Belle Knox Does Duke

I was watching The View this morning.  One of their guests was an eighteen year old Duke University student who is financing her way through college by doing porn.  She is proud of her night job and feels "empowered" by it.

Empowered?  Doesn't she realize that women with absolutely no choices have turned to selling their bodies since the beginning of time?  I'm not sure what is empowering about it.  When your own body becomes a commercial commodity, where is the power?  This young girl is sick of the way women have been poorly treated in the porn industry, so she "is taking a stand against it."  How? By joining the ranks?

She was throwing out statistics concerning her position like a learned scholar.  "Ninety-nine percent of families can't afford sixty thousand dollars a year."   Really?  How in the world does Duke fill its classes? There are no alternatives for families?  How about a few years in junior college cheaply earning those universal beginning credits?  How about attending a school one can afford?  Law degrees are available at many colleges, why pick sixty-thousand-dollars-a-year Duke?

Her next mind-blowing statement had my eyes rolling in their sockets.  "I, like most other people, have been watching porn since I was twelve."  Most other people?  Since twelve?  Show of hands here - who is reading this and nodding their heads in agreement?  Barbara Walters cracked me up when she asked if this kid watched porn alone or with her parents.  They are so supportive of her career after all.  She watched alone everybody.  Her parents may be supportive, but they didn't knowingly contribute to the delinquency of a minor.

I watched today in disbelief.  Women have historically used their bodies to earn money.  Where is the empowerment?  Does it come into being when one thumbs her nose at society in order to do what she wants?  Does it happen when one signs autographs and poses with fans at a convention for the porn industry?  Does it happen when one feels strong enough to rise above the ostracizing by her college peers of her sexual Joan of Arc act?  Or does it happen because one has money, and in our country, no matter how you get it, money means power?

I'm not sure how much longer this young woman will feel empowered.  Young people have been denied jobs because their Facebook pages show them partying and drinking alcohol.  No matter what degree is issued from what college, if her resume lists porn star in her employment history, where does she think her resume will go?  To the top of the pile or the circular file?  If she chooses not to include porn movies in her work history, will any company consider her as lying by omission when they eventually discover her history in the industry?  How empowered will she feel when she is fired?  Dishonesty will get her fired, not her history with porn.  However, her history with porn will most likely prevent her from being hired in the first place.  The whole job hunting experience will actually be out of her control.  Where is the empowerment in that?