Amateur Porn, Cyber Bullying and the Tragic Death of Aly

The first thing one would notice upon seeing pictures or videos of the late Alyssa Funke was that she was incredibly magnetic. Not the type of forced magnetism which is common place on social media, but rather the type of effortless charisma that so rarely comes natural. It’s this simple fact which makes her death even more of a tragedy….if that is even possible. Alyssa was 19 years old and from Stillwater, Minnesota. She had very little stability inside her house growing up, with a father in-and-out of jail, and a mother who was arrested for dealing drugs and neglecting Alyssa’s younger siblings. Alyssa moved in with her grandmother when she was just a young teenager. Despite this adversity, Alyssa showed the tell-tail signs of someone that was truly remarkable. She was a gymnast, straight-A student and aspiring anesthesiologist. She also struggled with money- having to transfer Colleges from St. Catherine University to University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Alyssa turned to amateur pornography to help pay for college. She wound up having what could probably be classified as a lapse of judgement (as we all do when we’re young) and performed on a site called CastingCouch-x. The ramifications were devastating to her, as she had to deal with intense cyber-bullying from her old high school classmates, as well as new college peers. Although Alyssa posted to her social media accounts as if everything was fine… unfortunately it was quite the opposite. Just a little more that two weeks after the video was posted in march of 2014, Alyssa decided to buy a 12-gauge shotgun and head to Big Carnelian Lake in Minnesota, using a borrowed car. It was at that moment where she chose to end her life.
(Image of the boat dock at Big Carnelian Lake)
Alyssa was the type of person I wish I could learn more about. At the tender age of 19, her tweets suggest that she had depth beyond her years: For somebody as endearing and talented as she was to do something so drastic is beyond sad, and it raises a lot of points about what we can do in today’s world to prevent things like this from happening. Most importantly, we have to consider raising the legal age for adult film performers. If someone under 21 is considered too immature to drink, why then are they considered old enough to perform in an adult film? For the record, I believe that if someone chooses to go into that industry after they’re a little older, that is their decision and right to do so. No girl (or guy for that matter) that is younger than 21 should be able to have sex in front of a camera for a studio- and that be something that is condoned as acceptable in modern society. Unfortunately, not only are teenagers allowed to do porn, but youth porn is its own thriving subsection within the porn industry. Consumers fetishize about it; and you can find a ‘Teens’, and more disturbingly ‘exploited teens’ category on almost any major porn website.
In an interview with VICE, feminist porn director Nica Noelle discusses being one of the only female adult film directors, and voices her concerns about the industry… “It’s not the healthiest place for someone who is emotionally unstable, or struggling with drugs or self-esteem issues—yet those are often those who end up here. My observation is that a high percentage of porn performers, gay and straight, are engaged in a variety of internal struggles. And you can say that’s true in every field, but in just the last six months two performers I knew and worked with committed suicide…” She continues to elaborate on the severity of the problem by saying “There have been countless suicides and fatal overdoses since I started working in porn ten years ago, and in all my years working in corporate America I didn’t know anyone who committed suicide. So I think it’s disingenuous to say things like ‘troubled people are everywhere, not just in porn.’ Well, yes. But they’re more likely to self-destruct in an environment like this one.” As noted by Noelle, the adult film industry attracts people with already established self-esteem issues. Alyssa was no exception as she carried a negative self-image due to years of bullying. In an interview with Radar Online, Alyssa Funke’s mother revealed that “Alyssa was bullied her whole life. After all this recent bullying, she couldn’t handle it anymore.” Ms. Funke also told the Daily Mail she was bullied because “[she] didn’t have the nice things” that her classmates did.
Alyssa’s story is the prototypical narrative described by Noelle in her VICE interview- a person struggling with self-esteem issues, who enters a hyper-critical (and hyper-criticized) industry, that provokes their inner demons. So, while Alyssa was an extremely unique person- she unfortunately fell to becoming just another statistic in the adult film industry. The question is why aren’t there more safeguards in place so stories like Alyssa’s can stop becoming the norm and instead the outlier? While the discussion has to start with raising the performance age, the industry should also implement an extensive mental health assistance program for it’s workers. The adult film studios should be required to offer mental health benefits to their talent. We are talking about an industry that grosses $14 billion a year (which by the way, is more than the NFL), in which the performers have little to no benefits and a high risk of enduring mental illness. Adult entertainment is largely taboo in our society, and few people are willing to discuss and/or ridicule it in public. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t treat the people involved like people. If there was another industry that grossed such a huge amount annually while exploiting young adults and exposing them to mental health risks, there would be a public outrage. in our society (because at 18 they are still children) and raise the minimum age to perform. Adult film studios should be required to provide extensive health care plans to their employees, with an emphasis on mental health. Regulations like these are simply about human decency and common sense. DM my instagram @lexington_nyc if you would like to help.