No one likes a liar. They're pretty much the worst thing ever. And, as Ashton Kutcher rightfully taught us, the smallest of actions can rock the boat far more than you can anticipate. In the case of faux sex tape leakings, these famous fibbers are causing more harm than the average lil' white lie.
The latest of these wannabe porn stars is Mimi Faust. Apparently, she's a recurring member of some subpar reality TV show called Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta. Unfortunately I've been way too busy having sex and making friends to catch a moment of this future Emmy winning program—but, alas, 'tis my lot in life and I shall suffer the repercussions for missing this cultural gem. Word on the street (and by "street," we mean IMDB) is that the show follows the lives of various women in Atlanta who—you guessed it!—are involved in the hip hop music scene.
Of this flock, Faust is one of the more popular people on the show. Still, she felt the need to record a sex tape with her boyfriend Nikko Smith. And, like some bastardized digital sex magic, the video was released into the world. She was shocked. Horrifed! faust claimed it wasn't supposed to be seen by anyone. else.
Oh wait. Here's a funny story: another video was released on the same day. This particular video, however, is a clip of Faust discussing her desire to make a sex tape and her deal with porn producers Vivid Entertainment. Still expect us to believe your high quality sex tape was accidentally released?
To make matters worse, she's 45 years old and has a 4-year-old daughter. (That is, as long as Faust's baby daddy hasn't ripped the toddler from Faust's skank-grip.) Faust isn't some naive 20-something making an honest mistake: she's a grown-ass woman, responsible for the life of a mini human being, and not-so-transparentally gunning for C-stardom.
Why? As Salon pointed out, many reality TV stars use the sex tape as a way of clinging to their evanescent moment in the spotlight. Farrah Abraham (of MTV's 16 and Pregnant), for instance, resurrected her popularity via the sex tape. Abraham too pretended the naughty vid was private, but her porn star bang buddy admitted that it was totes staged. Whoops! Others like former Playmate and Girls Next Door star Kendra Wilkinson are guilty of pulling the kink-wool over our eyes in this manner too. Although Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton will likely go to the grave swearing the leakage was unintentional, it's a tad difficult to believe them.*
This makes us furious. *Before going further, we're apologizing to Kim and Paris (there's a phrase I never thought I'd type) on the slight chance the vids were exposed without their consent. Like, seriously.
Guys, revenge porn is a cataclysmic life ruiner. In extreme instances, it has even sparked suicide. At the very least, it leads to anxiety, humiliation, shame and trust issues. When celebs pretend that they are part of this club of victims, they lessen the severity of revenge porn's impact; our society is so saturated in celebrities' "oops! there's my vagina" moments, it's hard to give the issue the serious attention it deserves.
Myths—and by "myths" we mean blatant misunderstandings of the First Amendment—surrounding the legality of revenge porn seek to provide a loophole for the instigators of this crime. Alligator tears over a released sex tape waters the reactionary garden of rape culture and detrimental blame shift.
Shame on you, Mimi Faust. You have a daughter. Contributing to this particularly nasty cultural facet provides a terrible example. (Oh, and good luck having that conversation about "mommy's sex tape" when she's 13 and everyone is tormenting her at school.) If you want to do porn, make porn—don't make a mockery of actual victims.
Channel your inner Jenna Jameson: "I own up to my porn, I don't cry and say my boyfriend stole it."
Image: Mimi Faust, our new nemesis. Courtesy of, Facebook
