Stoya Weighs in on Porn Star Privacy for 'NY Times'

NEW YORK—Spurred by the current swarm of media chatter surrounding the "outing" of Duke University freshman Belle Knox's X-rated alter ego—including Knox's own discussion of the matter Thursday night on CNN's Piers Morgan Live—always articulate adult star Stoya penned an op-ed piece on the place of stage names in today's culture of light speed information published in Sunday's edition of The New York Times. "For me, choosing a stage name felt less like concealing my identity," Stoya wrote, "and more like deciding on a user name for any Internet service or website." Though she conceded that many adult performers continue to use pseudonyms in an attempt to keep their legal identities hidden, she cautioned, "This might possibly have worked in the '70s, but with easy access to enormous amounts of adult content on the Internet and the ease with which we can all find juicy tidbits of information about one another's pasts online, I can't see it having much effect anymore." She added that the new Porn 101 video produced by the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee (APAC), on whose board she serves, begins with the caveats, "There is a great likelihood that everyone you know will see these images, or at least find out," and, "You cannot expect your legal name to remain a secret, and a stage name will not fool people who recognize you." She went on to remark that when fans do address her by her legal name at appearances, "All they're doing is letting me know that they had 30 seconds to spend on Google and no sense of propriety." Read Stoya's full opinion piece here.