A Former Porn Star Explains How Slut-Shaming Affects Her Life

Bree Olson currently works as a mainstream actress, but the sting of the harassment she received as a porn star still lingers. In the video above, released this week, Olson compares the slut-shaming insults directed at her to something she wears every day for everyone to see. "There are days to weeks at a time where I don't leave my house," she says, simply because she fears being judged for her career. Olson explains that because she worked in porn, people view her as someone who's dangerous and deviant. That that kind of treatment was one of the reasons she left the industry. It's been historically difficult to extract these misconceptions about women in porn from mainstream attitudes, but that makes Olson's decision to speak out all the more important. Of course, this is a larger problem than any one story can convey, but Olson's willingness to share hers shows how personally damaging harassment can be. In addition to the women who accused James Deen of rape and abuse late last year, former porn star Aurora Snow penned a piece for the Daily Beast about how hard it is to come forward with these stories, citing past instances when women's complaints of abuse were denied. Olson and all of these women should be commended for sharing their personal stories with a wider audience and forcing the mainstream to confront how slut-shaming and sexual harassment fit into our culture. As more women come forward, more people will see how things need to change.