The Frenzy of the Visible (was Re: sex 'n' the flag 'n' stuff...)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>    The Phenomenology has a weird kind of historical
>chronology (evolution of individual consciousness and
>of European society as a whole are conflated) and the
>"end" of slavery leads us to feudalism to exchange
>relationships, etc.  An emancipation of a kind.  Anyhow
>one might conclude that the master can never understand
>the slave but that is not really the point.  The point
>is that the master can very well understand the slave
>but may not use that understanding to alter the
>relationship; indeed,  his appreciation (like that of a
>Marxist working for high finance) may be quite as to
>the point as the slave's, the difference being that he
>*likes* the status quo.  But that does not mean that he
>does not *understand* it.

A close examination of pornography reveals that the Master doesn't
understand it, even though he wants to. For a good example of close
examinations of porn, read Linda Williams's _Hard Core: Power, Pleasure,
and the Frenzy of the Visible_ (which comes with 25 illustrations). What
motivates men to produce and consume the Frenzy of the Visible, for
instance, of close-ups of cunts? They must think that's where IT's at (it
being the Secret of the Woman--Her Being, Her Pleasure, Her Lack, Her
Power, etc.). Ha, ha, ha. What of the prevalence of Money Shots, which
capture cocks ejaculating outside female bodies, so male consumers may be
sure that they got their money's worth--the 'climactic' moment of male
sexual melodrama. Now, at least two problems arise: (1) how do straight
guys relate to cocks in the picture?; and (2) how do porn producers
visualize and male porn consumers confirm the 'climactic' moment of female
sexuality? What do porn producers/consumers do with the probability that
female pleasures and orgasms evade the visual codes of pornographic
representation?

Yoshie