
Arguably the most famous male performer in the world of straight porn, James Deen has acted in over 2,000 porn scenes, won two AVN Awards for Male Performer of the Year, launched his own production company, been profiled on Nightline, appeared alongside Lindsay Lohan in The Canyons, and become one of the most bankable stars. What sets Deen apart from his colleagues is that he rocketed to mainstream acclaim through the popular demand of female — and, in particular, feminist— fans. Though he has repeatedly rejected the label of “feminist,” Deen has been lauded as the “the physical embodiment of consent culture” by feminist bloggers, labeled “the thinking girl’s porn star” by Elle magazine, and called “the Ryan Gosling of porn” by Esquire.
This publicity culminated in a boy-next-door image that has made the nine women’s accounts of abuse — from rape on-camera to after-hours assault to private humiliation— all the more horrifying. Detractors of Deen’s accusers, meanwhile, question whether a porn star can even be a rape victim, and anti-porn activists are jumping to their pulpits to reiterate tired claims that all porn constitutes "rape." But amidst the immediate Twitter war between the #supportforstoya and #isidewithjd factions (along with plenty of victim-blaming, sex-worker-shaming, and demands for “proof” from Deen’s accusers), a heartening trend quickly emerged within the porn industry. The community united to do what the entertainment industry, politicians, police units, and more have failed to do, time and time again: support women who speak up about sexual assault.
Within hours of Stoya’s tweets, porn performer and entrepreneur Joanna Angel — who, for years, had deflected questions about her six-year relationship with Deen, which ended in 2011 — tweeted“You have my support, @stoya. I’m here for you.” (Since then, Angel has detailed a cycle of brutally abusive behavior by Deen over the course of her relationship with him.) The following Monday, sex-toy company Doc Johnson announced it would “no longer proceed with the products that we make on [Deen’s] behalf,” and Kink.com, the largest BDSM porn site in the world, cut all ties with the performer. According to accusers, multiple instances of Deen’s abuse took place on Kink.com sets or on its premises, leading the company to pledge to “review our Model Bill of Rights to strengthen protections for performers off-set, and work with the larger industry to help performers that have been assaulted to more easily come forward.”

Also on Monday, The Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for the adult industry, called for Deen’s immediate removal from the board of the Adult Performers Advocacy Committee (APAC), of which Deen had been chairman. Deen voluntarily stepped down that afternoon, and APAC “issued a statement of solidarity with all sex workers who have been violated or assaulted.” The following Wednesday, porn sites Blacked.com and Tushy.com confirmed that they would no longer work with Deen.
In industries from television to movies to music to sports, those accused of sexual assault (Bill Cosby, Woody Allen, Chris Brown, Terry Richardson, R. Kelly, Roman Polanski, Rick James, and Ben Roethlisberger, to name a few) have remained on cultural thrones cemented by their profitability. But the porn industry, on the other hand, is pulling the rug out from under its most prized poster boy. Feminists of all genders are watching. They want not only justice for survivors of sexual assault, but a cultural shift in the way that survivors are treated. They want them to be believed.
There are financial incentives to drop Deen, as well: He shocked the world into realizing that feminists watch porn, too, and that these people are willing to pay for what they like. The question of whether Deen deserved his pedestal as a feminist icon aside, those who support feminism now have their eyes on porn not just as skeptics, but as fans who want their voices heard.
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