find out about it.
That’s what should happen to you, James Deen. Nobody should work with you again. Porn companies should take your videos off their websites and disavow you, just as The Frisky disavowed your sex advice column the instant they found out that you were a rapist. You should struggle for money. Your phone should stop ringing and your friends and family members should drop you. Rape should destroy your life as much as it destroys the lives of the victims of rape. But it probably won’t. Unlike Ghomeshi, you have no boss to give you the sack, and some producers and performers will continue to work with you because they need the money—or because they don’t care that you are a rapist.
“Rape should destroy your life as much as it destroys the lives of the victims of rape.” _
You’ve been silent on this so far, James Deen, although you’ve taken the time to promote your latest video on Twitter. I hope that it’s out of shame, not because you are scrambling to find a lawyer and a crisis publicist. If you truly think you’re a good man, a man who believes in consent, you have one more chance to show it. Step down. Don’t film another minute of porn. Admit what you did, apologize to your victims publicly, and then delete everything else from your social media. Turn yourself in to the authorities. If you’re not cleaned out by a series of well-justified lawsuits, give your profits and your royalties to Planned Parenthood and rape crisis centers. If you care about the women you’ve hurt, about the parents who raised you, about the adult industry that you champion, about the kink community whose buzzwords you used as a cloak as you raped women under the guise of rough sex, then this is what you will do.
I read this post yesterday.
Was mad.
Gave it a day, thought about it.
Fine.
My words – I know I’m gonna get attacked. So be it.
I have issues with Stoya claims and with Margaret Corvid comments.
Lets drop that whole adult film actress situation; just treat her as a person (it really shouldn’t even matter, vocation).
This reeks of red flags, brightly lit along with loud siren sounds.
1) Why didn’t she call the police on James Deen? If that happened you get his ass in jail. Zero excuse. Just as Desiree Washington, did on Mike Tyson. Never tolerate or rationalize it. The fact that, that didn’t happen is one flag.
2) Why did she decided on social media to expose him? The place where facts rarely matter. Once the word it uttered; there is zero defense. Even if you win – ‘that’s the guy, who’s the rapist’. Second flag.
3) The most important to me. Time. The third flag. She drops the major bombshell. Then writes on her Twitter
“I’ll be mostly offline till 17 Dec. For work. While I’m gone please consider enjoying http://TRENCHCOATx.com and http://graphicdescriptions.com”
WTF!?!
You don’t do that; make such an impact – life changing claim then walk way. It’s as if you want others to bash him without you having to put effort into it. Being trashed on from all corners while you sit back and watch the spectacle.
The more he fights it; the worse he looks.
If he did do this – James Deen should be punished. End of story. Monsters belong behind cages, removed from society.
If…
But those three flags are making me seriously question Stoya’s claim.
And it bothers me, I like her – a lot. She’s on my top five adult starlets. She’s seems like a fun woman and enjoys her job; the smiles and laughter. Which is far too rare.
Onto Ms. Corvid.
You have taken her word as absolute – without contest.
Women lie and do evil too; not the sole domain of men.
“You’ve been silent on this so far, James Deen, although you’ve taken the time to promote your latest video on Twitter. I hope that it’s out of shame, not because you are scrambling to find a lawyer and a crisis publicist.“
You have mistaken silence as an admission of guilt. It’s not.
What is it then?
You don’t feed the troll.
No matter what he says it’s gonna be torn apart without any regard to his side or even facts. ‘He’s a man, he’s guilty.’
One of my childhood friends lost his pals over a misunderstanding. A girl, screw it – Denise; made terrible claims against him. Ranging from theft and beyond (not rape). She trashed so bad that he had to leave his group of friends. But he didn’t say anything to defend himself.
I remember yelling at him to save himself. Which I saw as weakness, she wins if you do nothing. His response was no matter what he did, she would makeup some other lie. It would go on and on. Why give her such power over him? He knew he was in the right and time would prove him correct.
It did. But it took nearly four years. Bit by bit her interactions were found be lies. She’s a bitter and terrible person – finding out who she really is, the bitch behind a victim’s mask.
Women do terrible things and women lie.
I’ll give a perfect example of this.
Actress Faye Grant.
She KNEW her husband, Stephen Collins was exposing himself to children, but did NOTHING. Instead she decided to use that as leverage on her divorce.
What the hell!
You let this sit, rubbing your hands together on how much more you’re gonna get from this terrible thing. Who the frack thinks like this?
She did.
And that hurts too. It was her.
I was ten years ago when it happened. Grant was the one of the main stars in the NBC sci-fi mini-seires, “V” (1983). She is the person who spawned my affinity for petite women.
Her.
I am the person today because Faye Grant.
And that terrible fact hurts. Why didn’t she go to the police? Why???
So I say to Margaret Corvid, women do lie.
“almost nobody lies about rape, particularly when the accuser is high profile.”
Yes they do!
This is the nuclear bomb of feminine arsenal. You make that claim, and you ruin that man’s life. No matter if that turns out to be utterly false, he’s screwed; while the woman walks away unscathed.
How is this not acknowledge?
Woman do make false claims. It IS power. Upset for sleeping with someone they regret, the bomb is dropped and she is made clean. The evil man did this, not me.
What I would like to see is the law coming down HARD on false claims. If it’s found out to be a lie, you get thrown in prison.
Now the issue becomes; women who have been raped have another reason NOT to come forward. It is what it is, an excuse. This is their burden, it always has.
Why?
In the real world, monsters don’t abide by laws. They feed on misery and tears. Telling him OR her, ‘swiper no swiping’ isn’t gonna stop them, animals are animals. Rape; men on women, men on men or rape on women by women. YOU have to stop that fiend. This become your weight. A burden, yes. But that’s life.
I’ve been looking at other message boards and read about another woman in the adult industry who knows the claim is false, but won’t come forward; #solidaritywithstoya.
What does that say that even other women are afraid to speak out – the backlash against them.
Truth should always trump lies; even if they’re hard to swallow.
#authenticitymatters
Bitter facts are still facts.
This is the price; preferential treatment is nixed. You, regardless of your gender is expected to prove your claim. Just as 19th century American settlers.
Terrible. Yeah, it is. But to remove that – you open the door for all kind of women who want to do damage just for the sake of their own egos. And don’t pretend that is fiction.
Let me expanded that. If you truly want equality then you loose ALL preferential treatment. I don’t have to hold the door for you, nor do I have to give you my coat/jacket if it’s cold outside. Or I have to pay for your meal. All gone. That’s the price of equality. A leveled existance.
Of all the Stephen King mini-series my favorite is ABC’s “Storm Of The Century” (1999). So?
The main character, Constable Mike Anderson says, ‘in life you pay as you go; sometimes it’s a little, sometimes it’s all you got.’
A sparrow is minding its own business, not bugging anyone – along comes the hawk who snatches it up. ‘But I wasn’t bothering you.’ ‘I don’t give a shit, you’re dinner’.
Life isn’t fair.
Now I’m gonna be accused of being part of the Men’s Rights movement. Yes, in a way I am. But this too has become so corrupted by misogamists. It’s turned into a flaccid cause. There needs to be something from that – that is focused on common sense and facts – separated from emotion and mudslinging; otherwise nothing will get done.
And right now MR is running around in circles, like dog chasing its tail. It’s a full out mockery of what it’s supppose to be.
I am a registered Independent – but they don’t speak for me. I picked them out of distaste for both Democrats and Republicans. And I dislike the Independent a bit less then I do the two others. And that’s sad as well.
Why bring it up? Have no real allegiance to any group. I am my own person.
So what’s the truth here?
I don’t have the answer.
But you, Ms. Corvid must consider that villainy lives in both sexes.
There is something more going on here. And only time will tell what that is.
Part of me wants Stoya to be right, not to tarnish my image of her. That Deen is that rapist and should go behind bars. That he IS that monster and need to be punished harshly.
But the way this came to light – I’m fuzzy on things that should be crystal clear.
And I don’t like that.
As for Tori Lux?
Once again, I don’t know.
Why didn’t Lux call the cops?
If this was on video – he has absolutely zero defense. Someone on the crew should’ve beat his ass, no talking – just lots of punching and blood.