Even if you haven’t seen her films, you might know who Bree Olson is. Her claim to fame, outside of her movies, is that she was briefly part of Charlie Sheen’s harem.

Though not yet 30, Olson (real name: Rachel Marie Oberlin) is credited with 316 adult films according to her Wikipedia page.

The now-retired pornographic actress was recently interviewed for a film project called “Real Women, Real Stories.” According to its Facebook page, the project is “An online series of short first person interviews with strong women who have overcome subjugation and discrimination in their respective professions.”  

During the interview, Olson has a message for girls: don’t do porn. Sounds like a good message, no? Well, hold the applause for a moment and bear with me.

Olson, who estimated she pulled down anywhere from $30,000-$60,000 per month in the porn industry, said the reason young women shouldn’t do porn is that people will treat you differently.

“People treat me as if I am a pedophile, they don’t treat me like an ex-sex worker, they treat me like I would somehow be damaging to children,” said Olson. “I’ve learned that there are some things that no matter how open-minded you are, other people will never be.”

The porn industry is actually not that bad, she tells young women.

“You think you are a teenager, it’s fun, you’re making money, and that’s the truth; it is,” she says in the video. “And there’s nothing wrong with porn but how people treat you for the rest of your life. It’s not worth it.”

Olson’s powerful message to young women is that porn would be awesome if the world could get with it and begin to respect sex workers, but since it can’t you might want to avoid “a life of crap.”

There are two things at work here. First, I don’t doubt that Olson has been treated shabbily by many, many people. My heart went out to her when she sobbed out an answer after being asked how she’d like people to treat her.

“I wish people would treat me how they would treat a married registered nurse with 2.5 kids,” she said. “I would be so happy.”

People have the right to atone, and that includes porn stars. But there is a problem here.

Olson doesn’t seem to think she did anything that requires atonement or forgiveness. Why would she? There is nothing innately wrong with porn, she says.

It’s the prudes and Bible thumpers at fault. The real sin, she suggests, is that people are not “open-minded” to her career choice. (This attitude and philosophy is in stark contrast, I’ll point out, to Crissy Moran, a former adult film actress and Christian who speaks publicly on the destructive nature of porn.)   

Olson seems floored by the idea that some parents out there might reject the idea of a school district hiring her to educate their children. She has been branded “a slut” and the people to blame are those who reject normalizing the sale of flesh for public entertainment.

And the truth is that if you approach Olson’s dilemma from a postmodernist point of view, some of her points, as scattered as they are, are valid. If we accept the premise that humans cannot objectively understand or describe morality, then there is no basis from which to judge Olson’s actions. Further yet, if we adhere to the coherence theory of truth, Olson is correct that pornography would no longer be “wrong” if a general public did not deem it so.      

I actually found myself wondering: Could Bree Olson be the face of a new civil rights movement. And if so, what would that mean for young women?

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Jon Miltimore is the Senior Editor of Intellectual Takeout.  He is the former Senior Editor of The History Channel Magazine and a former Managing Editor at Scout Media.

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