--- Dwayne Monroe <idoru345 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Justin:
>
> Now this is a brave and original analysis!
>
> Here's a more interesting suggestion: read Laura
> Kipnis' Bound & Gagged
>
> ==============================
>
>
> Kipnis' central argument, as I recall (and I'm
> certain I'll be ruthlessly
> corrected, jks full clip unloaded gangsta style,
Am I really that bad?
if
> wrong), is that porn is best
> read as fantasy -- a self contained end within
> itself -- and should be viewed,
> more or less, the way we see *Star Trek* or
> Tolkien's works.
That's part of it. She has a lot of stuff going on, including a very effective attack on the sort of thought that kells raised that porn makes you more likely to do Bad Things or have Bad Thoughts, shreds that "research" quite effectively, though you can also find that in, e.g., Nadine Stroessen (the ACLU defender of the right to publish obscene material). She also discusses how antiporn attitudes lead to active injustice, particularly when people's fantasies are taken as reality. The Hustler chapter I especially liked becaused it discusses the potential of porn as a weapon of class struggle (really!) And there is a lot of discussion about the difficulty of identifying what counts as porn and discussion of what it means to the users and participants. It's really very good.
>
> Just as no sensible person would declare the sky to
> be falling because folks
> watched *Star Trek* or read *The Fellowship of the
> Ring*, we should be similarly
> calm about porn's impact.
> >
> There was a time when it seemed both possible and
> logical to make elaborate sets
> ,write framing stories and attempt to clearly create
> a lavish fantasy world of
> freely available sex.
>
> This once prominent sub genre all but completely
> disappeared as the *amateur* age
> began several years ago.
>
Can't speak to that myself.
Yahoo! Mail Stay connected, organized, and protected. Take the tour: http://tour.mail.yahoo.com/mailtour.html