BEHIND THE SCENES: BELLE KNOX by Belle Noire

On Camera, she may appear to be enjoying herself but, behind the scenes Miriam Weeks, known as “Belle Knox,” is certainly not feeling empowered or freed and is just a misguided girl acting out for attention. A few weeks ago a friend of mine sent me an xoJane article about a college girl in porn and I was perplexed as to her anonymity considering what she chose to do. I also wondered if I knew the girl since I too went to college in North Carolina and gained several acquaintances at Duke University. Other than being completely contradictory, irrelevant, and unknowledgeable about the sex industry, Knox actually sounded like a child, which was chilling enough.

Knox told PlayboySFW “If Duke had given me proper financial resources, I wouldn’t have done porn, they have nobody to blame for the scandal but themselves.” It is actually quite condescending of Knox to suggest porn was her last resort as it was certainly her choice not to take out loans and be a responsible individual like the many others that have graduated with degrees from schools like Duke….without ever shooting a sex scene.

So why are we glorifying some bored girls rant about faux-feminism?

Most true porn fans will not care whether the performer has a college degree as long as she’s spreading her legs and they’re getting what they paid for. As a well-known performer recently told me of this Duke news: “Usually when something like this happens, that person’s industry supports them and the fans are the ones hating. Clearly she’s pissing the wrong people off.” The people being fellow industry members she claims have shown her so much support.

How will Knox ever get a degree if she can’t handle being in the school that she can’t even afford? When and if she ever does get this supposed degree, what will she do with it to help sex workers?  Knox also said in her PlayboySFW interview that if she had the finances then she would not be doing porn. It’s not as if she’s researching anything to be a grand feminist, she’s just making money like the rest of us. I can name about 20 male and female performers in college right now, is she so special? My concern is that Knox, in short time, will come to some realization and go back to the media with a bunch of misinformation and lies to justify herself yet again in favor of her family and getting a law degree. Look at people like Farrah Abraham, she grasped onto every last thread of her fame and felt porn was her final option and now she’s saying we raped and drugged her? Who is to say Knox won’t do the same thing in due time?

In an earlier interview with NY Magazine’s The Cut columnist Kat Stoeffel, Knox says Duke presents a “rape culture” and then went on to say she felt “the passion and the pride and the spirit,” the rape spirit? Yet she promotes abuse and rape by shooting in scenes for companies like Facial Abuse. Knox acts on impulse as she stated in her first television interview with Alicia Menendez for Fusion: “I really like jumping into things. I jumped [into porn] head first,” clearly not thinking anything of women’s rights.

I understand Knox is an intelligent and well spoken individual, a logophile, but she knows nothing of the gravity of what she’s doing. Being a bit older than her and possessing the experiences and wisdom that porn is for adults and there should be boundaries and restrictions, I say we all need to focus on the fact that Knox is just a young girl lashing out due to boredom. When and if she ever gets her degree and actually does something with it to make a change for sex workers, then I will applaud her; until then she’s just another in a long line of college girls to turn to sex to pay for their education.

Rubbing salt in the wound, there is evidence that Knox is actually a very tyrannical and rude person towards the performers and industry workers on most of her sets. This week after her Piers Morgan interview, Knox cried on set when she found out her scene partner was “so disgusting and too old” for her tastes, fearing her friends in school would make fun of her if she worked with this person…yet, she did do the scene. In fact, Knox had approved that “disgusting and old” partner days before! The very next day Knox showed up to set several hours late to “sleep in” as if she were on vacation from school, and then refused to do a blowjob scene correctly with another girl in fear of sharing her saliva. Yet, according to Knox’s interview with Piers Morgan, this makes her feel “empowered and totally freeing.” I didn’t know making other performers feel “rape-y” so one could get college money was empowering or freeing.

Knox is a slave to her own debt. Her view that “society is repressed” and that we’re taught sex is bad is absurd with no substantial basis. Who says sex is bad? If anything, sex certainly sells and has been prevalent in the media since as far back as the 20’s! I too come from a private Christian school and conservative family but was never taught sex was bad but that it was meant for love and procreation, and sometimes for fun as the media taught me. I grew up admiring sex symbols as independent and strong women making me feel I lived in a completely sexualized environment, not a repressed one. Today, there are even actual porn performers like Sasha Grey, who has completely flipped the coin, merging her industry background with mainstream proving sex is not repressed! I know that when I do scenes similar to Knox’s Facial Abuse scene, I don’t feel empowered, I feel as if I did something to entertain someone and to get paid!

What’s also alarming is how Thomas Bagley is getting a bunch of unwarranted grief for outing Knox when she actually told him herself about what she was doung. Ok, big deal, so he told some people, wouldn’t you show someone if you were bored in school? Excuses, excuses are all I’m hearing especially after knowing Knox’s parents paid for her and her two siblings’ $11,000 per year high school tuition.

Knox is someone abusing herself and then insecurely blaming the school system and trying to justify her infliction as feminism, a course in which she’s not yet enrolled. As Lisbeth Hunter said in RYOT News, “Knox certainly doesn’t deserve to be harassed. But just because she scored a sit down with Piers Morgan doesn’t mean little girls should aspire to be her—or to turn to porn to pay for college.”

The opinions I have expressed here are mine and speak from my experiences, and hopefully help bring to an end to the debacle over an overwhelmingly and overrated situation that could and possibly will escalate into something much bigger than what we see at face value. Knox’s inherit inconsistencies worry me and I can only express my hope that she really is doing this for the right reason and not just justifying anything for the sake of her reputation. I warn those that oppose me, to take everything anyone says with a hefty grain of salt, especially when it’s coming from a child.

Raised in the south in Oklahoma City, O.K. Belle Noire attended a private Christian school, studied hard, became a self proclaimed “theatre babe” and performed in musicals and dramas and also as a ballerina. After studying in Spain she moved to North Carolina where she attended college and also caught the eye of photography students who responded to her sensual and sultry looks. Soon the young lady was inspired into artistic and noir nude modeling. (The ‘noir’ here is how she acquired the latter part of her professional name, while Belle comes from her love of the movie Belle du Jour) As well as working at an adult arcade and retail shop (as a ‘dildo saleswoman’ she says) Belle also performed burlesque and did pinup modeling…as well as working many other jobs, all prior to the start of her career in adult films April, 2013. Since then Belle Noire has appeared in explicit hardcore movies for Evil Angel, Zero Tolerance, Jules Jordan, to name but a few and she can be found on twitter @bellenoirexxx.