..if you're going to restart this discussion, you have to say more about what your take is on this.
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To be honest, I don't have one, fixed sense of how to take this.
One of the problems is devising a method to separate personal impressions and preoccupations from an assessment of social trends. Of course, like everyone, I believe some behaviors are preferable to others. The trouble is sorting these very subjective internal judgments out from a consideration of what many now see as a problem.
I think Meghan O'Rourke succinctly expressed the problem when she wrote:
** What I was struck by in each was how difficult it was for the authors—for all of us—to get past their (or our) own assumptions about porn and sex.**
more at --
<http://slate.msn.com/id/2126570/entry/2126575/?nav=ais>
...
In my own case, assumptions about the issues Levy discusses are formed by both direct and second hand experiences. The direct experiences are of some interest but easily misinterpreted in a forum like this in which impatience, lack of time and kilobytage constraints often prevent the crafting of a well formed, comprehensive text.
So I'll be demure for now.
The second-hand experiences are from women friends, some of whom decided
that sexuality, as expressed via a variation of the strip or pr0n style of presentation (or what they perceived to be this mode) and, in a few cases, participation in the world of sex work as performers, was a path to greater personal freedom and power or at least, comfort with themselves.
Conversations and passionate debates with these women (sliding along the pro and con scale over time) have shaped and re-shaped my views.
For example, I don't think the "Girls Gone Wild" vids are a good idea for the women who provide the film makers with material. Initially, this seemed like a fairly uncontroversial opinion to me but it's prompted long and complex discussions about power and who gets to choose what's "correct" behavior for women.
So now I'm not so sure my reaction to this much discussed (perhaps archetypal for the genre) series of 'reality' films is on the mark. Or, to be more precise, I still don't believe that style of presentation is 'empowering' but I'm willing to learn from those who disagree.
Just one example.
.d.