The online adoration only grew when it was revealed Alex Haley, under the stage name Angel, had a prominent history in the adult entertainment industry. Many proudly claimed him a much needed face for sex workers.
But is this garbage the face we want ?
Like everyone else brave enough on
my TL to admit it, I sought the clips out. I knew the 90s was a different time for but I did not expect to be repeatedly traumatized by video after video of violently
misogynistic and transphobic rape porn. I'm on the verge of tears just thinking about the horrific depictions.
Most Harmony videos involve Angel dressed in clothing assigned to young women, flirting with a cis older man and then being violently
raped when the cis older man makes the "surprise" that an assigned male at birth body is underneath the women assigned clothing. Many of the videos have a
disgusting pedophilic bent as he is playing caricatures of lost high school
freshman, innocent cheerleaders or underage stepsons.
The sexier, non-penatrative Virtue content is somewhat more palatable but my taste had been soured and he was still playing disturbingly young.
While I’m sure he didn’t have much control over his career, what I can’t
excuse from Haley is his flippant responses to revisiting it. In a much reported on GLAAD Circle 2010 nominated documentary Obscene, Haley giggles while watching a rape clip. He later makes
a casual reference to playing young and "fucking teenagers".
And perhaps grossest off all and the real fuel behind my anger is a 2012 interview from the podcast Bang Sesh, hosted by kink social media personality Maverick. While I enjoy Maverick’s content and the way he advocates sex positivity to my generation, he is known as a clout chaser who has allegedly faked relationships and lied about his age to keep viewers.
In the podcast interview #HND (referred to as Angel) laughs repeatedly while telling a story where he drunkenly has sex with Maverick who Angel describes earlier in the interview as “underage.” It is absolutely disgusting that even in this 2012 recorded interview, he felt no shame admitting to getting drunk and having sex with an underage teen.
We need to look at the who gets left behind when we laud someone who feels no guilt for their virulent, dated and harmful work.