Ordeal

I'm an ex-sex worker. I now belong to Sex Workers Anonymous. I've lived this industry and I know the crowd Linda spoke about in her books. She had the courage to write about what wasn't just her experiences - but also many of ours experiences - but we go off into hiding and fear once we leave rather then speak out like she did knowing what it could and did cost her. I watched while people who knew nothing of this industry attacked her for speaking out about this industry doing what men do - always blame the woman/victim. Speaking out about what really goes on in this world affected her health deeply from the stress and contributed to her early death I'm sure. She's not the only one who had lasting health problems to deal with after having left the sex industry though no fault of her own. In America - a man can go to jail for raping his wife - but not for raping a sex worker. What people don't realize is that many of these men, women and children are living out Linda's story - they can't get out without fear of themselves being killed or their family members. I knew a pimp once who would hold a woman's child hostage until she came back each night with "his" money. One night she got arrested and wasn't able to come home on time. The pimp cut off the left arm of this six year old girl. Anyone who thinks you can't be held in this business against your will - obviously hasn't been there and should shut up about something they know nothing about. I consider Linda a martyr for taking all the guff she took to tell our stories and to try to enlighten people about what goes on every day - but we don't have the guts to tell about our stories ourselves. Anyone who wants to know what this industry can really be like - should read her stories. If all she wanted was to keep making money and just made this up to sell books - she would have done what Xavier Hollendar or Norma Jean or Heidi Fleiss - did. Sell a hell of a lot more books feeding into the american myths about this business - without any of the flack she took for telling the truth. The woman had the courage of a lion - not only to survive what she did - and to live to tell about it - but also to tell about it in the hopes that us "unknowns" are more believed when we try to tell our stories and try to get help to get out.

I am going to defend Linda Lovelace against those reviewers here who really don't believe her story by quoting from the groundbreaking psychotherapy book "Trauma and Recovery" by Judith Herman: "Most people have no knowledge or understanding of the psychological changes of captivity. Social judgment of chronically traumatized people therefore tends to be extremely harsh. The chronically abused person's apparent helplessness and passivity, her entrapment in the past, her intractable depression... and her smoldering anger often frustrate the people closest to her. Moreover, if she has been coerced into betrayal of relationships, community loyalties, or moral values, she is frequently subjected to furious condemnation. "Observers who have never experienced prolonged terror and who have no understanding of coercive methods of control presume that they would show greater courage and resistance than the victim in similar circumstances. Hence the common tendency to account for the victim's behavior by seeking flaws in her personality or moral character." So, think hard before you judge her.

I am a 29 year old mother of a toddler. I first read this book when I was in junior high school. I found it in my mother's library collection of books - and this was at a time when I loved to read anything I could get my hands on. I realize that at age 12 I had no business reading such a book (and my mother still doesn't know that I have HER book to this day.) I found it to be chilling. I had never known anything about the porn industry - and why would I? I was 12. The one thing that stood out in my mind was how she had been controlled and manipulated to doing things that NO PERSON should ever have to experience. I read the book again during my senior year in high school and again my sophmore year in college. Perhaps I just really tripped off of her whole experience. Perhaps I was reminding myself that I was much stronger than she ever was. I applaud her for bringing out the truth and not glamorizing the porn industry. I still wonder - what ever happened to her? I hope she's well and I hope that the scars of her past, stay in the past.

I think that it is so sad that people could make less of what happened to Linda Boreman. She is a victim in every sense of the word. It is terrifying to read reviews, especially when they seem to be written by women, that downplay Mrs. Boreman's trauma. She is candid, truthful, and is generous enough to recount her awful experiences. Maybe we should all take the time to understand and embrace what Boreman is saying, instead of criticizing and abasing a survivor.

It's hard to imagine that the life of Linda Boreman aka Linda Lovelace, the porn actress is not full of roses.Indeed, she had to go through abusive husband, force prostitution, and coercing into starring in Deep Throat. In this book she gives out a sad and violence detail of the event when she was forced to be gang raped by her very own husband.