Mom Who Does Porn Loses Child Visitation Rights

A mother who does porn gives an interview about her opinions on the porn industry. The interviewer prints her real name. An angry ex-husband finds out, and the woman subsequently loses custody and all visitation rights for her child.

Though somewhat strangely written, this Salon.com article asks the following questions:

Is a pornographic actress inherently unworthy of being a parent? Setting aside the morality of the industry, will even the best-intentioned porn star put her child in danger of stalkers?

Is a pornographic actress inherently unworthy of being a parent? Absolutely not. Are men who watch porn unworthy of being parents? Nope. And as far as stalkers—vitctim-blaming, much? Women are stalked every day, regardless of their livelihoods. Aren’t non-pornographic actresses just as likely—if not more likely, depending on how famous they are—to have stalkers? Should Angelina Jolie lose custody of her children? How about Gwyneth Paltrow?

If there is no evidence that a mom who does porn exposes or directly brings any of it to her child– why should she lose all rights to visitation? Because our society has a hard time understanding women who don’t fall neatly into the falsely constructed virgin-whore dichotomy— women who can be sex workers and good mothers, at the same time.

Women who are sex workers—in porn, prostitution, stripping, etc—have jobs and lives that are highly stigmatized. Yet the men who use the services they provide are seen as normal, mainstream individuals. Women in porn are shamed and lose their children, yet pornography remains a multi-billion dollar industry, and an accepted part of American male life. This hypocrisy should be the real shame.