I believe the case of August Ames is a prime example of why s*x cannot be unproblematically commodified, and that the concept of "s*x work" is inherently flawed.

BACKGROUND

Born in Canada in 1994, August Ames was a pornographic actress. She entered the industry at the tender age of 19. She has appeared in over 100 pornographic films and she has been awarded four times at the AVN Awards, including one for Performer of the Year.

THE TRAUMA OF AUGUST AMES

What makes a woman do porn at 19? Surely she must be a horny slut who doesn't want to work, right? Let's learn a little about her upbringing and see what goes into creating your source of lust on the screen:

• Ames alleged that she was routinely sexually molested by her paternal grandfather as a child

• Her father refused to believe her and at 12 years old she was sent to live in a group home

• When she was just 15, however, she claimed the father of a child she was babysitting told her he would provide cocaine if she would strip down naked, so she did.

• “It was just awful. It’s still recent where I have to keep myself occupied or else I start thinking about all that shit and then I fall into a depression,” she shared. “I try to do therapy. I hate that word. I hate therapy.”

Understandably, this has left her utterly traumatized. She cannot stop the bad memories, and they incapacitate her.

• “Some days I’ll be fine, and if I’m not doing anything I’ll get these awful flashbacks of my childhood and I get very depressed and I can’t get out of bed and cancel my scenes for like a week or two,” Ames admitted.

https://canoe.com/entertainment/celebrity/porn-star-august-ames-spoke-about-childhood-molestation-drug-abuse-before-death

As psychotherapy tells us, the mind desires closure. When it cannot find it, it will revisit the moment of trauma and relive it to attempt to understand what went wrong. If there is no meaning to be found, that is the point where the mind gets stuck - logic and reason have failed.

Enjoy your slut.

AMES IN THE INDUSTRY

Ames was r*ped repeatedly while doing porn. This is to be expected - she is stuck in a cycle of abuse being exploited by pornographers and consumers. The production of commercial pornography is contingent on stochastic grooming. Nobody in a place of centralized power has to order women to be sexually traumatized - it is guaranteed to happen in part by the proliferation of objectifying material. The traumatized women are then used in the industry to make the very material that will lead to more women being sexually traumatized. It is a vicious cycle. Undoubtedly, Ames made pornography that will teach men to objectify women, and those men will go on to traumatize more women who will enter the industry.

In 2017, Ames sent the following to her friend via text following the shooting of a scene with porn actor Markus Dupree:

• “Yesterday was totally unprofessional and I wanted to die.”

• "He was dragging me around and choked me with my panties, slamming my head down on the table and was just WAY too rough and the scene didn’t even call for it. I was so enraged that when he pulled me down to kiss him I just spat in his face.”

• "I was literally in panic mode so I froze and didn’t say no or stop."

https://x.com/LailaMickelwait/status/1227453609408966661

Men have masturbated to this scene of this woman being r*ped on camera. Some of them are probably in this very post. There are also men still making money from the r*pe scene right now. Ames' mother has corroborated these allegations:

• “She was forced into situations where she was very poorly treated—beyond poorly treated. She was manhandled by her co-star, [Dupree] roughed her up. He left marks on her so badly that she couldn’t work for a couple of weeks.”

https://www.monstersandcritics.com/celebrity/hilary-rivera-august-ames-mother-makes-new-allegations-against-markus-dupree/

THE DEATH OF AMES

In 2017, Ames was asked to appear in a scene with a co-star who had performed in gay porn. I'd like for you to think about Ames' life for a moment. All the times she has been molested and r*ped, and had no power to stop it. I was literally in panic mode so I froze and didn’t say no or stop. For once, ONCE, in her life, she decided to display sexual autonomy and say no - she did not want to have s*x with a bisexual man.

The consequence? Instant ostracization in the industry along with non-stop internet harassment. In no uncertain terms, the world told her once again, that her sexual consent DOES NOT MATTER. It is irrelevant. You exist to make others orgasm, and the cost to you is not worth taking into consideration. In response, August Ames hanged herself. This is her last tweet:

https://x.com/AugustAmesxxx/status/937834002768990208

Please think about the full context of events. This was not a woman simply bearing the brunt of online criticism. This was a woman being told that her existence is to take peepee whether she likes it or not. Is there anything more destructive to the human spirit than to be told that your suffering is meaningless and moves nobody?

THE AUTOPSY

The medical autopsy revealed that she died of asphyxiation. She had cocaine, marijuana, zoloft and xanax in her bloodstream at the time of her death.

What about the psychological autopsy? Well, that is for us to decide. In my opinion, this had absolutely nothing to do with cyberbullying. This was someone stuck in a cycle of trauma. From a young age, she had been taught that her value was her sexuality and that is what others want from her. She exists to be used and molested.

At no point in her life did she ever have sexual autonomy. Trauma had stripped that away from her. Ames' yes is a distorted yes, one forged of the ill intentions of men in her past. It comes out of her lips but it does not have her voice.

In 2017, she tried to break the cycle of trauma. This is an incredibly difficult task. In a very real sense, it requires self-annihilation and the ability to shed thinking patterns of the past. To move past trauma, you must be reborn. This avenue was taken from her publicly and spitefully. She was told that it is in fact not her right to say no. The cause of August Ames' death was a denial of sexual freedom. The pornstar was not sexually liberated.

FRICK YA'LL

Frick ya'll indeed. Frick this world that refuses to give women their sexual autonomy. Frick the wicked who exploit the traumatized and troubled. Frick the hedonists that care only for their own carnal pleasures. Most importantly, frick ya'll, the everymen found the world over, who allow this evil to continue through their consumption of pornography and their silence when women are sexually abused.

Ames' story is not a strange one. You know full well that pornography is contingent on suffering. You cannot have one without the other. It's so easy to just call a woman a slut and be done with it. To take the time and have the empathy to understand people's history and how they arrive at certain points in their lives is simply too much to ask for many people.

To Ames, on behalf of all men, I am deeply sorry.