STILLWATER, Minn., May 23 (UPI) -- A University of Wisconsin student is dead of an apparent suicide after peers took to bullying her when they discovered she had appeared in a widely-distributed adult film.
Earlier this year, 19-year-old Alyssa Funke appeared in an installment of Casting Couch, a professionally produced amateur porn series. Appearing under the name Stella Ann, the real-life straight-A student discusses her academic aspirations on camera before having sexual intercourse with her male costar. Shortly after the video was posted online, students from Funke's graduating high-school class began harassing the college freshman on social media.
"Wow, your a thot. Does her dad know?" one classmate tweeted. "Thot" is local colloquialism for prostitute. "Nothing brings a school together like a porn star who graduated last year. I guess you could say news spreads fast here at Stillwater hahah," wrote another. Those are among the only tweets that can be reprinted by traditional media outlets, as most others were exceptionally vulgar.
After months of targeted-harassment, Funke, who had a history of mental instability, legally purchased a shotgun, drove to her parents' lake house and shot herself.
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Local police are still investigating the incident, but they have not categorized the cyberbullying as criminal harassment. Despite headlines to the contrary, local media have assigned this narrative as well, crediting "expert" statements from Joy Friedman, a social worker for an anti-porn nonprofit.
Friedman staunchly defended societal stigmatization of sexual expression to a local Fox affiliate, with no mention of how that mentality enabled Funke's harassers. "Now, it goes into your family, it goes into your friends, it goes into your career," Friedman rationalized. "In the future, this is what you're known for and this is who you're labeled as."
Tasha Reign, a gender studies major at the University of California at Los Angeles and notable adult film actress, condemned attempts to deflect blame from the bullies onto the industry Funke had only once been involved with.
"It's just much easier to blame a marginalized group of people, than the actual issue," Reign said. She views the "actual issue" as how people view sex workers and the adult film industry.
In 2013, experts estimate online pornography was a $10 billion dollar business, equal in economic value to the National Football League.
