Douchebag of the Week: Slut-Shaming ‘Comic’ Andrew Schulz

Thursday night, as Belle Knox, the Duke University student and adult film performer spoke on CNN, a supposedly “edgy, street-smart” comic named Andrew Schulz took to Twitter to slut shame Knox, and every woman who chooses to work in adult entertainment.

Maybe it was because he was stuck performing in Buffalo, NY, but Andrew was in a foul, judgmental, and pointedly unfunny mood.

“Porn should be a last resort. Not some shit women are proud of“, wrote Schulz.

Read his rant from the bottom up:

Pretty hilarious stuff, huh?

As one could probably imagine, Schulz’s tirade was not well-received by adult performers and those who respect the concepts of bodily autonomy, sexual agency, and the rights of sex workers.

Let’s examine a couple of this genius’ statements —

Newsflash, bro, adult women aren’t owned by their fathers. What century do you live in?

You refuse to “allow” it — is that right, douchebag? News flash: you don’t get to decide jack shit for anyone but yourself.

As for the topic of “empowerment,” the measure of one’s job — ANY job — should not be whether one finds it empowering. A job can be empowering, or not. One can love it, one can be ambivalent about it, or one can hate it.

Porn is a job in the field of entertainment, just like comedy, Andrew. The one thing that makes porn as a job different from others is the stigma from assholes like you who think it can’t be empowering.

Many women (and men) do find it empowering to have the freedom and independence that a career in adult entertainment provides. They can work relatively few hours per week and spend more time taking care of their families. You know what’s not empowering for many single moms? Having to work 40 hours or more a week for less money, and pay for a nanny.

If this all is too abstract for you, Andrew, perhaps you should peruse a qualitative study (recommended by my wife, Christina Parreira — a sex worker, researcher and PhD student) that collected data from 50 current adult performers: Motivations for pursuing an acting career in pornography (Abbott, 2002), cited in another excellent resource, Ron Weitzer’s (2010) book Sex for Sale: Prostitution, Pornography, and the Sex Industry.

Yes, Andrew, many women do find it empowering to receive payment for doing things other women do for free.

Hey, Andy — when you’re not jackin’ it to porn, eating, sleeping, making bad comedy, or displaying your issues about sex on Twitter, you (presumably) have sex with people — for free.

Perhaps you’d like to get paid for doing something you enjoy . . . or maybe you think of sex as too intimate an act to treat as commerce. Either way, that’s nobody’s business but yours.

Adult performers deserve and demand the same courtesy. And if you don’t like it, you can go fuck yourself.