Something our society loves to do is critique people for their actions, good or bad. We put our morals and ideologies onto others, practically shoving them down their throat, especially on social media. It has become normalized and to some, so annoying.
The first thing that should be clarified is that everyone deserves to have their own opinion on what morals or ideologies they follow, unless they cause harm towards a specific group. That is the first amendment of the United States. Of course, there are limitations, but they won’t be addressed in this article.
Thus, my opinions may highly differ from yours. But my main point to address is that we blame the wrong people. Sure, when someone popular does something “bad” like cheat on their significant other, we instantly shame them, as most of the viewers have the same morality when it comes to things like those.
But things get complicated when it regards people’s “dignity”, and yes, this will regard the pornographic industry.
The average age that men will start or be introduced to pornography is as early as twelve years old, according to PR Newswire. And according to AddictionHelp, 69 percent of men in the U.S. view pornography regularly. Now you may be wondering, what does that have to do with anything?
The response is that some of these people are the same people who decide to slut-shame women.
One example of this is an OnlyFans model called Sophie Rain. She is famous for selling pornographic images of herself, and she shared that she made forty-three million dollars in one year. However, the moment she shared that, people attacked her.
Many people said she doesn’t deserve the money she made and she has no morals or any dignity if she is in that line of work. However, this is my argument: if over half of men in the U.S. watch pornography, there is no way at least one of them is not shaming Rain, thus, showing a great double-standard in society.
And based on my observations, many people justify their hate towards people like Rain with the argument that they have no dignity or morals. Simply, if anything bad occurs to them it is okay because they brought it on themselves.
I strongly disagree. Dignity and self respect are things that are based on one’s own perception of themselves; “pride and confidence in oneself”. All it takes is one Google search to find that out.
As I stated earlier, we all have different beliefs. There is no need to be shaming people for a decision that they made that fit within their own beliefs. All people associated with pornographic entertainment are more than old enough to realize the decisions that they are making and should not be shamed for following through with their adult decisions.
The constant slut-shaming towards girls like Rain gives off such double-standards, because the men who often shame them in public are the same men who probably have monthly subscriptions to other pornographic sites or stars.
They are mainly the ones funding and paying women like Rain, yet continue to belittle them as if they are any better. If there’s anything they should be angry about; it’s the game. The sites themselves or other people who regularly consume and help the pornographic entertainment increase is what or who should be shamed.
Just because a woman or man realized that they can make a huge amount of money quickly by doing things for adult entertainment does not mean that they deserved to get shamed for what they do. They are playing the same game of life just like the rest of us.
Saying nonsense like “Rain should not be making more money than this and that person” is a baseless statement. It’s all because of the fact that so many people are willing to pay for it that she made so much money in one singular year and that she continues to do OnlyFans.
And while the entertainment does include both male and female actors, it should be accounted for that the shaming often occurs and is targeted more towards women than men on social media. This is all because of the stereotypical standards of purity and “virtue” that men hold women up to.
If anyone should be blamed, it should be the people funding it, the ones who allow for the game to be created. A basic economics lesson is that if it wasn’t for the immense amount of consumers, the products being sold, well, wouldn’t be sold.