As someone who is unabashedly "pro-porn" as well as "pro-sex", pro-feminist, pro-socialist, anti-capitalist, and all the other good stuff that radical Leftists are made of, allow me the honor of responding to Yoshie's myths about us "pro-porn" feminists and how we're allegedly too busy masturbating to actually think about the real life issues of porn/erotica.
The problem with your argument, Yoshie, is that it ignores the basic fact that most of the antiporn feminists don't really care much about what we say or what we think; they simply dismiss us as either innate victims of patriarchy" who are simply too stupid and obsessed with sex to buy into their theory of porn as the center of capitalist patriarchal racist society. .or simply the enablers of the BAAAAAD, evil male penises who simply exist to assault, destroy, and co-opt the essential supreme womyn's society. Trust me on this, madame; I've had my share of battle royalles with antiporn Leftists like Stan Goff, Chyng Sun, and Robert Jensen amongst other luminaries in the antiporn "feminist" movement.
If you happen to get a chance, go over to Nina Hartley's forum and check out the threads there, then tell me that we don't care about the current state of how women (and men) are portrayed in modern erotica/porn. After all, Nina s entire freakin' career as an XXX starlet/icon has been dedicated to the goal of improving women's roles, images, and status (both economic and image).
If it does seem that we "pro-porn"/anti-censorship feminists don't spend enough time discussing the political/social impacts of sexually explicit media enough for some folks, it might be because we have to forever dodge bullets, missiles, bunker-busters, and other assorted WMD from not just the fundamentalist Right "sin busters", but just as much from the antiporn Leftists" who are so willing to claim exclusive domain to feminist and Leftist thought..to the extreme of bullying, shouting out, and simply distorting voices which dare to criticize their methods and theories. Contrary to what you may have heard, Yoshie, we don't have anywhere near the volume or the press that they can offer (I don't see Oprah Winfrey, for example, using her popular TV talk show to support free consensual sexual expression amongst consenting adults).
I could go ahead and do a complete deconstruction of why I think Jensen's and Dines' article is simply mere right-wing Puritan garbage dressed in a pseudo-feminist, quasi-Leftist patina...but I and others have already done this elsewhere, and I have no need to waste more of Doug's bandwidth. (A wonderful Happy Birthday to you, Doug, BTW.) But to claim that those of us who defend free will and free choice when it comes to sexual relations and sexual media -- within the proper contexts of transforming the broader society that produces far more racism, sexism, and misogyny than porn could ever create on its own -- have to bear the burden of defending the expressions of others merely because it may offend the sensibilities of a few people....is more than just nearsighted and misguided; it paves the ground for scapegoating of innocent people for feelings and acts that they didn't commit.
Of course, no one who is a genuine sex radical/Leftist should cast any aspersions on those who simply don't like porn for whatever reason; that is their right and their choice. And I do cede the argument that there is a lot in some sexually explicit media to be desired as far as prevailing attitudes go. But to target sexual expression as the center of all oppression and call for its utter banishment at the expense of the broader institutional racism or sexism or classism is nothing less than idiocy; to offer porn-baiting and sex-bashing as not just "a" Left issue but "THE" Left issue is even worse. There are already plenty of right-wing bashers against sexual expression without some Leftists joining in the choir.
So you see, Yoshie, it's not necessarily about the Puritanism; it's about survival and free thought. It's not the "pro-porn" side that is guilty of lacking nuanced analysis; it's the antiporn side that's guilty of attempting to wipe us off the face of the earth. Please pardon us if we decide not to simply play by their rules with more "sophisticated" arguments denying our right to our humanity.
BTW....both the "Babes of Iraq" and the supposed stories of mass rapes turned out to be hoaxes; the former was found to be stills capped from a Eastern European porn video featuring actors portraying Arabs having standard-fare conventional sex; and the latter was mostly propaganda produced by a Turkish radical Islamic newssite.
And as far as the NowThatsFuckedUp.com site and their "War Pics for Porn" deal: you are aware, aren't you, that the founder and creator of that website is now in a Florida jail awaiting trial...for obscenity charges concerning the pictures of.....you guessed it...conventional standard porn. No snuff videos or rape fillms..just pics of women masturbating, and group orgies?? If he had been trading Iraq war pics for , say, antique cars or $1 000 contributions to the GOP, would that have made it better???
Sorry for the length...but I just had to rant on this.
Anthony