James Deen Rape Allegations

James Deen And The Troubling Rush To Judgement

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One of the foundational principles of the Western legal system is “innocent until proven guilty,” but like many principles, it is often better liked in the abstract than in reality. The Salem witch trials, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the McCarthy blacklists all testify to the difficulty of defending the presumptively innocent against popular prejudice — and of what terrible things societies are capable of when this safeguard is forgotten.

Social media seems to have exacerbated this problem. Rumors and accusations move at the speed of the Internet, encouraging people to take sides and form opinions well before all of the facts are known.

This was the case in the now-infamous Rolling Stone/University of Virginia debacle, and in the misreporting of remarks Nobel prize-winning scientist Tim Hunt made on the subject of women in science. In both instances, innocent people had their reputations tarnished, and anyone who expressed a measure of caution or concern with how rapidly the narrative transitioned from accusation to punishment, absent any real investigation into the merits of the claims, was vilified or portrayed as morally bankrupt (“‘Is The UVA Rape Story a Giant Hoax?’ Asks Idiot” ran one headline).

The most recent example of this rush to judgment came this past November, when the pornographic actress Stoya took to Twitter to accuse her one-time boyfriend, the hugely popular porn actor James Deen, of raping her.

James Deen held me down and fucked me while I said no, stop, used my safeword. I just can't nod and smile when people bring him up anymore. — Stoya (@stoya) November 28, 2015

Almost immediately after Stoya came forward, eight other women produced horror stories of their own, accusing Deen of a variety of abusive, degrading and, above all, nonconsensual behavior. And just like that, the one-time poster boy of progressive porn, an outspoken advocate of the need for consent and mutual respect, fell from grace.

Thus far, no charges have been filed, no court date set, but James Deen has been convicted in the court of public opinion. Production company Evil Angel has suspended sales of his movies; BDSM site Kink.com no longer advertises him as a performer; sex toys in his likeness are being pulled off shelves; his long-running advice column on feminist site The Frisky has been discontinued. It is very likely that he will never again work in the adult industry, and almost certain that his reputation, once so spotless, will never recover.

As Amanda Hess put it in her Slate column, “It only took a couple of tweets to tear it all down.” Indeed — but shouldn’t this give us pause? Is there no way to strike a balance between the rights of the accused and of the accuser?