The Adult Video News expo and awards ceremony (the Adult Entertainment Expo, or AEE) takes place every year in January, and this year mainstream media coverage of the awards has significantly increased. In fact, all mainstream coverage of the adult industry has increased, especially in response to the recent allegations of sexual abuse leveled at adult performer James Deen.
On November 28, 2015, adult performer Stoya publicly accused her ex-boyfriend James Deen, via Twitter, of raping her while they were a couple. Since Stoya’s tweets, eleven other women have come forward with stories of unethical and abusive behavior they encountered while working with Deen. Mainstream media has reported on several developments of the story, and many of the more noteworthy articles were written by retired porn performer/essayist Aurora Snow for the Daily Beast. Snow’s articles included statements from other professed victims of Deen’s in an attempt to shed light on what may be a systemic issue within the adult industry about performer consent—and female performer’s fear of saying no. As an industry, porn is often cast as either a capitalist, morally-corrupt business, or it is championed as a way to sexual autonomy and liberation. Yet between those two characterizations is an industry that works much like any other business, and as most business people are not all “good” or “bad,” neither is porn. With so much chatter and media focus on the AVN expo and awards this week, the industry could use this attention to positively address the question of consent that has dominated news stories for the last few months. So, why did AVN cancel their panel discussion on the topic of consent?
AEE Panel Description
The AVN website still has the panel discussion listed, but as Cleo Stiller reported for Fusion, when associates of Fusion arrived at the expo they were told the panel was canceled. As Stiller stated, this would have been an excellent opportunity for the adult industry to discuss the concerns of performers, and give new performers the opportunity to ask producers and directors questions about protocol and mutual expectations. In addition to the opportunity for communication between industry insiders, this panel would have been the first-ever panel on consent at the Adult Entertainment Expo, and could have been the start of major industry reforms for production practices. Not to mention it would have made the industry look good to the general public, many who are uninformed of the regulations concerning working conditions under which the industry already operates.
Recently, the ethics around the personal boundaries of women in the adult industry has become a prevalent topic in both mainstream and adult business news. Porn stars are still traditionally “othered” in mainstream outlets, so the interest in Stoya’s claim may seem surprising to readers unfamiliar with the porn industry who have come across these articles since November. As several writers have noted, Stoya’s story resonates with not only sex workers, but with people who have found themselves in situations where they felt they could not say “no” to fend off sexual advances, and whose stories of abuse were dismissed afterward. However, there has also been backlash from social media users and some mainstream personalities attempting to invalidate Stoya’s claim and/or erode her character.
While Laurie Penny wrote for Time about a shift in American discourse recognizing the damage rape culture has on women and the effect of rape culture on judicial decisions, many less-informed Twitter users were unconvinced there was significant reason to believe Stoya because, “You can’t rape a sex worker.”
Writer Brett Easton Ellis publicly defended Deen, stating, “I’ve known James before Stoya, I’ve known him during Stoya. I travelled to Europe with them. I have seen firsthand what was going on in that relationship—and this is a very unstable person. And the threats in texts and emails that James has is part of the reason why he’s remaining kind of cool about this. Because this is all going to come out—that she has threatened rape claims against him at other times in the relationship.”
APAC Twitter statement Deen steps down
Did AVN cancel the panel because Stoya will not be attending the expo, even though she was allegedly scheduled to participate in the panel discussion? Joanna Angel, another of Deen’s ex-girlfriends, is hosting the awards ceremony this year. Angel was quick to stand in solidarity with Stoya after her accusation, stating that James Deen “…really is a scary person.” Deen is nominated for several awards this year, and is attending the expo with current girlfriend Chanel Preston. Preston is the president and acting chair of the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee, whose mission is to “Improve the experiences and community of adult performers.” Deen is the previous chair of APAC, but voluntarily stepped down after the public allegations of sexual abuse.
The personal relationships between these performers does complicate the account of events leading to the claims of abuse (or the dispute of these claims), but just as in many restaurants, offices, or work sites, coworker romances happen, and it is difficult enough to navigate those issues in non-porn work environments. As an industry that makes its money off of sexual expression, it is paramount that these issues be addressed in an open forum, so that both adult industry workers and mainstream consumers understand that the importance of sexual consent does not change regardless of one’s occupation or work environment.
#solidaritywithstoya
The Adult Entertainment Expo is a five day event, including the final awards show this Saturday, January 23.
