When Krewella's Jahan Yousaf wrote an op-ed for Billboard regarding the sexist and otherwise negative feedback being received by her and her sister Yasmine regarding Kris Trindl's dismissal from the EDM-as-pop powerhouses, the repercussions of her seemingly well-intentioned actions seemed benign at best. However, when titling a work “Deadmau5 Saved Me From Going Into Porn,” the last thing you expect is a response from a pornographic film star attempting to excel in the DJ industry. However, in one very well-written Tumblr post, porn star/DJ Carter Cruise made a tremendous argument regarding stigmas attached to both EDM and pornography, while advocating for peace, love, unity and respect.
Equating the sex industry to the DJ industry, Cruise states the following:
"I do my job because I love it, not because I’m incapable of doing anything else. Just like a dedicated athlete will run until he collapses, or a DJ will play a different city every night with little to no sleep, I do this because I want to and enjoy it. The difference, though, is that in music, women do have the ability to be taken seriously and respected by the mainstream, although it may be more difficult to achieve than for men. As a porn star, it is nearly (if not certainly) impossible to expect any type of respect from the media or Internet.
I am subjected, daily, to the same type of hate Yousef is now experiencing; not because of a highly publicized lawsuit, but simply because of who I am and what I do for a living. The media might only pretend that sexism is a thing of the past, but it doesn’t even attempt to do the same with sex work. There is an obvious stigma attached to sex work that rivals even the ones Yousef discusses such as gender, sexual orientation, and alternative lifestyles."
Regarding Krewella's Yousaf "using porn as a gimmick to garner hits," she raises the question of how such a ploy undermines the potential value of her piece, "no matter how valid and important the rest of [her] points are." Furthermore, she correctly states, "Just as it is abhorrent for there to be any assumption that Krewella’s success is predicated on sexuality, or solely dependent on the contributions or guidance of a man, it’s similarly damaging for you to make an off the cuff comment that implies that porn is something from which one would need to be saved."
Jahan Yousaf has not responded to Cruise's Tumblr post.
