To no one’s surprise, and with a quickness, the porn star Charlie Sheen allegedly terrified (at the very least) in his hotel room after apparently binge drinking has lawyered up. Capri Anderson’s move to try having his parole violated on a December domestic violence charge is purely a legal tactic, though I’m sure her heart bleeds for his poor, assaulted wife. This obvious deck-stacking can only be meant to grease the wheels of the civil suit we’ll no doubt soon be following on TMZ and Entertainment Tonight . Followed, bien sur , by a tell-all memoir of Anderson’s (aka Christina Walsh) sex worker hijinks. But that’s cool. It’s long past time sex workers were afforded all the same legal protections as any other human.
Think what you will of sex workers (as long as you think similarly of their customers), but think even harder about turning a blind eye to the heart-stopping dangers they face each and every day on the job. Our reaction to Sheen’s behavior ought to be no different than if Anderson was room service dropping off his dinner. Unless what allegedly happened in that room was a role-play fantasy thingie of the type I scratch my chin over at ” Savage Love” (sooo NSFW), Anderson was the victim of a crime.
I feel for Sheen. Every time I bump into the story, I’m reminded why cliches become cliches: Money so cannot buy happiness. But neither should it buy you the freedom to assault, terrify, and possibly imprison another person. At least we heard about Sheen. Sadly, most sex workers face these dangers from average Joes with nothing but the promise of a few dollars and no one giving a damn if they’re violated.
Photograph by Riccardo S. Savi/Getty Images.
