[lbo-talk] Capitalism and porn

[shag carpet bomb]

At 02:57 PM 1/23/2012, // ravi wrote:
>On Jan 23, 2012, at 2:31 PM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote:
> > ravi:
> >>
> >> "What is bleak sex and what is not? Not being facetious. Are we 
> counting frequency (as the word "bleak" implies), and/or some other 
> metric? People are having sex in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia (neither 
> socialist), I would think, no? Do you mean that for the women, living in 
> those restrictive environments, the sex must not be fun? (bleak in that 
> sense?)."
> >
> > Not referring to frequency. Bad for women? yes. And for that reason not 
> so great for the men either. As they say in Afghanistan: "Women for 
> babies, men for pleasure."
> >
>
>So, if sex sucks :-) in the capitalist USA today, and the medieval 
>societies of Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, when and where has it not 
>sucked? Was it better in the USA 50 or a 100 years ago? I guess the 
>TruthOuter is arguing that yeah it was because men were dominant and had 
>no psychological issues, they didn't have such easy access to porn, women 
>were pliant or what not, and didn't have to compete with porn stars. At 
>the same time, in the last 50 years, feminism and other developments have 
>taught many men that hey the woman might just possibly get some pleasure 
>out of this too. So perhaps women's sexual lives have improved?
>
>The piece doesn't answer these questions well. So I am wondering what you 
>and the rest think (not of the piece, but of the state of sex). My own 
>view (as mentioned earlier) are rather pessimistic that this whole 
>business was much better than bleak at any point in recent history (by 
>which I mean the last 2000 years).
>
>         —ravi

didn't dennis perrin have a rule: no fair discussing porn unless you 
actually use it and are willing ot talk about your own experiences with it, 
not speculations? :)

i mean, wtf would those of who aren't sleeping around a lot possibly have 
to say about it? although, now that i think about it, it's almost always 
middle-aged people who get into these convos anyway.

I didn't read the article but one of the bleakest books I've ever read 
about contemporary sexuality - whether het,bi, or lesbian - was Tricia 
Rose's Longing to Tell. I wrote about it here awhile back. Depressing book.

btw, the proposition that people don't want to have vanilla sex after 
viewing porn is ridiculous. we watching all kinds of romanticized 
unrealistic crap on television and read it in books and magazines; doesn't 
stop of from proceeding apace in the real world having love affairs, having 
children, raising families, owning pets, going to college, getting jobs, 
making friends, etc. I mean, why would I date or marry anyone when it would 
be so much better to watch people on the screen have much better and more 
interesting dialogue than could possibly happen in real life. (I'm fucking 
around at this point)