On May 30, Donald Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, thanks — in large part — to Stormy Daniels coming forward with claims about hush-money she received to stay quiet about their years-old sexual encounter.
Below, Kay Stephens, a lawyer turned romance writer, is showing her support for Daniels in a thank you letter that echoes the feelings of women across the US. Stephens’ upcoming book Daughter of the Lost, is available for pre-order now ahead of its July 16 release.
Thank you, Stormy Daniels.
I was raised in a country that hated sex. We despised it, really, to the point where we
criminalized anything that could be perceived as even mildly sexual.
Consensual sex outside of marriage? Yeah, my country had laws against that. Sodomy? You better believe we criminalized that non-reproductive tomfoolery. A woman exposing a breast to feed her baby? Well, I hope that baby was starving, because we had laws that could land its devious mama in jail.
It wasn’t just my government working tirelessly to stamp out the flames of sexual sin. No, my fellow country-people were just as committed to the cause. I learned this lesson early in life when one of my schoolteachers publicly swatted me on my behind and ordered me to stop wearing skirts to her classroom because she once “saw a boy look at [my] butt.” I was 11 years old. And while this story might read as harsh or even abusive to foreign eyes, in my country, a heaving dose of shaming was considered healthy for “sluts” like me.
Yes, my native country, 20th-century America, was truly a beacon of mandated purity. The land of the free and the home of the sexually regulated, one might say.
Though our country’s modern laws may have merely shifted from broad-spectrum slut-shaming to a brand laser-focused on specific demographics, those of us Americans crazy enough to believe in sexual
autonomy still have reason to celebrate. Because in the subtext of the case of People v. Donald J. Trump, we saw Stormy Daniels take the stand in defense of sex positivity.
And she won.
The lawyers on both sides of Trump’s courtroom have now been criticized for utilizing the ubiquitous “promiscuous women aren’t entitled to deference” argument to defend their positions. In a criminal case about the falsification of business records, the prosecution dug deep into the details of an alleged sexual encounter between Stormy Daniels and Trump, asking Daniels such critical questions as “Did he touch your skin?” and “Was he wearing a condom?” and “Was it brief?”
Though the image of a District Attorney wondering about a former US President’s ability to delay orgasm may be the height of unintentional comedy, it is difficult for critics to imagine how that information could help a jury determine whether Trump intentionally misclassified entries in his general ledger.
Commentators have been equally critical of Trump’s defense team, who attempted to use Stormy Daniels’ 20-year career in the sex industry as prima facie evidence her testimony about the alleged sexual encounter was a lie: “You have acted in porn movies, in 200 sex films, right?”
“And you’ve also written and directed 150 sex films…is that correct?”
“So, you have a lot of experience in making phony stories about sex appear to be real,
right?”
People following the case argue the defense team should have known better than to resort to
slut shaming a witness. But these lawyers, arguably some of the best in the country, went with a legal strategy that has been winning cases in America since we were all just a bunch of colonists prosecuting women for witchcraft. Ask any victim of a sex crime or plaintiff in a sexual harassment civil suit — slut-shaming is nothing more than a well-used tool in a litigator’s toolbelt.
It is used because it has always worked, and it has always worked because it is designed to feed off jury members’ baseline beliefs of what is morally repugnant (sex) and what is morally acceptable (no sex). Perhaps, however, these lawyers missed the article from Gallup Senior Scientist Frank Newport that summarized Americans’ rapidly evolving views on the morality of sex without traditional marriage.
Maybe, from their offices in New York, these lawyers couldn’t hear the thousands of American people cheering as Amber Rose led SlutWalks through the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Or, quite possibly, they stopped following the career of Monica Lewinsky, who somehow evolved from “ditzy, predatory White House intern” to “American activist” in the twenty-five years since she admitted to engaging in sex acts with another defamed US President.
Whatever the reason, these lawyers were ill-prepared for Stormy Daniels and her modern views on sex in America. Was she embarrassed of her career in the 20-year career in the sex work industry? No. Why would she be in a country where Pornhub, Xvideos, and XNXX now enjoy higher traffic rank scores than all non-pornographic sites except for Amazon and Yahoo? Did she fear the jury’s righteous judgment Apparently not, given each jury member was a citizen of America, where sex without marriage is and always has been “nearly universal.”
As a result, Stormy Daniels’ testimony demonstrated unyielding confidence in the morality of her sexual autonomy. So, Ms. Daniels, with your 350 “sex films” you have a lot of experience in making phony stories about sex appear to be real, right? No, Daniels explained, she does not have that particular professional experience.
“The sex in the films,” she clarified, “it’s very much real. Just like what happened to me in that room.”
Well damn. Those lawyers would have had better luck slut-shaming a brick wall. Since Stormy Daniels’ testimony, one political commentator has sarcastically said about her: “She’s truly a role model for little girls.”
Sarcasm aside, I’m going to agree with that statement.
The 11-year-old version of me, the one that can still feel a teacher’s disapproving hand, needed an unapologetic role model. She needed to hear from more adults who embraced their inner confidence, no matter who was attempting to strip them of self-love.
So, thank you Stormy Daniels for your David-and-Goliath style victory over a team of highly accomplished (though tragically misled) lawyers. You’ve reminded us that we don’t have to succumb to the pressure of the sexually righteous and shone a spotlight on the slow death of 20th-century American sexual values. Today, I hope you are celebrating your win. Because today, all of us “slutty” Americans are celebrating along with you.
Kay Stephens is a lawyer turned romance writer, divorcee turned member of the illustrious third-wives club, and party girl turned… uncomfortably old party lady. Her debut novel, “The Porn Star’s Daughter,” evolved from her lifetime achievement of always being the trashiest girl in the room. She now writes for the readers who like to shame the slut-shamers, who wear their too-tight skirts with pride, and who laugh at society’s ever-conflicting expectations of them. “Daughter of the Lost” is her second book inviting you inside the New Orleans college scene.
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