Harassment toward Duke porn star must end

 

All college students have to face the financial strain of tuition. Solutions usually are to accumulate loans or to take up a job. Typically, there is no criticism or national outrage at what a student does to fund their schooling, but that has not been the case for 18-year-old Miriam Weeks, better known as the Duke porn star.

Last week, the Duke student had an interview with the Huffington Post in which she commented on the negative reactions that have come her way since revealing what she does to pay for school. 

Earlier this month, when Weeks’ revealed her performer name, Belle Knox, she started racking up even more attention than she previously received as the nameless porn star of Duke University. 

It seems that Weeks’s attendance to Duke is the sole reason for all the national attention she is receiving – especially since outlets such as the Huffington Post are sure to mention that Duke is a “prestigious” university and most websites use the school’s name all throughout their articles
about Weeks.

It is as if people are expected to be shocked that this young woman attending such a “distinguished” school would degrade herself to porn. In reality, Weeks’ job does not affect anyone but herself as she tries to make a dent in the estimated $62,000 cost to attend Duke each year. 

Now that Weeks’s identity is public, she has become a target of bullying by her fellow students on campus, receiving glares in dining halls and seeing students whisper as she passes by. 

More alarming are the threats Weeks receives on Facebook and Twitter, which range from childish threats of throwing trash on her to more violent rape and death threats. 

Weeks addressed the critics and threats on xoJane.com, in which she pointed out the hypocrisy over her situation. 

Weeks said that women are encouraged to be sexual by society, but her job as a porn star has her deemed a “whore” by people who have never met her. 

What is disappointing in Weeks’s story is not her choice to be a porn actress, but rather those who choose to bully and
threaten her. 

Those who are angry with her without meeting her are most likely upset hearing that someone can be at a place of higher education and still enter a business that is both taboo and flourishing. It is ironic that our society’s media often prefers women to be portrayed sexually, but then when a young college student wants to own her sexuality, she is dehumanized for it. 

However, as a positive change from the threats she receives, Weeks has met people who say they are fans of her as she ventures further into the adult industry as a stripper at Headquarters, a New York strip club.

Soon the news cycle and the harassment will die down and Weeks will just be another student -who just happens to be a
porn actress. 

It is a job which Weeks has described as “fulfilling” and “empowering,” a response that should be enough for critics to leave the young woman alone and move on with their own lives. 

Adam Mathieu is a sophomore majoring in studio art.