Healing Sex  Staci Haines's revolutionary film reassures sexual-
abuse survivors  Do you think most porn stars [or prostitutes or
strippers or lesbians or bisexual women or people who do s/m or
non-monogamous people] were sexually abused?" I get that
question a lot. The implication is that there must be some dark,
dysfunctional, violent reason why "these people" do what they do
or are who they are. My answer is simple: In the United States,
there are more women who've experienced some form of trauma
around sex—childhood sexual abuse, incest, rape, coercion,
sexual harassment—than there are women who have not. (And there
are plenty of men who've been abused as well.) Are there sex
workers, queers, and leatherfolk who've been sexually abused?
Yes, but the percentage of these folks who've been assaulted is
no higher than that of lawyers, bank tellers, or teachers. With
people whose sexual identities and practices fall outside the
norm, it's often assumed that they are acting out their past
trauma, which gives us