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Introduction (00:59):
Today’s episode is with Victoria. Victoria is a paralegal, a mother, and a survivor of image-based sexual abuse. During this episode, Victoria discussed how she discovered non-consensual footage of her which had been uploaded online, the grooming that took place during the time this footage had been taken without her knowledge, her arduous journey to get that footage removed and what she’s doing now to advocate for herself and other victims who have found themselves in similar situations. With that, let’s jump into this episode of Consider Before Consuming.

Fight The New Drug (01:36):
First things first, I just want to say thank you for joining us on the podcast today.

Victoria (01:41):
Thank you for having me.

Fight The New Drug (01:43):
Absolutely. We feel honored that you’re here today. And for the guests that aren’t as familiar with who you are, I think we should give you the opportunity to introduce yourself. Can you do that and just kind of talk about what your day-to-day looks like nowadays?

Victoria (02:01):
Yeah. I’m a paralegal and I live in Tennessee. I’m a mother. I’m, a survivor of image-based sexual abuse, unfortunately. Yeah. So, I mean, sitting here now, I’m sweating, I’m shaking. I’m nervous. but, you know, at the same time, it’s important to me. So I do want to, I do want to share my story. I do want to, help other people if I can.

Fight The New Drug (02:25):
You mentioned the image-based abuse that you experienced. Can you speak to that a little bit more and explain when was the first time that you found out that you had been victimized?

Victoria (02:38):
Yeah, sure. So I was actually married most of my adult life, and around 2016 we got a divorce and I started online dating. That’s where, where all of this really started. I met a man online named Brandon. And, we began to see each other. Initially, something was off, something didn’t feel genuine, and I ended up not talking to him for, for many, many months. We ended up talking, getting back together or getting back to talking many months later, through Instagram. And in the beginning, Brandon was very, I guess what you call love bombing. He was saying all the right things, doing all the right things. He had invited me to go on a trip with him as a friend at this point to Las Vegas. He had a basketball tournament that he was going to, and so I agreed to go with him as a friend.

(03:36):
Over the next two months, he continued to love bomb me. He was the most compassionate, sweetest, most romantic man, you, you probably ever meet. You know, I thought he was great, and during that time, I completely fell for him. So by the time that the trip to Las Vegas came around, we were in a relationship. We were exclusive. we were saying, “I love you”, you know, and I completely trusted him. I completely fell for him. while we were on the trip, there were some things that happened, that I should have probably realized at that point. but I didn’t, unfortunately, I suffered from a lot of repressed memories. There was some drugging that happened on the trip. There were a lot of, things that I didn’t remember initially. There were repressed memories. There was a lot of trauma.

(04:30):
It took a lot of time for me to work through. I didn’t find out, see, we took the trip to Las Vegas in 2018. I didn’t find out about the videos until 2020. So during that time period, after the trip, Brandon and I ended up, deciding that, you know, relationship wasn’t gonna be where it was. He wasn’t truthful. we had some issues, so we ended up just being friends. So for over two years, we were friends with benefits, which I didn’t know at the time, but the entire time that we were brand together, Brandon was recording me. so there were three different kinds of videos that were made at the time. There were hidden camera videos that I had no clue that were even being made. There were date rape videos, mainly on the trip to Las Vegas, where I didn’t even have recollection of a lot of the things that happened.

(05:30):
you know, and then the third type of videos, which leads to when I actually discovered the videos, is when he actually pulled his phone out on me during intercourse. And, so now there’s a fourth kind of videos, which is now their, their deep faking, content with my face. So, in 2020, when I first found out, what happened was Brandon and I had met up, we had went out for drinks, and afterwards we went back to my house, during intercourse, Brandon pulled his phone out on me, which caused me to be alarmed, of course. I’d never known him to really do that before, and I assumed that if he had recorded something, you know, it would only be for, for himself. I never really said, Hey, put the phone, you know, I wasn’t real clear. Yeah.

(06:27):
I had been drinking that night, and, after that happened, I had a lot of things that were coming up in my mind. You know, what if he did record? What if he did post it? What, you know, what he could have done with this video, if there was one, you know? yeah. So initially I continued to see him. The next time that we went out, he asked me, to perform oral sex. And I said, you know, I didn’t trust him. I would have to put something over my head because I, you know, he might pull his phone out on me. And it was, it was kind of a joking thing at that point, I didn’t realize what was really going on. And so Brandon went to his backpack. he always brought two backpacks when he came over, and he went to his backpack, and he pulled out a black face mask with only a hole for the mouth.

(07:21):
So, kinda like a ski mask with only a hole right here. we had been out drinking that time, too. So, after that encounter, I began to wonder what type of person carries a bag with a face mask in it, you know? So it was the combination of him pulling the phone out and the mask, and he had been acting funny. There were a lot of, a lot of signs and symptoms that I should have seen along the way, but I didn’t. And in hindsight, in looking back when this actually happened, beginning, I guess, around 2018, around that Vegas trip, I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was actually self-medicating. I had repressed memories. I was trying to cope with things that I, that weren’t even in my present mind that I knew. You know, I didn’t even know I was dealing with these things. Right. so I was, I was acting out. I was, very hypersexualized, you know, different than my typical self. And I didn’t know at the time that those were actually common symptoms of coping with trauma.

Fight The New Drug (08:32):
So you, you mentioned that your comment that he might pull out his phone, that you were hesitant to engage sexually with him because you were scared that he was gonna pull out his phone. And you mentioned that you were joking about that comment, but in reality, I would imagine that that comment actually had some truth there, and that you brought that up because it was concerning to you.

Victoria (08:58):
Absolutely. Brandon knew that I would not consent to being recorded. There was actually a man that I had met online through a dating app, and when I met him in person, he had, had his phone on record, and it was in his pocket. And I, you know, I had talked about this odd encounter with this strange person. So he knew that I would never, like, I mean before this, like I wasn’t into porn. I wasn’t on porn sites. I wasn’t that kind of person. And, I guess that made me an easy target

Fight The New Drug (09:26):
That prompted you to search for it. Yeah. And that’s how you originally found him?

Victoria (09:30):
Yeah. So basically the first thing I did when I started thinking, well, what if he did, you know, make a video? What if he did record it? What if he posted? What if, you know? So my mind started going through these things, and that’s when I went on and I typed in porn, and of course, PornHub pops up because that’s the number one, you know, me in my, all of my ni naiveness, I type in “Vicky”. I never expected that it would pull up “Vicky”, but it did.

Fight The New Drug (09:58):
So your name populated videos of yourself?

Victoria (10:03):
Yes, sir.

Fight The New Drug (10:03):
Oh my goodness.

Victoria (10:05):
Yeah.

Fight The New Drug (10:08):
Can you speak a little bit more to the grooming process that occurred? Because I think it’s easy for someone who didn’t experience this to judge and say, I wouldn’t have done that.

Victoria (10:21):
Yeah. And, and to be perfectly honest with you, at that point in my life, I would’ve done anything. Brandon asked me to probably, I was in love with this man. you know, he had built such a foundation. I thought he was my soulmate. You know, I didn’t, as far as what he did, I mean, you know, when we, before the trip to Vegas, he was calling me. He was texting me constantly all day, every day. He was saying all the right things. He cared about me, he cared about my kids, he cared about my family. You know, he, he was always good morning, sunshine, you know, like all these little, I guess cliche texts, you know? But, I fell for it. , I don’t know. I typically, you know, don’t, but, but I did. I fell for it hard.

Fight The New Drug (11:12):
I hope that you don’t blame yourself for that, because the fact that I wanted you to reemphasize the grooming process is because I have empathy for you, because I think 99% of us would’ve acted the same way that you did, because of the grooming that occurred. You thought that you guys were soulmates, and he broke that trust. And it seems like the cliche text that he was sending and the, the grooming process, it was all just strategic. Do you, do you speculate now that all of that cliche or that like those expressions of love, do you speculate now that that was all just very strategic and part of his plan?

Victoria (11:56):
It 100% was, things that happened on our trip to Las Vegas. It was premeditated. There were things that were included in the videos and things that had to have been packed ahead of time. And I was actually assaulted not only by him, but by his friends on this trip. and there are videos actually active on PornHub now. And, you know, when Iri, when I originally reached out to PornHub, when all of this, when I found out in 2020, they wouldn’t take the content down. And I did testify against them at the Canadian Parliament hearing. I did have conversations with their attorney. I, I’ve had so many conversations with them. I actually ended up filing a lawsuit against them, pro se. I’m a, I’m a paralegal, so, you know, I was like, okay, I can’t afford to give someone 10 to 30,000 to, to get this lawsuit even started.

(12:53):
So let’s do it myself. So I did, I typed up a lawsuit. I served them in Cypress. and I ended up dismissing that lawsuit. They did eventually take down the, the initial videos that were under my name. So it was, Vicki something, and, that’s what the model’s name was. So they eventually did agree to take those videos down. But now there are all of these other, performers that are claiming all of these videos that are actually me, and they just don’t care. They’re making money. And, so they refuse to take my content down at this point. So I have had to learn how to get up every day, hold my head high, go out and face the world, and, and knowing that this is online. originally when I resigned from my paralegal position, that is why, you know, for over a year and a half, I continued to get up to go downtown Nashville, to walk downtown and face everyone on the street. you know, the looks that you receive, the comments that have been made to me, I can’t even tell you. it’s just been so much. so for me, I wanted to, I wanted to take some time off to kind of give myself that time to allow myself to heal. Mm. To, to learn, to love myself again, to, like you said, forgive myself for the parts that I blamed. Because, you know, I’m not without fault in this situation. Nobody is perfect, but I didn’t deserve what happened.

Fight The New Drug (14:30):
And yeah, you’re, you’re definitely the victim here. And yeah, even if you were going through a challenging time and you were, you were coping at the time, you didn’t know that you were coping, you, you’re the victim here. And so I just want to validate that.

Victoria (14:44):
Well, thank you for that. And the, the sad part of it is, is the people that suffered the most were my children. because I wasn’t able to be the mom that I should have been during this time. So I have, I have two children. I have an 18 year old son who is off to college now, finally which I could not be more proud of. And then I have a nine year old daughter that has Down Syndrome. So I’m a huge advocate for her. All of this caused such hardships. I mean, you can imagine having a 16 year old son when you’re going through some trauma like this. and at the time, a, a six or seven year old, the Down Syndrome, you know, it was, it was a lot. I initially moved in with my mom and let her kind of help me through this period.

(15:28):
I had lost about 30 pounds. I couldn’t, I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t, I couldn’t take care of myself. There were so many hardships that I thought would never end. And that, you know, I still struggle. I still have days where I don’t wanna get out of bed, you know, days where it’s hard. But, but there is life after exploitation. And, you know, it helps me to know that I’m not alone in this. So many other survivors have come forward and they’ve told their story, and, you know, there are a lot of people that aren’t coming forward that this has happened to too. And, you know, I don’t fault them for that. I never wanted attention. I never wanted to come forward. The thing that really made me come forward, I guess it was several things, but it was, hearing how a child like Serena fleets had gone through this.

(16:18):
It was, fury, with PornHub for not taking my videos down. And so when I saw what all of these nonprofits and everyone was doing, you know, against PornHub to stand up, and I heard about that Parliament hearing, I never thought that they would actually, you know, listen to me or want to wanna hear my story. But I reached out and they did. And, that’s when I kind of realized for the first time, I’m not alone. And that, that changed everything. I’ve had so many people come forward and support me, people that have been through this, people that haven’t, you know, other, victim rights advocates. I can’t tell you all the amazing supportive, trauma informed people that I’ve encountered on this journey. And it, it makes me sad to know that there are people out there that haven’t had that support, that haven’t found those things. And, so for me, I just want them to know, you know, we are here as survivors, we are here, and, you know, if they wanna reach out, I, I’m always willing to support and help someone, you know, find resources that they need. anything that I can do to help someone else that has been through this.

Fight The New Drug (17:29):
I just wanna let that sit for a second, because what you said about your kids and how this has negatively impacted them, goodness gracious. That is, that is a serious thing.

Victoria (17:42):
My son, who was 16 at the time, and he’s now 18, he completely supports me speaking out. He could not be more proud. He is, you know, we’ve, we’ve managed to work through those hard times that we had. Good. And our relationship is stronger than ever. And he’s very supportive, very aware. You know, I would never speak out if, if he said, no, I don’t want you to do this, mom. You know, I would completely respect that because I do put my children first. Yeah. but I’m lucky that he, he’s supportive.

Fight The New Drug (18:12):
. The cool thing about relationships is when you go through challenging times together, they can become strengthened. They become even stronger through the difficulty. And it seems like you’ve been able to maintain that healthy relationship with your kids despite this victimization. Have you noticed that your activism is part of your healing process?

Victoria (18:32):
I would say it’s not necessary for yeah. A survivor to do that, to heal. But for me, the first speaking out was that parliament. And that’s what opened the door for me, for all of that support that I found for all of that. so it was definitely healing for me. the next, you know, I took some time off after Parliament where I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to be real vocal. And, it took a while for me to come back around. And, we actually, a few of us survivors actually went to DC and, that experience speaking at the symposium with, within Cozy and Exodus Cry, they, they put that together and allowed us survivors to come and speak. And it was, I ended up crying and I hated that, cuz I wanted to, you know, to show up and be so strong and just, you know, but I ended up crying. And that’s just the reality of it. But it was, it was, it needed to be let out and it ga it gave me this, this power that I felt like I was taking my power back. I was not gonna hide from what happened to me. I was gonna own it. And if someone judges me for it, then that’s a reflection of them. That’s not a reflection of me. So, it did, it, it helped me to grow and gave me strength that I really needed to get through this.

Fight The New Drug (19:58):
I speculate that one of the things you’re doing for other people as you are engaging in activism and educating on this, is that you’re acting as a light at the end of the tunnel. for other victims who have experienced, assault or image-based abuse, or both, or whatever the situation is.

Victoria (20:19):
Yeah. I mean, when you, when you look back at all all the time through this, I’ve been stalked at my home, an unknown man on two different occasions. Like I have witnesses. I, when I initially went to the police, the police didn’t believe me. They, they basically re-victimized me, interrogated me. They didn’t even have Brandon come into the police station until three months later. And, I could, I could speak for hours how horrible that was. but the entire process, all of the, the stalking, the harassment, the doxing, like I could write a book just on that alone. There’s so much that that survivors go through that people don’t understand. but all of those things, they, you know, it’s easy for me to feel beaten down, but I have children and they’re depending on me. And, you know, I’m just, I’m not gonna let it control my life. Right. Someone else, someone else did this, you know, someone else chose to make this content. I did not choose this. And I’m not gonna let it de basically define who I am.

Fight The New Drug (21:28):
The goal of this podcast is to help people consider before consuming. And your story is one, showing how porn and sex trafficking are interconnected. It’s, they’re not separate industries. It’s one industry and it’s the sexual exploitation industry. And so, again, as we have these heavy conversations, the reason why we have them is to help other people consider before consuming, and also to help other survivors and be in their corner.

Victoria (22:02):
You know, a lot of times, people don’t understand why it’s so traumatizing, you know, it, it’s just sex, or it’s just your body, or it’s the fact that I never chose this. So, you know, doing this without people’s permission, I think a lot of guys may think it’s, humorous or, you know, funny. It’s not, it is so traumatizing for me, I felt like I was raped by each person that viewed this content because I didn’t, I didn’t consent for this to be out there and to compare it to being raped. I know it, you know, it sounds extreme, but that’s how I felt. I mean, yeah, you, you can’t imagine having everything taken away from you. I can’t tell you the amount of money, the amount of time. I’ve spent hundreds of hours taking down videos. I’ve had handfuls, dozens of other survivors reach out.

(23:02):
People that you would never guess, have been through this, and not everyone’s coming forward. And I’m, I’m not the only person that has had a deep fake or, you know, edited content. It’s actually prevalent on PornHub right now. I think what’s happening, honestly, is some of these webmasters or, I’ll call them pimps, they’re basically, they have girls that they may be managed. so what’s happening is some of these videos that are non-consensual, obviously are being maybe purchased or, found somewhere online. I can’t say what somebody else is doing. But then they’re taking ’em and they’re altering the image, and then they’re putting it out as if it’s their own. And when you’re dealing with edited content, it’s so hard because unless you have the original video, the original metadata, like you can’t prove that a video has been altered or in what way.

(23:56):
You can only look at the metadata and say, okay, it’s been altered. but all of that’s deleted now we can’t get back. So it creates this, almost impossible problem. And that’s why, I wanted to mention the Protect Act to you. That basically creates a way for image-based sexual abuse survivors to remove content. And it creates a, a standard for identifiability that has not been there before. So currently, Tennessee, our revenge porn law, you have to be identifiable. So let’s say somebody takes a video of you, and let’s say they changed it a little bit. It looks kind of like you, but you know, they’ve removed your birthmark, they’ve changed freckles on you. There’s no way for you to prove that that’s you, when someone else is claiming that it’s them, especially if they edit it to make it up, appear more like them.

(24:49):
So, what this bill does is it creates, an expansion of identifiability and it allows you to be identified by birthmark, by voice, by, distinguishing features, all of which I could, I could meet that burden. because in, in my assault videos, at least one of them, I actually say my abuser’s name now, the couple that claimed my videos, their name, their names are Laura and Lori. So there would be no reason for them to say Brandon. Hmm. So if this, if this new, act is the Protect Act, it would create a means for me to have this illegal, non-consensual edited content of me removed. And it also would create a, a punishment for sites like PornHub if they don’t remove the content. So it creates a, a penalty, you know, right. For them if they don’t, if they don’t remove it,

Fight The New Drug (25:47):
Because right now there’s no deterrent, there’s, there’s no way that they’re gonna be, have to pay, there’s no justice served. And so they just continue with their exploitation. Is that kinda what you’re saying?

Victoria (25:58):
Yeah. And, and to speak on that a little more, there are laws that should protect me, but they’re not being enforced and they’re not being interpreted correctly. So I actually printed it off the, the sex trafficking law, and I wanted to, if, if that’s okay, I’d like to kind of go over,

Fight The New Drug (26:14):
Yeah. Is this the law in Tennessee or nationwide?

Victoria (26:18):
Federal, yeah. Okay. Yeah. So this is the United States Federal Sex Trafficking Law. So basically what it says is, anyone who knowingly, benefits or receives anything of value from a participation in a venture, and then it goes through, which is engaged in blah, blah, blah. But basically anyone that engages in a sex act Yeah. by using Fraud force coercion or any combination of the three, it should be enforceable under the Federal United States Sex Trafficking, statute. Right. But the problem is, is that they, they, I met with the us attorney, assistant attorney, and she told me that there was no money exchanged. I wasn’t a prostitute. I didn’t receive anything of value. So it’s harder to meet that Commercial Sex Act standard, but when you look at the definition in the federal law of what sex trafficking is, and you look at that commercial sex Act, commercial sex act means any sex act on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person.

(27:36):
So that means if Brandon made a video and he owns the video, that’s something of value. Even without selling it, without, I mean, it’s there. Yeah. Yeah. Him, him selling it, it being monetized on PornHub, all of those things are in addition to. So when you look at, was I forced into a commercial sex act with four force fraud coercion, or any combination of the three, yes, I was, I was forced into this with fraud. I mean, I never, I never agreed to this. Right. So, the fact that I never received any money makes it harder for me to say, okay, this is a commercial sex act. If I were a prostitute and I had voluntarily chose, you know, to make, to engage in sex, you know, then I would meet that it does meet the standard, but it’s not being enforced that way.

Fight The New Drug (28:30):
The people who are profiting off of it , there’s two, at least three parties that I can identify that are profiting from your image based abuse. The first one is Brandon, the second one is PornHub. And any other website that is profited off of your video videos. And then the third party is, you said it’s a couple in Finland who have claimed your video.

Victoria (28:51):
They claimed my videos and there was nothing I could do originally to get it down. Now that that particular account is down, I don’t know who’s claiming these other accounts. It could be the same couple. It could be another, you know, pimp online. I don’t know. All I know is that Brandon made something of value through force fraud, coercion, or any combination of the three. And it does qualify sex trafficking. but getting a district attorney or even a United States attorney to prosecute it, it’s impossible. You know, it’s so hard when you do everything you can just to try to get videos down to try to get some justice, to get some help in, nobody’s helps. They actually re-traumatize you and re-victimize.

Fight The New Drug (29:39):
I think I know the answer to this, but I just want ask it. So Justice has not been served to Brandon?

Victoria (29:45):
No. And actually, I think it was a couple months ago, and I, I’m really bad with timeframes just because of all the trauma. My memory is not as well as it used to be. But, a couple months ago or so, Brandon actually threw an anonymous account. Well, I say Brandon, someone sent me a video of Brandon masturbating through Instagram, through a fake account. So I screenshotted the video. The person that sent it to me immediately unsent it. But I had the screenshots and I went to the police and they told me to file for an Order of protection because this man has continually harassed me anonymously online for over two years. I fi I thought I finally had the proof, you know, here it is. His, you know, it’s him. Yeah. His body

Fight The New Drug (30:36):
Genitalia.

Victoria (30:37):
Yeah, exactly. So, I went for the Order of Protection hearing, the judge refused to look at Brandon’s private areas. Brandon said it wasn’t him and the judge ruled against me. He would not take my word despite me having been with the man for all this time and knowing, like I said, he never examined Brandon. He asked me if I had dated anyone since Brandon. And I said, well, yeah. And he said, well, maybe he’s the one that sent you the video.

Fight The New Drug (31:04):
If the Protect Act had been in place 10 years ago, how would your experience be different?

Victoria (31:11):
Yeah. It would create a means of identifiability that I could meet. And it would allow me to have these videos removed. it would basically give me my life back. Yeah. And so when people ask me, well, you know, why are you speaking out? Why are you, you know, telling your stories? Because I wanna help others, but I also want my abuse off the internet. Right. I want a means to, to remove it. You know, I want, I want there to be laws that can be enforced. And even though, you know, like I said, the, the federal sex trafficking law isn’t my favor. I do meet the standard

Fight The New Drug (31:46):
In December, 2020 is when Nicholas Christoff wrote the article, the Expose titled The Children of PornHub. When you found out about your image-based abuse, had, did that article exist?

Victoria (32:02):
No. Okay. so I found the videos, it was August, the beginning of August of 2020. So if I remember correctly, I think the Nicholas Christoff story came out, was it December 20?

Fight The New Drug (32:16):
December 4th? I think it’s December 4th. 2020.

Victoria (32:19):
Yeah. So all of this, was all around the same time. And, I remember getting so excited. I remember when the story came out, and I remember going on PornHub typing in Vicki Blank, and that performer was gone. .And I was so happy. I remember calling my mom, I was like, oh my God, they took the videos down, you know, so happy. And that was the first time that I found that the videos had been removed. I didn’t know that removing them off of PornHub meant they would pop up on hundreds of other sites because they were no longer protected by PornHub. So apparently when a model has content on PornHub, it’s exclusive. They scour the web and they remove it if somebody else tries to post your content. So they protected my content or my illegal content when, when it was being claimed on their site.

(33:19):
But once they removed it, which was during the purge, yeah. And, they actually responded to me just, I think two days before the Parliament hearing, telling me that they were going to fingerprint it and that it would not be re-uploaded. but, you know, all of that I feel like pushed them to remove and to fingerprint. And so, that article was very big for me that that article changed. Like, it was, it was a big moment in my life, when I found that article and those videos were down. but like I said, they popped up on other websites, and I have a Excel spreadsheet with at least 200 sites that I contacted personally, and spent all of my time getting these videos down. And, some of them you just can’t get down. Some of them, the who is hosting information is hidden and you can’t get access. And so if it’s in another country and the, the actual, hoster of the site won’t remove the content, and you can’t get to the person that owns it. It’s just, it’s so hard. yeah. And I can’t send a D m c a takedown note of, it’s because I’m not the copyright owner. I didn’t make these videos. so while I’m in them and I’m, you know, I’m, I own my body. I don’t have the copyright to the content because I didn’t create it.

Fight The New Drug (34:46):
When people learned about Nicholas Kristoff’s article, the Children of PornHub, and then how PornHub responded by purging a significant amount of their site. And then they also changed that only verified, I say with their quotes, verified users can upload. So they did make some changes. And to a layperson, they might look at those changes and be like, okay, now PornHub must be an ethical place to go consume, again, using air quotes, ethical porn. But the reality is, is that that’s not the case. And the reality is, is that there’s still, they still, there’s no system in place to eliminate sexual exploitation, image-based abuse. like you’ve talked to revenge porn there, there’s no system in place currently. you mentioned that the article, when you found out about the, the Children of PornHub article, when you found out that your videos had been removed, it was a big deal for you. But also I think a lot of activists and people who are fighting for, for justice and to end sexual exploitation, they would say Too little, too late.

Victoria (36:05):
Yeah. But when you’re as, as low as I was at that point in my life, even breadcrumbs, you know, they, they felt like,

Fight The New Drug (36:15):
Oh yeah, it’s a big deal. You know.

Victoria (36:16):
Yeah. I’ll tell you, when I first found my videos, many, many of these videos were of me barely holding my head up, falling over, clearly inebriated, intoxicated, or drugged of some sort. it was, it could not have been more clear that these videos were non-consensual

Fight The New Drug (36:39):
From this state you couldn’t give consent at that point.

Victoria (36:42):
Exactly. And even the comments, many of the comments were laughing about, you know, the things that were happening in the video, it was clear, it was crystal clear.

Fight The New Drug (36:53):
We, as an organization, we were really excited when Nicholas Christoff wrote that article, we were able to record an interview with him. For the listeners who wanna go back and listen to that, it’s episode 35 of Consider Before Consuming. But one of the things that’s interesting about what he said, what prompted him to write that article was he went onto PornHub and he was searching through videos, trying to look for content that would easily be identified as non-consensual. He said that he saw an image of a woman, and she was unconscious to the point where the perpetrator, touched her eyeball without her responding. And that is what prompted him to write this expose.

Victoria (37:42):
Yeah. I commend him for that, that article. Like I, me too, I said it, it changed my life. yeah, it gave me hope. And, you know, so shout out to him. Good job

Fight The New Drug (37:56):
Yep, exactly. It was a big win. And, but also we want to acknowledge survivors and those who have been victimized by the porn industry because Nicholas Christoff, he wouldn’t have written that article if all of the survivors hadn’t been doing their part in fighting and, and yeah. And doing their activism. And so again, it comes back to you. We want to say thank you to you because you are showing up and from individual to individual from me to you. I want to say keep going. And we fight the new drug. We want to say that we admire you and that we’re in your corner. And I do want to leave you with the opportunity to have the last word during this conversation. What can we do as an organization and what can our listeners and viewers do to support you?

Victoria (38:59):
Yeah. So, to support me is to support others. So believe survivors, listen to survivors. And, I guess the thing that’s so easy is when it doesn’t involve you or it’s not you going through something, it’s easy for you to look the other way. Stop looking the other way. This is happening. It’s happening not only to me. I’m just one of the few people that choose to speak up. It’s happening to thousands, hundreds of thousands, probably, you know, worldwide. And so, to support me means to support all survivors.

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Closing (41:08):
Thanks for joining us on this episode of Consider Before Consuming, Consider Before Consuming is brought to you by Fight the New Drug. Fight The New Drug is a non-religious and non legislative organization that exists to provide individuals the opportunity to make an informed decision regarding pornography by raising awareness on its harmful effects, using only science facts and personal accounts. Check out the episode notes for resources mentioned in this episode. If you find this podcast helpful, consider subscribing and leaving a review. Consider Before Consuming is made possible by listeners like you. If you would like to support Consider Before Consuming, you can make a one-time or recurring donation of any amount ftnd.org/support. That’s ftnd.org/support. Thanks again for listening. We invite you to increase your self-awareness. Look both ways, check your blind spots, and consider before consuming.