the l word? hardly. i mean, don't even get me fucking started on the sex scenes in that show and how utterly BAD they are.
and who is this woman who will want to watch this show? all women? why is there some woman out there who has some desire she carries around with her that she can pull out of a knapsack and say, "here, I want to see this." and she can do it, while being able to represent what all women want.
really?
Porn comes up and we are supposed to sit around stare at our navels and say, gosh, i just enjoyed something where someone had to sell their body to make a buck. how awful. i am so ashamed of myself.
yet, elsewhere, we often talk about enjoying fine linens and fabrics, well made clothes, a quality stereo, good music, an excellent meal. yet, we don't have to sit around and sy, "Well, fuckemedead, some dead bodies of labor lined the pocket of a capitalist to deliver this to my closet. And, man, were they underpaid for their labor."
When a nurse or aides sings your mother to sleep in a nursing home or wipes her nose and feeds her chicken soup, do we have to sit around and think, "Damn, so awful, she sold her feelings to earn a living. I should feel like a lump of shit right now for having been home watching Xena re-runs instead of at the nursing home."
Am I supposed to sit around and feel guilty about the proofreader I might hire to do the proofreading I don't have time to do and realize that I pay her less money an hour than I earn? hmmm?
At 12:48 AM 12/8/2005, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>>Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>>
>> > I count myself as a "pro-porn feminist," in that I think porn
>>played a
>> > useful political function in the transition from feudalism to
>> > capitalism (cf. Lynn Hunt), that GLBT porn (like GLBT bars, discos,
>> > etc.) probably has helped many young GLBT teens (especially for
>>those
>> > who are stuck in conservative families and communities), and
>>that porn
>> > as a genre has a lot of potential, aesthetic and political. But it
>> > must be admitted that much of straight porn is made by male
>>capitalists
>> > for male consumers, most women in the industry just non- union
>>workers
>> > whose jobs are drudgery like most jobs (rather than female
>> > libertines). The only attraction for women workers in the porn
>> > industry (as well as other sorts of sex industries) is that they
>>get
>> > paid far better than working Wal-Mart and the like (and in this
>> > industry actresses get paid better than actors).
>>
>>The problem with porn work is the same as the problem of any type
>>of work in a capitalist society: alienation. Workers are
>>economically exploited to produce surplus value for the capitalist
>>class. Of course capitalists produce porn that appeals to male
>>consumers, just like they produce TV shows or deodorant or cars
>>that appeal to male consumers!
>>
>>Male centered porn's not the problem; it's just an obvious symptom
>>of a fucked up thoroughly capitalist society.
>>
>>Miles
>
>Even under capitalism, I don't see any reason why pornographers can't
>cater to more women. While car ads can and do sometimes feature
>sexist imagery, cars in themselves can be and are driven by men and
>women. Women probably have a wider range of choices in clothes
>(women can wear clothes for both men and women, while culture tells
>most men to stick to men's clothing only). As for TV consumption,
>men do watch more TV than women in America (cf. 2.57 hours for men
>and 1.96 hours for women in households with no children under 18:
><http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/atus.pdf>) since men have more
>leisure, but there are lots of shows that cater to women, and there
>isn't a radical gender difference in consumption of TV that you see
>in consumption of porn.
>
>The gendered division of labor predates capitalism, and it won't
>necessarily get better for women after capitalism. The same goes for
>a gendered division of cultural production and consumption. Male-
>centered porn is a problem.
>
>Yoshie Furuhashi
><http://montages.blogspot.com>
><http://monthlyreview.org>
><http://mrzine.org>
>
>
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