If Porn Is Not Shameful, Why Doesn’t Miriam Weeks Use Her Real Name?

Posted on | February 25, 2014 | 151 Comments

A Duke University freshman is offering the world a textbook lesson in what not to do if your college classmates find out you’re doing porn. Miriam Weeks attempted to “un-out” herself, giving an interview to the Duke Chronicle, which agreed to protect her anonymity despite the fact that word was out all over campus that she was getting boned on camera as “Belle Knox.” Then she wrote a confessional piece (as “Lauren A.”) for a feminist Web site that included this:

I am not ashamed of porn. On the contrary, doing pornography fulfills me. That said, I vehemently want to have my privacy respected — and I ask that anyone who knows my real name respect the fact that I am only discussing this publicly because it was made a public matter when I was confronted by a fraternity member who chose to tell hundreds of other men in the Greek scene.

Do you want to have your cake or eat it, Ms. Weeks? Because you cannot be “famous” as the Duke University porn star, claiming that you are unashamed to do what you do, and then demand that the world never mention your real name which — as you yourself say — is already known to hundreds of your fellow Duke University students, to say nothing of Google: Miriam Weeks is “Belle Knox.”

One cannot impose amnesia on the Internet by force of will.

The feminist sisterhood, however, has never cared much for facts or logic, and so Emily Shire at the Daily Beast stubbornly pretends that nobody knows who “Lauren” actually is:

Lauren’s challenge against her harassment as a porn actress reveals how pointless and shameful our stigmatization of adult film performers are. It hurts sex workers who love their careers and want to enjoy full lives outside of pornography. Worse, it may further hurt the sex workers who are subjugated and are too afraid to ask for help.
Lauren’s openness with her porn career raises many questions, but I fear people will only think to ask the wrong ones. 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.

You see? It is not pornography which is “shameful,” Emily Shire tells us, rather it is “our stigmatization of adult film performers.” But what would Emily Shire (or, for that matter, Miriam Weeks) say about the “adult film” consumers? Shouldn’t we stigmatize guys who wank to porn? Does Emily Shire have any respect for those on the demand side of the porn industry’s supply-and-demand equation?

What about the commercial producers of pornography, who profit by commodifying sex on a worldwide scale?

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not advocating censorship, but I am advocating honesty about what manner of commerce is being transacted by Miriam Weeks. Legal though it may be, it is shameful from start to finish, and we ought not pretend otherwise.

You don’t see guys publicly declaring that they wank to porn. As shameless as he was, Anthony Weiner never claimed to be waging a courageous fight against the “stigmatization” of wanking. And you didn’t see anyone praise his “openness,” did you?

So, Duke University freshman Miriam Weeks from Spokane, Washington, is unashamed to be a “sex worker,” and evidently expects to be praised for this by her feminist comrades, because getting boned on camera is so empowering, you see:

I am a women’s studies major. I hope to be a lawyer — my dream is to be a women’s rights, civil rights lawyer. I’m really into writing, journalism. I’m kind of a creative person, which is a lot of the reason I like doing porn. I really am a person who values my family and my friends, and I am also really into spirituality. I like astrology, Zen, all of that.

I’m sure her fellow alumni of Gonzaga Prep are proud of how Miriam Weeks is representing her “spirituality.” And how else is a prep school girl supposed to afford $58,00 a year tuition at Duke?

The porn-star-student was outed by fellow freshman Thomas Bagley . . .
Bagley told The Daily Caller that the starlet divulged her secret to him . . .
Bagley said she swore him to secrecy. Naturally, then, he went and told a bunch of people at a fraternity rush event almost immediately.

Stupid is as stupid does. Why are “smart” kids so stupid these days?

“I feel like girls at Duke have to hide their sexuality
. . . We’re caught in this virgin-whore dichotomy.”

Eh, you’re not “caught” anymore. That “dichotomy” is over for you.

Category: Education, Feminism, Sex

Comments

151 Responses to “If Porn Is Not Shameful, Why Doesn’t Miriam Weeks Use Her Real Name?”

Keifer Wynn
February 25th, 2014 @ 11:39 pm

Whatever happened to good old fashioned shame?
robertstacymccain
February 25th, 2014 @ 11:44 pm

Google “Presidential knee pads.”
Bob Belvedere
February 25th, 2014 @ 11:45 pm

I see what you’re doing there, McCain – bravo.
robertstacymccain
February 25th, 2014 @ 11:47 pm

I hate any situation where everybody is supposed to pretend we don’t know something we actually know, as if pretending makes it real.
Bob Belvedere
February 25th, 2014 @ 11:52 pm

Miriam Weeks is obviously missing a few days, as it were.
Katie Scarlet
February 25th, 2014 @ 11:55 pm

So I take it “porn star” is a new class of victim in America? Will there be marches on Washington now. My husband might switch over from ESPN to CSPAN for that.
robertstacymccain
February 25th, 2014 @ 11:59 pm

Exactly: The “Porn Star Rights Movement.”

Don’t be a pornophobe!
Keifer Wynn
February 26th, 2014 @ 12:04 am

I’ll have to admit when I first read about that comment (I was around 14 or so), I had no idea what it meant. I guess that’s a homeschool problem.
Keifer Wynn
February 26th, 2014 @ 12:07 am

Exactly, this kind of reminds me of the illegal – immigration situation. We all know any Republican would be crucified if he or she presented the unassailable truth that general amnesty would mean tens of millions of new votes for democrats as a reason to tread cautiously.
Katie Scarlet
February 26th, 2014 @ 12:10 am

Were going to need an extra terabyte for the Bill of Rights by the time were finished listing all these oddballs.
rodander
February 26th, 2014 @ 12:12 am

I got a feeling that her un-outing attempt just might have something to do with keeping Mom & Dad from finding out what young Miriam is doing with the opportunity they’ve provided her — along with their $58,000 per annum.
robertstacymccain
February 26th, 2014 @ 12:17 am

Yeah, that’s probably not going to work out so good for her, especially when her Mom and Dad read the part about how much their daughter enjoyed watching porn when she was 11.
justaconservativegirl
February 26th, 2014 @ 12:32 am

I don’t know Stacy, she is from Washington. She may have been watching her parents porn.
Matt_SE
February 26th, 2014 @ 12:34 am

My God, the disingenuousness of Shire’s defense is Orwellian:
“Lauren’s openness with her porn career…”
Her name isn’t Lauren, so that’s one lie already. The only thing “open” about her career is her legs.
We shouldn’t be wondering why…Instead, we should be wondering…”
Thank you, Ms. Shire for your cognitive guidance. I was about to engage in “badthink,” but I now see the error of my ways.

This is just creepy.
robertstacymccain
February 26th, 2014 @ 12:35 am

Just another mile marker on the Highway to Hell.
Matt_SE
February 26th, 2014 @ 12:38 am

Spokane is supposed to be on the conservative side of the state. Most of the libtards are on the westside.
Nan
February 26th, 2014 @ 12:43 am

Is this what happens when they have sex education in the schools?
Nan
February 26th, 2014 @ 12:48 am

They sent her to Catholic school so much have some sort of values.
Matt_SE
February 26th, 2014 @ 12:49 am

The only question in my mind now is, “as conservatives, is there anything we can do to hasten the fall of the academy?”
I’d like to propose what will undoubtedly be a popular idea:
Let’s make student loans dischargeable under bankruptcy again, and put part of the costs on the universities that shafted the students in the first place.

In Miriam Weeks’ case, she’s obviously not getting her money’s worth.
Durasim
February 26th, 2014 @ 12:53 am

“as if pretending makes it real”

That is the entire foundation of the “Trans” movement. Everyone is now required to play along and “pretend” so as to mollify the transsexuals, with increasingly harsher penalties if you refuse to “pretend.”
Anonymous
February 26th, 2014 @ 1:05 am

Porn actresses don’t use real names because they don’t want stalkers and other harassment.

If you want to shut down the porn industry, take away their copyright protection. Any video depicting genitals AND oral sex or genital/anal penetration –> is no longer protected by copyright. And by “depicting,” I don’t mean “suggesting” or “pantomiming,” I mean videos showing the real thing (that is to say: “hardcore porn”). Congress could pass that law tomorrow. It would not violate the 1st amendment.

Without the police and the courts to protect the porn industry, it would die, because the revenue would stop coming in. People would still make amateur porn, but ladies like Ms. Weeks couldn’t make money doing it. Hence, the entire idea of a “porn star” would die. 13-year-old girls would stop wearing “porn star” T-shirts and stop dreaming about turning 18 and becoming a “porn star.” No one would pay for college by being a porn star. The entire idea of a “porn star” would drop out of our cultural consciousness. How great would that be?

That is the revenge we need against the porn industry for, among other things corrupting youth and making “Who’s naylin’ Paylin,” the movie designed to degrade Sarah Palin.

Copyright is a kind of government subsidy. Without the courts and police providing basically free services to support the business model of the pornographer, the porn industry would collapse overnight.

We can’t outlaw porn. We can’t stop people from making it, having it, and sharing it. That horse has left the barn. Anyone with genitals and a camera phone can make a porno (which is basically 95% of the adult population). But we can put a dagger through the heart of the industry.

If my law is passed, softcore porn could still have copyright protection. But who cares? Nobody would pay money for softcore if they could get hardcore for free. It wouldn’t put a dent into Hollywood because Hollywood hasn’t started making hardcore porn, yet. This would STOP hollywood from crossing that red line. Hollywood is full of greedy, sick creeps, but above all it values money. It will not make movies that lack copyright protection.

What do we want? Freedom to share PIV videos without violating copyright law! When do we want it? Right now!
concern00
February 26th, 2014 @ 1:32 am

To be fair, I don’t think Dirk Diggler used his real name either.
Kirby McCain
February 26th, 2014 @ 1:36 am

You talk to almost any stripper and they’re working their way through college, nursing school, etc. In Miriam ‘s case let’s hope she’s saving up for some plastic boobs, she’s going to need them.
Nan
February 26th, 2014 @ 2:35 am

It’s a good story and sounds far more noble than they’re financing their drug habit.
concern00
February 26th, 2014 @ 2:39 am

I think we will see more college students turn to porn as an ‘opportunity:’

1) Entry level jobs are either taken by illegal immigrants, or don’t exist due to minimum wage madness,
2) College costs them a fortune, unless mommy and daddy are paying,
3) Their degrees are essentially useless and will never translate into real money jobs,
4) The left seem to like ’em young
5) Because…love…
Adjoran
February 26th, 2014 @ 2:53 am

Tough day for closeted porn queens. Mediaite fired Tommy Christopher.
K-Bob
February 26th, 2014 @ 3:42 am

Damn! How bad do you have to be to be fired from that outfit?
K-Bob
February 26th, 2014 @ 3:46 am

Once someone uploads digital content, it’s always free. So pr0n is free. That’s why the industry is in a tailspin. I mean freefall.
RKae
February 26th, 2014 @ 3:57 am

“I am also really into spirituality. I like astrology, Zen, all of that.”

Well. Impressive. Now just get yourself a giant owl statue to dance in front of and you can REALLY get going with that “spirituality!”

Oh, and her porn “fulfills” her? Yeah. Just like a junkie is fulfilled by heroin. Porn damages, and it damages kids the worst, because they grow up as porn addicts who have no idea how addicted they are until they wise up and try to stop.
K-Bob
February 26th, 2014 @ 3:58 am

I always wonder what it feels like to be a woman about fifty-five or so, and know your grandkids can watch some guy named Surewood Schwartz nailing you in the squeakhole when you were nineteen.

On the other hand, Dr. Drew always says the percentage of women in the “sex worker” industry—which definitely includes pr0n—who were abused, raped, or molested as children is incredibly high. Worse, he says a big percent of those feel like they “deserve” to have to live that way.

So you have to learn to take what these women (and the men, too, really) say about their personal lives with a smidgen of doubt.
K-Bob
February 26th, 2014 @ 4:07 am

Modeling career is always a good one.

I think they ought to claim they are seeking public office, and prefer this to kissing babies.
RKae
February 26th, 2014 @ 4:11 am

Actually, THIS is what happens…

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/teacher-faces-ax-over-kindergarten-sex-674521

Yeah. Five-year-olds.

Brave new world, folks. Have we nudged the line enough yet? Can we stop and take a break now?
rmnixondeceased
February 26th, 2014 @ 5:02 am

That’s kinda what Kimberlin is trying to enforce, isn’t it?
rmnixondeceased
February 26th, 2014 @ 5:03 am

If morality were the base of modern society, you would still be unknowing …
DYSPEPSIA GENERATION » Blog Archive » If Porn Is Not Shameful, Why Doesn’t Miriam Weeks Use Her Real Name?
February 26th, 2014 @ 5:12 am

[…] The Other McCain asks an obvious question. […]
Dana
February 26th, 2014 @ 6:49 am

I hadn’t thought about the copyright protection aspect. Does that mean that every time my wife and I copulate, we owe someone money?
WarEagle82
February 26th, 2014 @ 7:22 am

You mean the porn industry has sunk so low that they will accept aspiring lawyers and Duke students into their ranks? What depravity! The last bastion of morality in society has succumbed. The concept of shame is truly dead.
RS
February 26th, 2014 @ 7:51 am

Love the subtle “it’s the Patriarchy’s Fault” bit by blaming the evil Frat guys. BTW, who does she think is consuming her “art?” And of course it’s shameful. If it weren’t, nobody would buy it.
Dana
February 26th, 2014 @ 7:55 am

I certainly hope that Miss Weeks can do what she says, and become an attorney, or otherwise self-employed, because she has made herself unemployable by others in any practical sense.

I’ve said this before about all of the cute college girls who let their boyfriends take pictures of them during sex, pictures which somehow seem to find their way to ex-girlfriend revenge sites. What happens to that nice young woman, with $36,928 in student loan debts to pay off, who got lucky and snagged that great entry-level management job with a good company, and, then, six months later, one of her subordinates finds those pictures of her, drunk at a frat party, with some guy’s penis in her mouth? It circulates among the subordinates — all of whom have participated in the same thing, of course, but didn’t have the pictures plastered on the internet — and she loses all of her professional credibility, and winds up having to quit. The difference here is that Miss Weeks already has her name attached to the pictures, and once she starts applying for jobs, a Human Resources department is going to find the stuff.

Ironically, now that she has told the world what she has done, she won’t be able to not list her work when she lists her previous positions — pun most definitely intended — on her applications.
Dana
February 26th, 2014 @ 7:57 am

Can they ask for a refund?
Quartermaster
February 26th, 2014 @ 7:58 am

I’m sure she will have a bunch of positions to list.
Dana
February 26th, 2014 @ 7:58 am

Way too many of the girls are doing it for free, letting their boyfriends take pictures of them.
RS
February 26th, 2014 @ 7:59 am

Among the greatest lessons we can teach our children is that the internet is forever.
Dana
February 26th, 2014 @ 8:00 am

Well, given that aspiring attorneys are studying to f(ornicate) over other people, it would seem like the appropriate career path.
Quartermaster
February 26th, 2014 @ 8:02 am

Email me and I’ll send you the address to send the royalty checks.
Quartermaster
February 26th, 2014 @ 8:03 am

They’re taking them with full afterburner.
Art Deco
February 26th, 2014 @ 8:07 am

The religious orders who used to run many of those schools have suffered a catastrophic demographic implosion, with declines in annual ordinations and professions north of 90%. The schools are in essence secular private schools with a Catholic history and patina. Efforts to retain or re-institute a distinctively Catholic ethos are often resisted by the schools’ clientele. There have been instances when schools fired teachers discovered to be Planned Parenthood volunteers or discovered to be active and explicit homosexuals only to have petitions and demonstrations by parents, students, and alumni.

Both Seattle and Spokane have had some scandalous bishops in recent decades.
Dana
February 26th, 2014 @ 8:08 am

Howsomever, I’m going to give Miss Weeks some real credit here. She said:

“I think the thing lacking in feminism is that women are making decisions for other women. If the patriarchy is about men making decisions for women and taking away their agency, why do some feminists want to control other women’s decisions?

Maybe she really has learned something at Duke!
RS
February 26th, 2014 @ 8:08 am

I would also note, this story illustrates how philosophically bereft the modern Feminist movement truly is. PIV is rape unless it’s pornofied “empowerment,” but then is it really empowerment if the participant is “trauma-bound” to the dude who’s boinking her? And I’m so empowered–Hear me roar!–that I get all embarrassed when I proclaim my pornofied self to the masses, except don’t mention it to anybody else–swearsies?–because I just want to be empowered in my own little reality.

This woman tells you everything you need to know about the intellectual capacity of your average Duke coed.
Dana
February 26th, 2014 @ 8:11 am

I’ll get it to you shortly; I’m still waiting on my funds tied up in a Nigerian investment.

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