[lbo-talk] RE: Star drek ("Theory of Porn"

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Sun Feb 1 12:08:10 PST 2004


On Sun, 1 Feb 2004, Jeffrey Fisher wrote:


> on the contrary, there's been no claim that all men get off on lezzie
> sex, and i certainly don't want to get into the business of visual
> fantasies, yadda yadda. but we *can* talk about cultural expressions of
> these fantasies and inquire into their operation moreover, the size and
> reach of the pr0n industry and the prominence of girl-on-girl sex
> within it suggests that the phenomenon is significant.
>
> that this is not a science does not disturb me. does it disturb you?

Yeah, it does. If we're going to make claims about the "prominence of girl on girl sex in pr0n", we need careful content analysis of representative samples of pr0n films in a given time period. You may take it for granted that the data would support you, but empirical research is often inconsistent with anecdotal evidence and common sense (e.g., Freud's catharsis theory of aggression is popular--"if you punch a pillow, you're less likely to be aggressive"--even though experiments clearly contradict the theory).

Similarly with this "men like lezzie sex": is that really typical of men? Or is my lack of interest in lesbian sex typical? You can't know until you've done careful empirical research with representative samples of the population of interest!

Miles



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