It has been a little over two years since the 2013 Criminal Law Amendment came into force, and a multitude of efforts to perpetuate the cause for gender equality have been rolled out. It does not take a genius to realize however, that not much has changed in terms of our mindset.

With more and more millennials dissing feminism (thus the very notion of equality), and rampant victim blaming, rape culture is still at large in the Indian society.

With misogyny running amok, and the constant public scrutiny of the victim’s attire , mental state, motives, and history, most cases of sexual assault don’t even get acknowledged.

When the general attitude towards sexual violence is so dismal, it’s not hard to imagine that rape faced by sex workers or actors in the adult film industry is not acknowledged to be a reality at all.

Forced sexual contact is rape. It is completely outrageous when the veracity of whether someone was raped or not comes down to a value judgment about the alleged victim instead of the alleged rapist. Consenting to sexual acts on your own terms — and that includes consenting to sexual acts for money — does not mean you forfeit your right to not consent, ever.

Written off by society at large as ‘women with loose morals’, the stigma attached to prostitution contributes to sexual assault inflicted amongst sex workers going largely unreported.

It is the stigma associated with sex work, not sex work itself, that creates a dangerous environment.

Last week, popular celebrity porn actor, James Deen was accused of rape by his ex-girlfriend and adult performer, Stoya.

Six other women, Deen’s co-workers and adult performers themselves came forth with their stories of assault by the same man, who has had a spotless image of being the face of feminism in the porn industry.

While support for the survivors poured in on social media, the dialogue drifted to the question of whether pornstars, by virtue of the nature of their occupation, can in fact be raped.

Yes, prostitutes and pornstars get raped too.

The rhetoric that is often resorted to is that when you agree to meet a strange man in a strange place for the purpose of having strange sex for money, you are potentially putting yourself at risk for harm. But the point remains that your circumstances are irrelevant. The most important factor that comes into play is whether you fully consented to a certain series of acts or events.

It should be obvious that a woman’s line of work has absolutely nothing to do with her ability to consent, and her right not to be assaulted. Rape can be and is in fact a crime committed against a sex worker, because sex workers have just as much right to not be sexually assaulted as anybody else.

The more we accept what rape really is, the better equipped we are to prevent it and punish it. And acknowledging that what matters in the crime is the behaviour of the criminal, and not that of the victim, potentially spares other people from having to endure the similar horrors.