Porn Legend: August Ames
The life of August Ames was not an easy one, and her death is even more troubling. Her death is a reminder that all it takes is one bad tweet for your reputation and your career to go from good to nonexistent, so it's best to keep your thoughts to yourself. Some people say that she deserved to die for what she said, and others are still mourning her because she was their favorite pornstar and a beloved friend. But no matter what you have heard about Mrs. Ames, it is clear that many people made terrible decisions in this story. All we can do now is stop and learn from her mistakes and the mistakes of those who meant to protect a gay man from bigotry but cause a woman to kill yourself.
No, we will not excuse her for her homophobia, but we will not say that she deserved to die for it.
August Ames was a leading pornstar actress that starred in almost three hundred different videos and films. This is an incredible number, considering she only worked in the pornographic industry for a bit more than four years. If she lived in 2018, she would have been up for several different Adult Video Awards.
The full story of the death of August Ames dredges up conflicting emotions. What she tweeted was for many completely disgusting and unfair to the actor who was mentioned. That type of thinking keeps people who are gay in the closet or makes them reluctant to trust others outside their intensely private social circle.
On the other hand, cyberbullying is so unbelievably destructive. Cyberbullying may be much more destructive then real-life bullying. Now that everyone is on the internet and can be reached through several different digital mediums, there is no escape from the bullying. People can follow you over and over and over again and never let you go. The harassment can last for years. And it is not as easy to avoid as many people think. Parents of teenagers or middle school children who are bullied say to just unplug your phone or turn it off. But our lives are deeply entrenched to the internet. Many people who experience cyberbullying and are not emotionally healthy often think of suicide as the only way to escape their pain.
In december 2017, August Ames was about to film an adult film with a person that she had never worked with before. They decided to talk together and get to know each other. The man then said that he worked on a gay adult film a few days ago. When he said this, August Ames decided to no longer work with him after all, and she left the set. Another woman replaced her, and the man was not fired. Later the same day, in the evening, Miss Ames log on to her Twitter and then wrote this tweet about working with men who work on gay scenes.
You may also want read about:
In the hours after she tweeted this, the internet and those who followed her and adult film stars in the industry altogether grew angry. Many people on Twitter begin to harass her and send her horrific messages in her private messages on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms. Some adult stars that were her peers also began to criticize her, and one person even said, "apologize or die. Either way, we'll take it."
At first, she tried to fight back against the trolls and make fun of them on Twitter, but they kept coming for her on her different social media platforms. The harassment continued throughout the night and even to the next day. More people, now adult stars who she had worked with or were prominent in the industry, begin to comment on what she said. Many came out in defense of gay men who work in the industry and called for them to be treated with more trust and dignity. Others reminded her that it is the law for all gay men who work on gay films to take an STD test every two weeks.
Everyone in the industry knows this, so many thought she was willfully ignorant and stoking the fires of bigotry that are aflame in the adult film industry. Miss Ames did not learn from what she said and apologize. Instead, she doubled down and had to fight back with more bigotry. It was clear to her that she had offended many people, but her activity on Twitter so that she did not care about gay people that she hurt with her tasteless comment, and instead, we had a focus on the people attacking her.
The very last tweet she sent out later that night said, "Fuck Y'all."
It is not truly known exactly what she did that night after she sent out that last tweet, but one thing is for sure. Within 24 hours, she was dead. Her body was found in a park several miles away from where she lived.
This was the option that August Ames took. We do not know if her bipolar disorder contributed to this ultimate decision because no one heard from her or knew what she was doing until she was finally found.
Although one day of cyberbullying is not pleasant, since August Ames suffers from both dissociative disorder and bipolar disorder, it may have been too much for her mental health.
On 5 December 2017, two days after her tweet, during the middle of the night, she took a rope and went to a park in Camarillo, which is in Southern California. She tied a rope on her neck and hung herself from one of the trees, and the police found her body. There were several different drugs in her system, some illegal, some not illegal, and some were medications.
August Ames biography
Conclusion
Cyberbullying is never ok. It can lead to terrible results like this. If a person does something bigoted and unjust, they should face the consequences for their actions and be made to apologize to those they have wronged. Any type of homophobia or bigotry should not be tolerated, including in the adult film industry. She should have been fired from any upcoming projects, and she should have been denied the award that you were to receive the next year.