The Internet Called Out James Deen Well Before Accusers Came Forward

Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Ethan Miller/Getty Images

The number of women accusing porn star James Deen of sexual assault now stands at eight. The allegations have mounted since Saturday, when Deen’s ex-girlfriend and fellow adult film star Stoya dropped a bombshell via Twitter claiming Deen raped her. But before she, Tori Lux, Ashley Fires, T.M., Kora Peters, Amber Rayne, Lily LaBeau, and Nicki Blue leveled their accusations, and before Joanna Angel went on record about what she called an abusive six-year relationship with Deen, there were plenty of questions being raised about the actor’s on-set behavior. And not by the media, or Deen’s critics. These questions came from his fans.

Across the Internet, from Reddit to The Data Lounge, viewers took issue with what they saw as Deen’s on-screen aggression. In their words*:

*Fairly obvious disclaimers: explicit language ahead. All typos [sic].

"It didn’t seem like the girl was enjoying herself"

He [James Deen] tweeted, saying, “ i love this scene"... Its a trailer of him fucking some girl all over ( mouth, ass, vag) and toward the end, she says'' youre fucking me in the wrong hole, isnt that the whole that people dont fuck in ?!" or something along those lines.Just to clarify, when she says, "wrong hole", shes referring to her butthole. Then he laughs a little and the trailer ends.

From my point of view, it didnt seem like the girl was enjoying herself. I mean... just from the trailer and what the girl said towards the end, it didnt seem like she was having a good time. Isnt that what JD is all about? Making sure the girl is enjoying herself? I love(d?) James Deen but seeing him like this/ in this type of scene sort of makes me sad. :(
KayteeHolt, Reddit, March 2015

"It just seemed too real"

I think he's super hot, but some of his vids I've found pretty disturbing too. I saw one on myvid with James and my favorite straight actor, Bruce Venture, that was basically simulated gang rape. I couldn't get into it. I know that we see this type of thing all the time in gay porn too, but it just seemed too real with a female actor...
Anonymous, The Data Lounge, May 2013

"A natural sadist"

... there are actually two James Deens.

The 'real' Deen is the man who is very, very, good at making the sadistic violent porn that is produced for straight men, who make up the overwhelming bulk of porn consumers (i.e., the people who actually buy the stuff which drives the market)... Deen is known throughout the industry as a natural sadist who takes genuine delight in inflicting as much physical and psychological pain on his female co-stars as he can get away with. A few, such as Andy San Dimas, have spoken out about this, but the small handful of established male porn stars are far more valuable and powerful within the industry than the endless stream of of girls who come through the valley, so most are silent about it.

Then there's imaginary Deen who exists in the minds and blogs of his (much smaller than has been hyped) clique of fan girls on tumblr who make gifs of him, mostly taken from his vanilla scenes from Digital Playground and the like, eating his co-stars out and holding their hands while he fucks them with remarks like 'OMG SO ADORABLE', and 'HE IS LITERALLY THE PERFECT BOYFRIEND!!!!'.

It's bizarre. These girls have managed to take a violent dude with an established record of abuse within the industry, and turn him into the porn equivalent of a Tiger Beat pin-up. I suspect it might be their way of 'coping' with the fact that porn is ubiquitous and inescapable for todays teen and 20-something women, so they take a part of it and determinedly (and against all the actual evidence of who Deen is) turn it into THEIR fantasy...
Some idiot woman journalist picked up on this and ran with a story portraying Deen as the world's first 'sensitive' straight male porn star who represented 'what women want'. The media have been endlessly regurgitating this line since, which causes confusion for most people when they look up his stuff online and encounter the 'real' Deen smirking like Ted Bundy in the middle of a gangbang.”
Anonymous, The Data Lounge, May 2013

"He just creeps me out"

I don't hate him, he just creeps me out. He turns EVERY scene into BDSM. [sic] Nope, I feel dirty after watching him.
inveterateasshole, Reddit, 2013

"Have women actually seen his movies?"

… Have women actually seen his movies? He's always looking to facefuck and gag the girl and he's got his hands on the girl's head. I would think gentle giants like Billy Glide and Johnny Sins would be more appealing, but I guess women dont see it that way.
fanman44, AdultDVDTalk.com, December 2013

"He started choking her"

I remember seeing him [James Deen] in a video with this girl who'd never been in porn before. He started choking her and she tried to get his hand off and obviously couldn't breathe, but he just put it back on her neck and said "you need to trust me". I got weird vibes from him ever since.
SomeOctoberTuesday, Reddit, December 2015

Sign up here for our daily Thrillist email, and get your fix of the best in food/drink/fun.

Nicole Caldwell is Thrillist's Sex & Dating editor, and has newfound respect for Internet chatter.