Reaction to Tina Tyler’s Blog
Wallice Situation Stirs Up Strong Reaction
As one would expect, Tina Tyler’s latest blog on the Marc Wallice situation has stirred up some strong feelings. I am going to print two of the replies because they are well written and from people I respect deeply. I thought that Tina’s blog was interesting and thought-provoking. We may all have different opinions about the issue, but I appreciate Tina’s views and her candor. I also appreciate all of you who have written in on this issue.
Den from www.CARV.com writes:
Yes, Tina is correct, Marc Wallice is entitled to make a living. My opinion is it should not be as a director.
I wonder how Tina would feel if she were one of the 5 gals?
I LOVE Tina, I just don’t agree on this one.Thanks,Den
Resident toy reviewer Savana Switzer also had a lot to say about Tina’s blog, the Wallice situation in general and a few other issues. I am not going to argue with Savana (as I didn’t argue any points with Tina) but I do need to clarify a few points. 1. As far as any of us know ALL accusations of wrongdoings by Skeeter against his children have either been proven to be false of have gone by the wayside. 2. I’m not sure we ever proved that Jordan McKnight was infected by Wallice. Small point, but it warrants mention. The rest is a very well written op/ed piece and I’m proud to have it on this site even if I would take issue with some small points.
Savana Switzter Writers:
“Hi Rog,
I read Tina Tyler’s blog, and I felt the need to reply. I want to first offer the disclaimer that I’ve followed, albeit somewhat limitedly, Tina’s thoughts on the industry since I discovered her MySpace, and I am interested in what she has to say. She’s a unique voice in an industry dominated by sheep, and it’s a shame I have yet to see any of her work on film. That being said, I completely disagree with her take on the Marc Wallice situation.
I should start off by saying that Wallice starred in the first porn I ever watched, a low-budget nothing called “The Barlow Affair,” which I intercepted from my older brother’s private stash. I was around 10 or so at the time, probably too young to be watching strangers have intimate relations, but it was an experience that stayed with me. Turns out that “The Barlow Affair” was one of Wicked’s first major plays. Anyway, I remember Wallice, mostly due to the fact he nailed Selena Steele while a young, wide-eyed Teri Weigel voyeuristically hangs in the shadows. Accompanied by soft jazz, the memory of which still gets me hot and bothered, forgetting him was never an option, although I didn’t know his name.
Imagine my surprise when, getting involved on the fringe of the industry twelve years later, I found that the classic stud from my first porno also turned out to the harbinger of HIV, and that not only did he have it, he knowingly or irresponsibly transmitted it to several of his co-stars, including Brooke Ashley, Kimberly Jade, and Jordan McKnight.
There’s little doubt that Marc Wallice made a mistake, as humans are apt to do. The only thing the remains in question, a decade later, is to what extent he knowingly committed these mistakes. Wallice’s situation ultimately partitions down to a black-and-white situation of either performing while he was knowingly infected or negligently worked without an updated test. There is no doubt that some responsibility falls on to the shoulders of the higher-ups, including Sharon Mitchell, who has since admitted culpability. But one has to wonder why Wallice, who previously had a track record of frequent, responsible testing, suddenly stopped being that way in the mid-90’s, and why he started going to a different clinic than his co-stars. It certainly smacks of the possibility that he discovered elsewhere the reality of his status, and went to considerable lengths to keep his status hidden so as not to hurt his career. Unfortunately for Wallice, appearances are very damning.
Well, in every industry but porn, it seems. After all, this is an industry that continued to employ Chico Wang after his conviction for raping and beating his girlfriend, and has continued to offer Skeeter Kerkove safe passage despite accusations of child molestation from his starlet wife, Bridgette.
It’s been difficult to reconcile my ideology as a feminist with my pseudo-career as a pournalist. Granted, I review sex toys and no porn director has any idea who I am. However, I’ve long been an advocate for porn, even at serious cost to my personal life. Not long ago, the rape crisis center I did advocacy work for discovered this gig, and it wasn’t long before I was pretty coldly informed that my assistance was no longer required. Interestingly, I was accused of victimizing the clients I had worked with as much as the men, women and other bottom-feeders who had forced them there in the first place. While the two had never crossed paths (I like to keep my lives separate from each other) I argued that sexual empowerment was every bit as essential to healing as group therapy, individual trauma work and support systems. Still, my contentions fell on deaf ears, and I’m afraid that this is why. It also leads me to question if perhaps I’ve been wrong all along to defend an industry that chews up its’ female talent and spits them out, while men continue to get away with murder, figuratively and, in the case of Wang and Wallice, literally.
Sexism plays a major role in why Wallice is allowed to work, while all but one of his victims has been removed from the industry. “Victims” probably seems a super-charged word, but it should be. Testing is the one protection talents have from the biggest threat to their lives as a result of their occupations, and when tests started coming back positive, Brooke Ashley and Tricia Devereaux took the worst of it. They were judged for their outside conduct, when the real culprit was Wallice. It was his outside activities that infected him, and in turn, infected several more actresses. Devereaux has continued to work, thankfully, and remains a pillar of female empowerment in the industry. Along with the likes of Nina Hartley and Samantha Lewis, she made be one of the few women who can turn this industry on its’ ear and force a better treatment of women everywhere. But Ashley, Caroline and Kimberly Jade have fallen off the radar–why isn’t the very industry that put them at risk falling all over itself to offer them compensatory employment, the way it has Wallice?
The fact that Wallice continues to work in an industry he compromised is a travesty. Some have argued that if he were editing movies, it would be acceptable. Not to me, and I bet not to any of the women he infected. He broke a sacred trust, and whether it was due to negligence or knowledge is irrelevant. The audacity to put a man who so carelessly rejected the health standards for himself and others in a position to where he continues to profit from it is truly unforgivable. I wonder if any of these companies would care to offer Ashley, Caroline or Jade a position. How about fetching coffee? According to lukeisback.com, Ashley recently tried to get hired as a receptionist as a car dealership, just to pay her medical bills. Why don’t these companies who employ Wallice and defend his continued presence in the business cut some his check and send it their way? Then again, what is the price of a life? In the case of Wallice, what is the price of five?
The reality is simple. Amidst the legal scandals threatening to undermine the autonomy of the industry (the situation with John Stagliano, the husband of Tricia Devereaux, is the most obvious example) we cannot expect the outside world to take us seriously, to enact laws on our behalf, when we are all but begging them to intervene. People and laws against us find root in situations like the Marc Wallice scandal, the Chico Wang and Skeeter Kerkove scandal. Each time we fail to protect people on the inside, we chip away at the respectability that we’re aiming for. Pro-porn advocates lose another footing when the toothless forces sink in to make the aggressor happy and quiet the people wronged.
Yes, we are all entitled to make mistakes. Generally speaking, when it comes to making mistakes with other people’s lives, jail time is involved. Wallice is lucky–many states, including Iowa, have enacted laws regarding the “knowing transmission of HIV.” There is little doubt that Wallice’s actions were criminal, and by rewarding him for gainful employment, we are sending the message to women talent that they are just chattel for the convenient consumption of male talent and production.”
