Lena Paul was very upset by the news that Evil Angel hired James Deen and made a series of tweets about it.
I love shooting for @EvilAngelVideo but after their CEO chose to fetishize the pain felt by victims of abuse in their new project, insultingly titled “Consent,” in which a performer details her suffering and long term health problem (jaw issues) caused by workplace abuse, I don’t think I can continue to shoot for them in good conscience. John Stagliano, I have tremendous respect for you as a pornographer, but as far as I know you have never been raped or sexually assaulted. Do you understand that inserting a woman recounting her trauma as the preface for a for-profit pro porn scene isn’t just “edgy” but inhumanly insensitive? It’s fine that Casey wanted to shoot with James but this is how you execute it? This is why SWERFs try to shut us down. Have you no empathy? No concern for the women you employ & the message this sends?
I try to pride myself on not being an individual prone to fits of emotion but I’m deeply unsettled by this. This is more than an examination of sexual politics, this is a slap in the face of attempts to modernize and humanize us as porn producers and performers. This sets us back have all the opinions you want, I encourage the spirit of discourse and I’ve met James and found him to be perfectly benign onset. But THIS? This is the route you take??? You’ve alienated so many people and I cannot in good conscience ever work for you again, which saddens me.
To all the directors of the @EvilAngelVideo: it has been a pleasure to work with you. To Mr. Stagliano: I recognize you will discount this message as hysteria and I hope one day you see this doesn’t come out of pettiness but genuine pain. Women have called me in tears today
Because someone as powerful as you normalizing this type of behavior is literally their worst nightmare every time they go to work. Shame on you. This isn’t a middle finger and a wink to political correctness, this is a middle finger to the 50% of your staff that’s female.
Sorry guys. I know you love my content with Evil and I do too, but I’m taking the pay cut on this. I try to get along with everyone, but I’ll absolutely be nauseous for the rest of my days when I step on an Evil Angel set and will be unable to deliver a good product for them.
6 Responses
Good for her! I can’t believe he still gets work. He should join Marcus on unemployment line.
Go, Lena, Go. The headline for this should change. James Deen has his own demons to outrun, but Stagliano is the primary offender here.
I don’t know if Lena is aware but Evil Angel is not a traditional porn producer. Evil Angel is a coalition of independent directors and Evil Angel is the distributor. Lena has every right to penalize the director responsible for this movie but should not penalize or shun their other directors because of the sins of a single director.
She didn’t have a problem when the CEO was having relations with an active female performer but she has a problem with him now?
Smoke, Lena wasn’t in the industry when Stags was having an affair with Sheena Shaw in 2012-2013. She probably didn’t even know that Stags existed. It should be noted that Stags has AIDS and Sheena didn’t (and to my knowledge she still does not, thankfully).
Questioning where or why she drew the line vs straight up respecting it IS part of the problem.
She has a clear line, while she didn’t have to justify the line she did. Kudos to her for refusing to be a part of monetizing abuse of consents.