Is Duke porn star a feminist or a sex slave?
Charlotte Allen, Los Angeles Times: “The story on Duke freshman (Belle Knox), who’s ‘working ’ her way through college by flying regularly to L.A. to make porn films, oscillates between: 1) a lugubrious feminist narrative about an enterprising ‘ sex worker’ who’s being victimized by judgmental, patriarchal males ... and 2) an equally lugubrious narrative about a naive young girl who’s being victimized by an exploitative adult-film industry. ... Pornography is essentially prostitution protected by the First Amendment. ... In a sane culture, (Knox) would be disowned by her parents and kicked out of Duke for conduct unbecoming a member of a scholarly community.” Jay Hathaway, Gawker: “Continuing her campaign to win America’s hearts and minds, ‘Duke porn star’ Knox had a safe-for-work chat with the prudish ladies of The View (last week), scandalizing them with talk of empowering women and sex workers. ... Anti-vaccine nut and former Playboy playmate Jenny McCarthy spent her part of the conversation talking down to Knox, asking her what happened that made a ‘sweet, innocent’ high school girl ‘turn to porn.’ ” Samantha Escobar, The Gloss: “Knox is somehow more intellectually stimulating than ... anybody else (on The View). Nothing needs to ‘happen to you’ to make you want to do porn. You can have other goals, but you can also have porn as your entire goal. It’s totally up to you. Some people like being naked. Some people like having sex. Some peo- ple like being naked and having sex on camera. Is it really that hard to believe?” Lisbeth Hunter, RYOT: “While she’s lucky not to be exploited or abused by her employers, it’s misleading to ignore the very real dark side of sex work. Abuse is, sadly, not uncommon in her profession. And then there’s the question of what a porn star does after he or she she retires from the trade. As Knox now knows, it’s pretty much impossible to hide a career in sex films from everyone.” Emily Shire, The Daily Beast: “The shame that society imposes on sex workers does only one thing: hurts sex workers. To form a blanket protest against pornography and those who make it does not protect the sex workers who suffer from exploitation. ... We shouldn’t be wondering why a smart young woman with her whole life ahead of her would choose a career in porn. Instead, we should be wondering why it should preclude her from doing anything else she so chooses.”