Before becoming a goddess, Rachel Marie Oberlin was just a girl from Fort Wayne, Indiana, by way of Texas. Then came stardom in the adult film industry, Charlie Sheen, retirement, and regret. It’s not so much that Oberlin, now known as Bree Olson, is remorseful of the work itself, but how it determined the trajectory of her life afterward.
Writing at the Daily Dot, Olson puts it bluntly, “I left a career where I made millions to try and gain respect. I pushed and struggled for years. People look at me as if I am the same as a sex offender. They look at me as though I am less than in every way, and they assume the absolute worst in every way. I had never realized how progressive my mind was and how scared people were of sexuality until this. I also realized I could never go back and be a nurse or a teacher, or work for any company really that can fire me under morality clauses for making customers feel ‘uncomfortable’ because of who I am.”
As to morality clauses, we have the Bible, although maybe not how one might expect. In Luke, for example, a prostitute washed Jesus’ feet while Jesus ate with a Pharisee—a Jewish religious leader—named Simon. The Pharisee objected, stating that if Jesus truly were a prophet, he would be quite aware of who was washing his feet.
Jesus replied that he was quite aware, then related the story of two men who owed debts they could not repay. One owed 500 denarii (an ancient denomination of money), the other only 50. The lender forgave both. Jesus asked Simon which debtor felt the most love for the lender, and Simon replied that it was obviously the one with the bigger debt.
You get where we’re going here? First, in case anyone is confused, we’re not Jesus, we’re just sinners. Second, pursuant to first, we’re not in the business of providing forgiveness of that sort. We can still forgive and offer grace, but of the terrestrial form.
Women As The Gatekeepers
We live in a society in which female sexuality is at an epoch. It is celebrated, encouraged, accepted. Women are not considered shameful for enjoying sex, even if they publicly admit it. But there are limits. Women can enjoy sex, they can crave it, they can yearn for it, but we’re not really cool with them selling it. See, no matter what ceilings get shattered, there is a rather obstinate gate.
That is, women are viewed as a gate or, more specifically, as the gatekeepers of sex. Men, we’re typically always ready with a strong desire to procreate with desirable mates, even if procreation isn’t a goal. Women, on the other hand, are the guards against such conspicuous consumption, the ones who say, “Whoa, wait a minute.”
Writing on the subject of women as the gatekeepers ranges from terrible to terrible, so I’ll just go with an old joke. What do you call a woman who sleeps with everyone? A slut. What do you call a woman who sleeps with everyone but you? A bitch.
In other words, we tend to think of sex as something women control, even if it’s not true. From pickup artists to choreplay enthusiasts, the same theme is echoed—women control sex and who gets to have it. From there, the discussion moves into how to convince them to do so, whether by neg or folding a fitted sheet.
But porn stars throw that dynamic on its end. Sure, they’re bitches, in that they aren’t having sex with us, but they’re also sluts, because they’re having sex with enough men to move the definition from being just about us. Moreover, they’re doing it on camera and for money. When they retire, even if for a man who definitely doesn’t deserve such commitment, they don’t get any credit, which brings us back to Simon.
The Wages of Sin
When seeking to explain away a variety of behaviors, those with whom Jesus associated are often invoked. Never mind that Jesus wasn’t kicking it with any of them while they were in the act, but while they were on the road to repentance. Since Olson is more upset about society than about her past, this dynamic isn’t at play, but no matter, because there’s still a lesson.
In her penultimate paragraph, she spells it out. “My biggest regret was leaving the industry. Leaving all of that money and trying to get the world to like me. They still don’t, and they never will. I should have just put in another five years at least so that in more my smart financial years as I was older, I could have saved enough to live comfortably for the rest of my life.”
The wages of sin may be death, even when the wages are literal, but that’s not a foregone conclusion. In repentance we can gain life. In this big, wild brave new world, although many of us will regularly choose to go for sin, we have been granted the grace to ultimately choose life. So maybe we shouldn’t get caught up in the past and instead welcome one another as fellow travelers in the present, even as we continue to try and fail.
Thankfully, being in the job of crucifying isn’t ours either; that’s been taken care of. With Bree, we have another choice; it’s up to us to choose wisely.
