A few weeks ago, Sasha Grey took part in Read Across America. She read a book to a group of underprivileged first graders at Emerson Elementary School in Los Angeles. The story should have ended there. Sasha Gray used to be a porn star, however, and that changes everything. When the story came out, the students’ parents reacted with outrage. This story is disturbing not because someone who used to be involved in the porn industry read to a group of children. As we live in a supposedly tolerant society, drawing attention to someone’s sexual past should not be an acceptable response when he or she does community service. Sasha Grey is not a fallen woman. Frankly, it’s hypercritical to even mention her pornographic career as some sort of societal disqualifier when porn consumers are not treated as harshly. People can do two things.

Sasha Grey was not there to represent the porn industry or put condoms on bananas. Nor was she was she there for Career Day. She even managed to leave her assless chaps at home. Her presence at the school was meant to be an entirely positive experience for the students, who were all young enough to be completely ignorant of her past. She volunteered as a person who supports education, nothing more. The school denied that she had ever been there in the first place. Unfortunately for the school, Gray tweeted about her experience to share how positive it was. I’m hoping someone saw that tweet and was inspired to give back to their community. Someone else saw it and decided that she was corrupting the youth of Los Angeles.

Sex occupies a strange place in our society. It’s everywhere in the public sphere from billboards to movie theaters. Pornography, while legal and consumed by a significant part of the population, is still considered taboo. Actually performing in porn? What decent person would ever do that? There are problems with some aspects of the sex industry, but it’s not the sex act itself. Some young women pay for college by stripping. There’s a market for it, they get paid plenty, and they graduate with degrees. Sexual activity among consenting adults, whether it be public stripping or private role-playing, should not be considered shameful. Such acts should not define a person either. There is not a necessary dichotomy between sex work and being a decent person. Former strippers should still be able to become teachers, doctors and lawyers. Former, and for that matter, current porn stars should be able to read to children without judgment.

But perhaps there is something about porn that deserves criticism. Is porn inherently demeaning to women? Some porn can only be described as misogynistic, but in the end, it’s just porn, just like Hostel is just a movie and Mad Men is just a TV show. Don Draper has become a cultural icon, and let’s face it, he’s sexist—but at least he wears really well-cut suits. Unofficially marginalizing female porn stars, on the other hand, only reinforces sexism. Adult women, far from able to take control of their sex lives (commercial and private), are reduced to either victims or fallen women.

At Washington University, we watch porn, prurient college students that we are. Many of us also drink and some of us even smoke pot. Many Wash. U. students also do community service throughout St. Louis, including tutoring children. These activities make a positive difference in those children’s lives, no matter what we do on the weekends. The principle is the same. As adults, we understand the distinctions between the different roles in our lives—students and partiers, tutors and porn consumers.

In regards to the incident, Grey said, “I believe in the future of our children, and I will remain an active supporter and participant in education-focused initiatives.” That should be enough explanation for her actions.