Throughout someone’s existence, there are distinguishing moments they can point to and acknowledge a shift in their life. For Lorelei Lee, one of those distinct times was when she entered into the porn industry. On May 11th, 2017, The Establishment, an online website offering political and social articles, Lorelei Lee posted an essay titled Once You Have Made Pornography explaining the socially constructed stigma around porn industry workers. Lee, a writer and porn performer, aims to expose how society objectifies those in the porn industry and explain the reality of life as a sex worker. This essay is an undoubtedly thought-provoking piece, which encourages readers to reflect on pornography from the participant’s eyes. The stylistic choice
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From Lee’s perspective, “once you have done [pornography], anyone who knows you have done it sees a mark on you — believes there is a thing about your personality or life history that is revealed”. In essence, society stops seeing porn stars as people but rather damaged objects they have some power over. The stylistic choice of writing in the second person allows the reader to develop more of a connection to the piece and a deeper emotional relationship because it feels more personal and directed at them specially. Additionally, even though the essay is about pornography and the impact it has on a person’s life, using the word “you” makes sentences applicable to the reader’s life even if they haven’t participated in sex work. Lee’s statement about the feeling of explaining her career choice to strangers, “you will have to estimate the expected intensity and impact of their reaction and the power they are likely to have over you if you do tell them”, becomes universally applicable; everyone thinks this before they confide a secret or disclose personal information to someone. By making her writing more relatable, Lee is able to get her audience to empathize with her, thus leading to them accepting her point that porn stars are being objectified by …show more content…
In the beginning of the article, Lee talks about the feeling of telling people her profession, clearly one of the first events that alters the way people around Lee view her. Then, Lee transitions into the “step” of friends, classmates, and family viewing her video/photos. The reader understands that these two situations are the first ones that would noticeably make an impact in Lorelei Lee’s life. Continuing in the essay, Lee explains how people began treating her rudely and making abrasive comments, an understandable effect of being identified as a sex worker. Lastly, she shifts into talking about how her co-workers became her only friends because they were the few who still treated her as a human. They are the people who ask her about her “relationships and [her] side projects and [her] new apartment”. Readers can rationally justify this effect because Lee’s coworkers are the only ones who share the same experience of working in pornography. By progressively moving through the events that lead to her objectification, Lee justifies her argument logically and rationally to the
From Lee’s perspective, “once you have done [pornography], anyone who knows you have done it sees a mark on you — believes there is a thing about your personality or life history that is revealed”. In essence, society stops seeing porn stars as people but rather damaged objects they have some power over. The stylistic choice of writing in the second person allows the reader to develop more of a connection to the piece and a deeper emotional relationship because it feels more personal and directed at them specially. Additionally, even though the essay is about pornography and the impact it has on a person’s life, using the word “you” makes sentences applicable to the reader’s life even if they haven’t participated in sex work. Lee’s statement about the feeling of explaining her career choice to strangers, “you will have to estimate the expected intensity and impact of their reaction and the power they are likely to have over you if you do tell them”, becomes universally applicable; everyone thinks this before they confide a secret or disclose personal information to someone. By making her writing more relatable, Lee is able to get her audience to empathize with her, thus leading to them accepting her point that porn stars are being objectified by …show more content…
In the beginning of the article, Lee talks about the feeling of telling people her profession, clearly one of the first events that alters the way people around Lee view her. Then, Lee transitions into the “step” of friends, classmates, and family viewing her video/photos. The reader understands that these two situations are the first ones that would noticeably make an impact in Lorelei Lee’s life. Continuing in the essay, Lee explains how people began treating her rudely and making abrasive comments, an understandable effect of being identified as a sex worker. Lastly, she shifts into talking about how her co-workers became her only friends because they were the few who still treated her as a human. They are the people who ask her about her “relationships and [her] side projects and [her] new apartment”. Readers can rationally justify this effect because Lee’s coworkers are the only ones who share the same experience of working in pornography. By progressively moving through the events that lead to her objectification, Lee justifies her argument logically and rationally to the