[lbo-talk] Porn: By Men for Men

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

> On Thu, 8 Dec 2005, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> > I don't think we should go in a state of denial about the
> > fact that some cultural products are just too sexist to appeal to  
> women.
> >
>
> Sure, but that's not just true of porn; it's true in many forms of  
> mass media (e.g., pro wrestling).  I guess what I'm trying to  
> figure out is this: what is fundamentally distinct about porn as a  
> commodity, compared to other mass media commodities?  Sure, it  
> deserves our opprobrium as a mechanism of labor exploitation, but  
> we can apply that critique to Wal-mart.  Why the need to single out  
> porn as an especially egregious product of capitalist relations?
>
> Miles

Treat porn like any other commodity, and imagine, e.g., what  
consumers would do if a car market were 95% dominated by Hummers  
(obsessions with size), Yugos (non-starters), and Pintos (unsafe)?   
That's what women confront in the porn market, so most women said,  
"Unpalatable at Any Price" (despite the overabundance of free porn on  
the Net).

Yoshie Furuhashi
<http://montages.blogspot.com>
<http://monthlyreview.org>
<http://mrzine.org>