The betrayal of James Deen is not just the betrayal of a man who rapes, but rather, the betrayal of a fellow sex worker who is supposed to get the game. He’s supposed to be able to put his hands around your throat while fucking your ass one minute, and respectfully sit next to you making small talk waiting for the camera crew to fix lighting the next. Sex workers are supposed to have this shit down, because we know where the line between fantasy and reality is. Despite the protestations of those who claim that if you shoot aggressive porn eventually you will start abusing women, it feels to me that if you shoot aggressive porn than you should be highly aware of when to turn energy on and off and be equipped with a commitment to always respect those boundaries. Sex work is a job, and one of the job requirements is your ability to negotiate consent. If you won’t honor people’s boundaries, you don’t belong anywhere near another human being, much less on a porn set.

Teetering on the edge of its time at the front of the new cycle, the questions this story brings up for sex workers remain: can this call forth a new culture wherein porn performers do have an awareness of “appropriate boundaries”? Will systems be created that provide the opportunity for workers to report sexual violence in their workplace without fear of reprisal? Moreover, does the relatively dignified national conversation about James Deen’s assaults mean anything for other sex workers who are assaulted? Does the furor about Deen extend also to the 13 black women, many of whom were sex workers, who were sexually assaulted by police officer Daniel Holtzclaw? Or does the public only feel solidarity with sex workers who have hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers?

“I hope this signals a tidal change. A moment where a sex worker calls out her assaulter and is not immediately, aggressively minimized is a blessing. When she is joined by others who say that they believe her, it is a blessing. When her story being amplified provides room for others to tell theirs, it is a blessing. Thank you to all those who spoke out, who will speak out, who told their stories even if no one listened, and who tell their stories to themselves to remember that it was not their fault.