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Belle Knox is the 18 year old recently outed Duke University porn star. She said she did it to help cover her $60,000 per year tuition.
To be sure, I would be completely devastated if my daughter was to work as a porn actor. Those actions are anathema to my culture.
I would be devastated because my first thought would be her health, physical and psychological. Even if she claims to be OK with her porn job, is it true? Is she that liberated to view sex as casually as a drink, a smoke, or a hit?
My second thought would be the stigma that would potentially follow her throughout her life. Would it affect her job prospects, marriage prospects, and much more? Some websites treat their teen clients with respect, TubeV Sex is one of those websites. I have only heard good thing from them.
Of course my third thought would be about what it really means to me. Would everyone who knows me begin looking at me as the father of the porn star who works for websites like watch my gf? I know they do great stuff but maybe not for my daughter. As such would I become ineffective going forward in the things I wanted to accomplish because of the actions of my genetic appendage?
I have seen Belle Knox interviews on ABC’s GMA, the View, and Huffington Post. She speaks extremely intelligently. Belle Knox seems completely in control beyond her 18 years. HuffPost Live did the best and most intelligent interview with her. It is long but it shows the depth of the young woman.
Belle Knox has said in many of her interviews that she felt empowered because she decides what she does with her body. She qualified that in no uncertain terms on The View by specifically noting the thin line in the porn industry between empowerment and degradation. Belle Knox said she started watching porn from the age of 12.
I continue to find Sherri Shepherd of The View one of the shallowest hypocrites on TV. She faked surprise that in the 21st century 12 year olds are watching porn. Really, when my daughter was a pre-teen I had to scold a couple of her friends around that age for pulling it up on the Internet. I am sure it was not an isolated event. Sherri Shepherd presumes to read Belle Knox’s mind and feels a pain for her. How condescending is that?
I was most impressed with Whoopi Goldberg’s nuanced understanding of Belle Knox. Whoopi understood that what the young lady meant by empowered. Whoopi understood that going forward Belle Knox may or may not be hurt either psychologically or physically as she grows older. Most 18 year old young adults think they know it all or have it all together. The reality is some do.
Whoopi also exposed Sherri Shepard’s righteous indignation. After-all, it seems Sherri Shepherd herself is a consumer of porn. Sherri wants to consume porn even as she disparages the source of porn in the flesh.
Millionaire Heiress Paris Hilton released her own porn movie and slept around with who knows how many men. The same applies to Kim Kardashian and many other ‘stars’. In Touch magazine has been revealing the 36 names on Lindsay Lohan’s handwritten sexual conquest list. Did any of the women on The View question their morality or sanity when they sat on the couch? No. They went into their continual star worship. Did these women get paid for the trysts?
I live in a very conservative suburb of Houston. Many parents swing. Many parents get toasted, high, and drunk in front of and away from their kids. Yet many are judgmental to the nth degree of hypocrisy like Sherri Shepherd. Many times this hypocrisy is the genesis of whatever acts the kids indulge in.
I would not want Belle Knox to be my daughter for all the reasons I mentioned above, some selfish, some not. I however will not judge that young woman. In a society that has made it next to impossible for the average kid to go to a good University, she did it her way. That is likely the empowerment she speaks about. What is interesting is she is using her notoriety to make much more than she could simply selling her body. The young woman has become a damn good capitalist. After-all, is that not what we teach everyone to aim for?
Belle Knox on GMA
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Very good read, Egberto. I have often wondered how I would react, as a father. I have known neighbors in the business, female friends working as dancers in seedy bars as well as other red light denizens that soldiers inadvertently encounter when station over seas. Respect was never an issue, but neither was overt public display. I am very grateful, never to have felt the urge to pass judgement.