By Elizabeth Newby, Columnist
Recently, Sasha Grey visited an elementary school to read during story time for first graders.
If you live under a high moral code, under OCU’s firewall, or possibly under a rock, and don’t know who she is, Sasha Grey is basically the Angelina Jolie of the porn industry.
She was a celebrity guest reader for Read Across America at Emerson Elementary School in Compton, CA.
After parents found out Grey was reading Dr. Seuss to their six-year-olds, they were pissed.
When the school district was confronted, they blatantly denied her presence, although there is photographic evidence of her participation in the event.
Apparently Sasha Grey has been retired from the industry for two years and is now calling herself an “actress” or “performance artist.” She has had a supporting role in the HBO series Entourage where she basically plays, well, a porn star.
Before I get sidetracked and start swooning about how meta and James Franco-esque her fictional portrayal of herself is, I have to say that I’m 100% Team Sasha and 0% Team Parents.
Every fiber of my being wants Sasha Grey to read freely to the children, porn star or not.
And I have no idea why I feel so strongly. Or at least I can’t completely justify it.
Bloggers and Youtube commenters who are pro-Sasha say that it’s okay because the kids don’t know any better.
That there is a slim chance they are going to Google her when they get off the school bus. For some reason, this makes me madder than the parents who are against her being there.
It’s like this sick representation of the sexual repression that’s continuously normalized in our society.
We hold everyone in the public eye to these virginal standards, yet turn adolescents into these teen sexpots.
It’s this huge paradox that is deemed acceptable as long as it’s wrapped up nicely in the packaging of a Taylor Swift CD, perfectly okay for your elementary-aged child to listen to and idolize and your husband to gawk at.
But when we are faced with someone such as Grey who has made a career for herself directly as a result of this repression, who has also made this career public, we essentially hold her to the same standards as a child molester.
I don’t think we should start educating children on the merits of porn as a profession. But at the same time, we’re only fueling this strange, Puritanical fire if we just chalk it up to ignorance.
I just want Sasha Grey to have the right to read a damn fairy tale.
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