Porn actress commits suicide after cyber bullying

[mr friendly guy]

huffington post

College Student Alyssa Funke Commits Suicide Following Cyberbullying Over Porn
The Huffington Post | by Tyler Kingkade

Alyssa Funke, a straight-A student at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, committed suicide last month after being bullied and harassed online over her choice to appear in pornography. Local police have said they don't plan to press charges against anyone who taunted Funke.

Funke, 19, had recently appeared in a porn film at the website CastingCouch-X. According to KMSP, after former classmates from her high school in Oak Park Heights, Minnesota, discovered the video, they began sending her abusive messages through Twitter and Facebook.

Her last tweets before her death were on April 14 and 15, appearing to mock those harassing her online:

On April 16, Funke completed suicide at a boat landing on Big Carnelia Lake, 26 miles from River Falls and 9 miles from Oak Park Heights.

KMSP reports Funke's family did not want to speak on camera, but said they believe the cyberbullying played a significant role in her decision to end her life. The Washington County Sheriff's Office told the station that it does not think the taunts rise to the level of criminal harassment. The investigation is still ongoing.

The Daily Dot reports that her family launched The Alyssa Stop Bullying Fund, which raised $165 in the 19 days it was active.

Funke's death follows the widely covered harassment of Belle Knox, a Duke University freshman who appeared in pornographic films and was harassed by students on campus after she was publicly identified. Knox had even appeared on the same couch for the same website. But she became very open about her porn career in spite of what Knox has referred to as "a culture of slut-shaming and rape apology."

Many porn actresses say they struggle to protect their privacy. One former college student who was outed several years ago on her campus for an amateur porn even asked The Huffington Post not to identify the school she attended, out of concern it would lead to further harassment online.

Funke was a first-year biology student at UW-River Falls.

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

I bet you some of the people who taunted her were either a) fugly or b) jealous they weren't getting some.

[Terralthra]

And of course, antis are saying that "if only she hadn't ruined her life with porn, she wouldn't have killed herself," without even realizing that's exactly the attitude underlying the bullying that did drive her to suicide.

[K. A. Pital]

I know Russia is not the most tolerant of societies, but I never heard about Russian porn actresses being bullied (to the contrary, they seem to enjoy quite a bit of support from the people on the net even if their personalities are well known).

Why does this happen? People aren't terribly religious I presume, so what's the real reason? Jealousy? Idiocy?

[RogueIce]

Purely speculation, obviously, but since the article said it was people from her high school who found out about it, and then they were the ones who did the bullying - at least from my interpretation of what the article is saying - it could be less because of the porn per se and maybe something from her high school days, with the porn being an avenue for attack.

Or Oak Park Heights, Minnesota is a very religious kind of community so they went after her over the porn itself, with the effect magnified because it was (likely) people she had known and grown up with as opposed to "just" strangers, though of course they could have equally powerful effects on somebody as well.

[K. A. Pital]

Oh. I missed the part where it was students who did the bullying. Students! Young people! God damn it something is very wrong with these guys.

[Channel72]

Not to come off as insensitive or condoning cyber-bullying, but I suspect this poor girl had lots of other serious emotional issues in her life that contributed to her decision to end it.

[Admiral Drason]

It seemed to me that the actual video attacked the porn industry far more than it attacked cyber bullying. As if she was forced to make those videos.

[Sidewinder]

Oh. I missed the part where it was students who did the bullying. Students! Young people! God damn it something is very wrong with these guys. :(

You seem to have a sheltered life, compared to that of the average American. To provide context to my words, I attended high school (grades 9-12) in California, from 1993-1997, and my peers made my life HELL, specifically targeting me for my ethnicity, accusing me of being a Communist, and taunting, "Chiang Kai-shek was a traitor." (I was born in Taiwan, and pro-Chiang propaganda was as prevalent there as pro-Mao propaganda was in mainland China, at least for my generation.) The school authorities did NOTHING to stop the bullying, and it is nothing short of an Act of God that I did not go nuts and set off a terror bomb in an attempt to destroy all life in my high school.

[Channel72]

What the hell kind of high school did you go to? I attended high school in New York in the late 90s, and I can assure you that barely anyone there probably even knew who Chiang Kai-shek even was, or was even able to articulate the differences between Communism and Capitalism in a cogent manner. Yay, American education system.

[Sidewinder]

What the hell kind of high school did you go to? I attended high school in New York in the late 90s, and I can assure you that barely anyone there probably even knew who Chiang Kai-shek even was, or was even able to articulate the differences between Communism and Capitalism in a cogent manner. Yay, American education system.

I live in Southern California- in Los Angeles County, to be specific. Lots and lots of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation Asians there. The white trash who insulted my ethnicity, probably learned of who Chiang Kai-shek was from one of my Asian-American classmates.

[Ralin]

Not to minimize or joke about what you went through, but I'm also legit amazed to hear about white trash high school students that knew who Jiang Jieshi was.

I also have to ask; how exactly was he supposed to be a traitor?

[Metahive]

When people made fun of my ethnicity then by calling me Chinese. One particular guy found it funny to repeatedly shout "NI HAO!" at me. To which I of course answered "对不起，我不是中国人，我从大韩民国来" which solved the misunderstanding.

[Sidewinder]

Not to minimize or joke about what you went through, but I'm also legit amazed to hear about white trash high school students that knew who Jiang Jieshi was.

I also have to ask; how exactly was he supposed to be a traitor?

For my generation, Chiang Kai-shek was a father to the nation (Republic of China), and to accuse him of treason was as insulting to me as it would be if someone accused YOUR FATHER of treason. HOW he's supposed to be a traitor, is unimportant; the fact it's meant to HURT the CHILD, is.

[Ralin]

When people made fun of my ethnicity then by calling me Chinese. One particular guy found it funny to repeatedly shout "NI HAO!" at me. To which I of course answered "对不起，我不是中国人，我从大韩民国来" which solved the misunderstanding.

Welcome to every day of my life when I was teaching in Shenzhen.

For my generation, Chiang Kai-shek was a father to the nation (Republic of China), and to accuse him of treason was as insulting to me as it would be if someone accused YOUR FATHER of treason. HOW he's supposed to be a traitor, is unimportant; the fact it's meant to HURT the CHILD, is.

It just seems like a weirdly specific thing for American kids to say. Especially given that he was America's designated good Chinese leader.

[Mr. Coffee]

When people made fun of my ethnicity then by calling me Chinese. One particular guy found it funny to repeatedly shout "NI HAO!" at me. To which I of course answered "对不起，我不是中国人，我从大韩民国来" which solved the misunderstanding.

Just for those of us that don't understand, what's the English translation of the punchline, buddy?

[Ralin]

When people made fun of my ethnicity then by calling me Chinese. One particular guy found it funny to repeatedly shout "NI HAO!" at me. To which I of course answered "对不起，我不是中国人，我从大韩民国来" which solved the misunderstanding.

Just for those of us that don't understand, what's the English translation of the punchline, buddy?

"Sorry, I'm not Chinese. I come from the Great Republic of Korea."

[The Vortex Empire]

When people made fun of my ethnicity then by calling me Chinese. One particular guy found it funny to repeatedly shout "NI HAO!" at me. To which I of course answered "对不起，我不是中国人，我从大韩民国来" which solved the misunderstanding.

Just for those of us that don't understand, what's the English translation of the punchline, buddy?

I'm sorry, I'm not Chinese, I come from the Republic of Korea.

[Mr. Coffee]

"Sorry, I'm not Chinese. I come from the Great Republic of Korea."

Neat, thanks.

[K. A. Pital]

Anyone who says 'sheltered life' to a person who went to Russian school is clearly misguided. I did not mean that there was no bullying - plenty of it. But bullying a person because he or she is a pornstar? Unthinkable.

[FTeik]

When people made fun of my ethnicity then by calling me Chinese. One particular guy found it funny to repeatedly shout "NI HAO!" at me. To which I of course answered "对不起，我不是中国人，我从大韩民国来" which solved the misunderstanding.

Just for those of us that don't understand, what's the English translation of the punchline, buddy?

"Sorry, I'm not Chinese. I come from the Great Republic of Korea."

The People's Republic of Korea or the other one? Because the answer to that quesion might open another avenue of attack against you.

[Metahive]

大韩民国 (Republic of Great Han) is the official name of South Korea. North Korea's is 朝鲜民主主语共和国 (Democratic People's Republic of Choson) and it's not like the guy would have known anyway.

Then again, when Kim Jong-il died someone honestly asked me if I were said because my beloved leader died. I said, "well, of course and it's tradition for us Koreans abroad to show our grief by throwing a major party with lots of booze and hookers" and then proceeded to do just that (well, with lots of booze anyway). Every Kim Dynasty member who dies increases the beauty of the world by .5% after all.

[TithonusSyndrome]

I know Russia is not the most tolerant of societies, but I never heard about Russian porn actresses being bullied (to the contrary, they seem to enjoy quite a bit of support from the people on the net even if their personalities are well known).

Porn? Even just ASMR performers have been shamed into giving up their craft. Evgemiya Li specifically said in her departure statement that it was Russian-language posters who were the cruelest and most shaming, and that she seldom got unpleasant comments in English. Even just non-sexual gestures of simulated intimacy are enough to prompt shaming in the Russian internet, and on the Anglosphere side as well to be fair.

[K. A. Pital]

Even just non-sexual gestures of simulated intimacy are enough to prompt shaming in the Russian internet, and on the Anglosphere side as well to be fair.

Internet bullying prompted by anonymity is a universal phenomenon, but what caught my eye is that the bullying was personal here - those were people she knew and studied with.

[Guardsman Bass]

From what I've read, she went to Stillwater High School - also known as the school that had 8 or 9 lesbian/gay students commit suicide over bullying.

[Kitsune]

From what I've read, she went to Stillwater High School - also known as the school that had 8 or 9 lesbian/gay students commit suicide over bullying.

In that case, it is pretty well documented that when one person in a school commits suicide, makes it more likely others will as well.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/med ... n-clusters