>
>The nature of contemporary porn is incredibly varied. There are awful
>products, sickening ones, boring ones and quite inspiring ones. It runs from
>mob-financed mass pap to local amateur practitioners to self-professed
>feminist fare. Perhaps you can tell us of your experiences in that forbidden
>area of the video store. You seem quite familiar with it.
>
>DP
hear hear! seconded!
such a conversation might be somewhere near the one where a longtime member of the bad subjects list managed to give a fairly honest, adult perspective on menstrual and anal sex. wow! that would be a new one for LOB! hope our newest voice from the "you guys should always talk serious political talk" crowd won't mind.
seriously, i think what folks are considering here is a way of thinking of porn as something other than always and only oppressive for women.
one concern, what's with the the trashing of sut jhally. seems a bit misplaced since, last time i paid attention, he was pointing out that sex and sexuality necessarily involved objectification. i agree. given that, representation of human sexuality--like representations of any other human activity--aren't wrong in and of themselves.
uday, you object to the one-sided, seemingly sexist character of porn--that it's dominated by men who largely make the decisions about the way women, men, and sex are represented. they also make the money. some have suggested that women in porn have power, but i think that's about the same as trying to absolve the NBA of their activities by pointing out that the players make big bucks. yeah, some do, but just like other industries, you have the "star" factor; everyone else gets treated like crap and those who don't make it big time are put through the NBA meat factory.
anyway, were pornography to somehow become an industry in which we portrayed the varieties of human sexuality in film and video and, in doing so, did so by being more egalitarian about who is objectified and who gets pleasure and how, then there wouldn't be much that was objectionable, right?
however, then we'd have to wonder if we had pornography after all that. would it be something else altogether were we to have romance, a plot line, candlelight, walks on the beach and make love to me baby pumps erotica? (had to get that one in their for elena! :Þ)
finally, consider that the line between objectionable representations of women in porn and representations of women in adverts, commercials, film, television are similarly problematic--if your problem is objectification, no? flip through a cosmo, the fall fashion issue.
kelley