Popular Japanese American pornographic actor Asa Akira, 35, is facing backlash over a resurfaced video in which she conveys her willingness to have sex with a 13-year-old boy.
Where she said it: Akira, whose real name is Asa Takigami, made her controversial remark in a 2012 episode of “DVDASA,” a now-defunct health podcast she had hosted with Korean American artist David Choe. In it, they talked about a trip they took to Hawaii, where they met the “coolest” 13-year-old during a rare storm.
- Akira and Choe were watching massive waves from a beach house when they met the boy, who had just finished surfing and had casually joined them in a hot tub. They said his parents were not with him and that he was being sponsored by a surf team.
- “He was just too cool for school, like, he came out of the water from surfing these huge f***ing waves,” Akira recalled. “He pulls down his scuba thing and comes into the jacuzzi like it’s nothing, with these strangers.”
- Akira said the boy did not know her. She then described his physical features, saying he was “kinda handsome.”
- Because the boy was “too cool,” the pair went on to wonder whether he was “still a virgin.” The episode then progressed into a discussion about statutory rape, with Choe asking Akira how she would respond if the boy “begged you for it.”
- “This 13-year-old? I think I would,” Akira said in response. “He wasn’t necessarily, like, an old-looking 13-year-old. You look at him and he’s definitely a child.”
- After praising the boy’s physical features once again, Akira confirmed her interest. “If I were single and we were sitting in the jacuzzi and he was like, ‘Hey, you know, I’ve never f***ed a girl. Do you want to?’ I think I’d say yes.”
- The episode went on with Choe explaining why the matter should not be considered statutory rape. “That to me should not be punishable. If a 13-year-old kid is doing adult sh*t — making his own money, living on his own, whatever — and he’s like ‘I really wanna get laid’ and a girl decides to f*** him, that should not be considered statutory rape. It’s consensual,” he said.
- Akira agreed with Choe’s views, saying, “No one would consider that rape, except maybe his mom.” She also stated, “F*** the law.”
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Reactions: Episodes of the podcast have reportedly been scrubbed from the internet after Choe described engaging in “rapey behavior” in 2014. British tabloid The Sun recently obtained a clip of the controversial excerpt from the 2012 episode and published it, prompting fresh backlash against Akira, who currently serves as a Pornhub Brand Ambassador.
- Laila Mickelwait, who advocates against Pornhub for its alleged complicity in sex trafficking, wants Akira to be investigated: “In a sickening unearthed video, Pornhub Brand Ambassador Asa Akira is caught saying she wants to rape a 13-year-old child. ‘F*ck the law!’ she says, openly admitting she’s a pedophile. David Choe agrees. FBI investigate @AsaAkira.”
- Other social media users expressed similar opinions. One wrote, “Part of the reason they can sit and talk so depravedly without regard is because half the world letigitmizes, sanitizes and promotes porn by calling it ‘sex work.’ All boundaries are being crossed. This one will too if we don’t turn back the clock on the mainstreaming of porn.”
- Still, some appear to agree, in part, with Akira’s remarks. “I don’t support rape but I can’t deny that 13-year-old me would have been willing to lose my right hand in exchange for sex with Asa Akira,” one wrote.
Akira’s response: Akira apologized for her “embarrassing” remarks in a statement to The Sun. She called them “jokes” and stressed that she has since grown into a better person.
- “It’s hugely embarrassing for me when certain words of mine from the past — in this case in 2012, words I meant as jokes — resurface now. Over the last decade, I’ve grown into a person who no longer feels the same things are funny or appropriate,” she told the outlet.
- She added: “I believe there are many downfalls to becoming an adult in the public eye; one of them being that my immature, uneducated, and underdeveloped attempts at humour are forever up for the whole world to see. I feel very badly for the hurt I’ve caused anyone.”
Featured Images via DVDASA
