[lbo-talk] RE: corporate porn

[Liza Featherstone]

Well, there's also Missy Elliott, who never wears skimpy clothes, mostly
baggy gear like the guys,  her videos are brilliantly strange and surreal
and she is totally in charge of them. Like most cultural products, MTV has a
lot of different, contradictory stuff going on. Because of course American
culture, like most cultures, is both great and deeply f**ked up.

Liza


> From: joanna bujes <jbujes at covad.net>
> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 19:54:53 -0800
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: [lbo-talk] RE: corporate porn
> 
> Doug writes:
> 
> "You think that people are manipulated by corporations into feeling desires
> that they wouldn't otherwise feel."
> 
> It's not that. It's that commercial culture articulates desire in a particular
> way. I mean, we all get hungry, but commercial culture tells us that nothing
> less than giant macs, giant fries, and giant crap will suage that hunger. We
> all get horny, and commercial culture tells us basically that sex is a product
> to be bought and sold. Prostitution is NOT a "natural" expression of
> sexuality. I'll argue this to my dying breath.
> 
> When I was a teenager, the "sexy" women I wanted to grow up and be like were
> Anna Magnani and Rita Hayworth; these women were partially commercial
> creations, but they did not basically define themselves as whores, as women
> whose worth was determined by how much they could fetch on the market. When I
> catch videos on MTV that's pretty much all I see. Do I let my ten year old
> daughter watch MTV? Sure, for an hour a week, when we go to Grandma's house
> who has all the channels in the world. I do so on the principle that stuff is
> greatly enhanced by complete prohibition...so she gets to watch a little bit.
> 
> Joanna
> 
> 
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