This week's installment of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" was inspired by the headline-making story of Belle Knox, the Duke University freshman who was outed as a porn star by a fellow classmate. Knox penned an essay for xoJane about her experience viewing the episode and discussing it with "SVU" executive producer Warren Leight.
Knox begins her piece with Leight's explanation for his decision to create the episode:
As usual, we tried to distill several stories and headlines into one character's journey. You, and others, have made the case that sex work is legitimate professional work, a potentially empowering choice individuals should be able to make without repercussions or stigmatization. Other students who’ve done pornography have not survived the harassment that followed. We wanted to tell their stories, too.
In the episode, titled "Pornstar’s Requiem," Evie Barnes -- "a slim brunette who could be my sister," said Knox -- is a college freshman who also works under the name of Roxxxanne Demay in the adult film industry. The story takes an upsetting turn (and one different from Knox's real life), when after Evie is outed by a classmate, two college boys sexually assault her in a bathroom. In her essay, Knox discusses how familiar she found the sexual entitlement portrayed onscreen:
And this sexual entitlement and double standards (how could a girl who plays out a rape fantasy ever be given the privilege of consent; doesn’t she relinquish that forever if she ever engages in rough play?) is the crux of the episode. Similar to the rough scene I filmed that was my entrée into porn, Evie is smacked -- hard -- in the course of her filming and the appearance could be interpreted as rape fantasy. While I do not consider what I did to be that, I have heard from others that they do consider it within this purview, and I respect their right to feel that way.
Because Evie does not appear to be giving consent in her rough sex porn film, these frat boys decide that is what she likes. They don’t need her to say yes! Even when she is crying and saying no, it doesn’t count! Why, they have the other film of her as proof.
It makes me want to barf.
To read Knox's essay in full, head over to xoJane.
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