Originally published at: 30 sexual assault charges for Ron Jeremy | Boing Boing
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Dude who treats women like objects treats women like objects.
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Under the age of 14?! Burying the lead here.
(And no I won’t spell it ‘lede’)
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I remember when you’d see occasional stories about how we should all view this Ron Jeremy person as a beloved treasure, and my reaction was always (a) “ew” and (b) “where the fuck is this coming from”. It happened very briefly with some other male straight-porn performer, too, with a bunch of unasked-for mainstream pieces about what a great guy he was, followed instantly by a bunch of stories about how, no, actually he was a slimebag.
Sometimes I get this weird sense that writers will just echo any bullshit a PR person sends them, no matter how obviously fishy it is. Almost like the media industry feels systemically immune to consequences from being horribly wrong. But that would imply that the people whose job is to establish truth hold the concept of truth in contempt. Which would be crazy.
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My guess would be that it’s even dumber than that: less about feeling immune, and more just human laziness. If they’ve got a deadline and space to fill, and someone hands them a bunch of copy they can very easily rework a bit for publication, why expend the energy to research it or contradict it?
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Enjoy your golden years in prison.
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Whoever wrote
family-friendly totem
really missed the mark. Nothing family-friendly about it at all.
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Kind of not suprising:
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I have an in-law that worked in the management side of the adult video business for many years and dealt with Ron Jeremy frequently. She’s said that he was always a creepy individual, the kind of person that would walk in on a company birthday party and tear off a piece of the birthday cake with his hands and stuff it into his maw. No one wanted a piece of cake after that.
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I’m surprised that some prosecutor hasn’t attempted to make a name for himself by charging people in the porn industry with prostitution. After all the performers ARE having sex in exchange for money. That fact that a camera is pointed at them doesn’t seem to change that fact. I’m not advocating that, by any means, just surprised.
It has been done.
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I don’t think laziness ever really explains anything (I don’t think it exists, but that’s probably an entirely different topic). If the standards of the industry were that you don’t pass on unfiltered PR material as fact - if people expected reputational loss when caught out passing on bad information - then people wouldn’t be as lazy in that way. So they may not be sitting around actively believing themselves to be immune from consequences, but the fact that they largely are still shapes their behaviour.
On another note, god damn it. I really hope we’re moving gradually forward towards a sex work industry that isn’t built on the exploitation of women and therefore doesn’t attract and encourage men who see exploiting women as the best part.
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Was this the Twitter lead James Dean thing? I remember reading about that and thinking it was weird and then his ex-girlfriend - also a porn star? - complained about it because she said that he had raped her.
Did twitter/social-media also have something to do with the weird rehabilitation of Jeremy that has happened in previous years?
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I’m always surprised by cases like this - ‘famous’ people who live worse than most middle-class families, but carry the baggage of being recognized on the street.
I’m not singling out Jeremy in this case, but can imagine the stress certain actors, musicians and other public figures must face to keep up a public persona, while struggling to put food on the table.
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Yeah (I think he spelled it James Deen or some annoying thing like that).
IIRC the Ron Jeremy stuff dates all the way back to turn-of-the-century trend for bro-y guy media, like “lad mags” and the Man Show and what not. It was certainly happening before Twitter.
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Yeah. That’s the silver lining of this story: these women were strong enough to stand up and speak out, and finally we’re at a place where they are listened to.
The fact that some of them have been speaking out for decades and being told, “eh, whatcha gonna do?” is maddening, but at least there’s evidence of change now.
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Yikes and gross.
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I spend a fair amount of time exploring the porn industry for work.
waits for laughter to die down
Seriously, it’s a part of my job.
waits for more laughter
Ok, at any rate…there was a push to mainstream a bunch of porn actors in the late 90s/early 00s due to a variety of sociocultural things slightly/temporarily breaking down the taboo nature of adult content. I think having a national debate about POTUS’ sex life played a part. The internet was also a big part of the process, since even though social media hadn’t really taken off, porn “personalities” started to become well known. Jeremy was one of the early adopters and self-promoters and really marketed himself as a lovable scamp. It took a long time for the social media to catch up and reveal the reality of just how awful he (and much of the industry) is/are.
This has been my TED talk!
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I never watched the documentary Porn Star but the previews sure seemed tailored to promote that image. I assume his sex crimes weren’t mentioned in the film.
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That was definitely a part of his media blitz. He was a talented self-promoter and his atypical physical appearance made him a curiosity. I’m pretty sure Howard Stern also helped popularize him and a number of other performers but I can’t recall that part off the top of my head.
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