The F Word's "No porn is good porn?"

[sam]

Some of you may remember writer Abby O'Reilly once tried to defend her use of prostituted women by insisting that without prostituted women men would rape women more. She pulled out many other rape myths commonly spouted as fact by third wave feminists promoting every woman's right to buy and use whores and I took it all apart one by one here.

http://www.genderberg.com/phpBB/viewtop ... light=abby

She's back defending her right to get herself off with documentaries of prostitutes being prostituted by once again going the Victorian Era route where women are inherently morally superior to men by birth so she-pimps are morally superior to he-pimps. Plus, she tosses in some Dworkin bashing and "critics of porn want it banned by the government" nonsense that's been debunked 100 times only to bounce off the thick skulls of prostitution-defending pornsturbaters 100 times.

This article reads like pretty much every interview with porn directors of the cock-having persuasion I've come across with some more author editorializing than usual tacked on. From the praise of vision as the most important sexual sense, to how much laughter and fun ensues on porn sets, to “The women in these porn films are going out there and doing what they want to do, what they dream to do, and nine times out of 10 they feel great about it"...it's the same porn propaganda that has been playing out for two decades from stereotype a to stereotype z. It's even becoming cliche to point out that "for women" porn sold with images of nekkid women on the cover, porntastic press releases sent to media, and vagina erotic cakes at "release parties" is obviously more about capitalists capturing the eye of male editors than bravely delivering something different that most women actually want to see.

Abby O'Reilly takes this "9 out of 10" stock pornographer defense quote at face value without asking about or looking for substantive information on women in the porn industry, making the contrived defense of her consumerist use of prostituted women out to be feminist journalism. The same pheminists who suggest there are no reliable statistics for trafficking victims never seem to connect that to the lack of records or research on legal pornstitutes, and unfortunately Abby's too busy fingering herself to think about why there's an absolute blackout on reliable research solely focused on prostituted who have been filmed for commercial product distribution.


No porn is good porn?

Is it possible to reconcile an appreciation for porn with feminism? Searching for answers, Abby O’Reilly interviews Anna Span, the UK’s first female porn director

My angelic sensibilities were offended forever the morning I first caught sight of a bollard-like cock while eating a handful of midget gems. To this day, I can’t even look at a bag without imagining being bludgeoned around the head by a monstrous trouser-snake, before taking it hard from behind.

When the boys in school huddled around a porn magazine, boasting about tit-fucks, deep-throating and debating the artistic importance of the ‘money shot’, I couldn’t help but visualise them carrying each others swollen, pubescent, melon balls around in wheelbarrows.

It was only when they decided to rub the weathered images of wet shaven pussies, tight asses and hard round breasts across my reddening face as a punishment for my involuntary giggling that I realised these spotty vessels of burgeoning testosterone were using these photos to achieve sexual gratification. For three weeks I felt like I’d bathed my eyes in salt water.

Looking at daguerreotypes of different-but-the-same women holding open her fleshy vaginal lips and sucking her own cherry nipples for the pleasure of no-one but the horny voyeur was a difficult concept to digest while waiting for the bus home. For some reason I felt predisposed to dislike it. It was only when the boys progressed to porn films during our mid to late teens that I began to appreciate the relative benefits of watching a TV repair man and a voluptuous housewife fuck on the floor of an Austrian bar. There was something intriguing about studying the fresh bodies of nubile women completely stretched, distended and contorted into a number of acrobatic positions, seemingly bouncing on the periphery of exquisite delight, at the same time as being utterly defiled in every way by a heaving bulk of muscle and stubble harbouring a throbbing erection and a cheeky smile.

Part of my enjoyment arose from the feeling that I was unlawfully intruding onto male territory, extracting pleasure from something that, as an empowered woman, I was not socially or traditionally allowed to enjoy. I found this difficult to reconcile with my feminist beliefs.

Men usually chime in with the dominant discourse when sharing erotic desires to such an extent that women feel that it is socially unacceptable to verbalise their own debauched fantasies. I never discussed this with my female friends, even though the way they blushed and glanced sideways at the screen when they thought nobody was looking suggested that they were also experiencing some stirrings in the knickers department.

Sex is interesting, it’s carnal and in watching others shag we can hone our own techniques, or develop different ways of providing our partners greater pleasure (making us come all the harder). Historically, many ‘celebrity’ feminists have promoted censorship and the banning of pornographic material so vehemently, though, that saying this I feel like I’ve dug up Andrea Dworkin and shat on her face.
What if there was a market for fat porn? What if Anna wanted me to star? I had thought about little else during the train journey, mentally playing out my own fantasy as a scullery maid getting roasted by the master of the house and his ambitious young son

Dworkin, a radical US feminist, was one of the most acerbic critics of pornography throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The publication of her book Pornography: men possessing women in 1981 forced people to reassess the cultural implications of porn and linked it with sexual attacks and violence against women. In 2005, the US journalist Ariel Levy offered Female chauvinist pigs: women and the rise of raunch culture, arguing that the behaviour of young women is systematically unravelling the work of our feminist foremothers. With this latest assault, it’s not surprising that pornography continues to be perceived as the last refuge of the male sexual pervert and ill-informed cock-slut who, in her pretensions to empowerment, is ironically consolidating archetypal male oppression at the same time as flashing her muff at anyone holding a camera.

Many women are strongly anti-porn. But what if a woman does not endorse this mode of thinking? Does she have to sacrifice her feminist label because the material she uses to get wet is incongruent with her idealistic beliefs? Young women in the 21st century are increasingly comfortable discussing their sexual fantasies and experiences, so it’s not surprising that there has been a proliferation in so-called ‘female-friendly’ porn that offers women visual stimulation, without subjugation.

I realised that I needed to draw on the wisdom of a cock-connoisseur to discuss this, being little more than an amateur myself. Meeting ‘Britain’s hottest porn director’ (as voted for by UK men’s magazine Arena) would provide an opportunity to discuss gender roles within the industry and also the wider cultural implications of producing sex films for a female audience, especially since this director, a college graduate, is, perhaps even more surprisingly, a woman.

read the rest http://www.thefword.org.uk/features/200 ... rn_is_good

[elfeminista]

" rape myths commonly spouted as fact by third wave feminists promoting every woman's right to buy and use whores and I took it all apart one by one here. "

I think you made a typo.You mean "every man's" no?

[sam]

I meant what I said, Abby defends her own and every woman's right to use the commodified and penetrated bodies of women for sexual self-gratification with a myopic "Men have been entitled to (ab)use as many whores as they could afford so equality demands women ratchet up their sexual capitalism expenditures."

The excuse Abby gives for not agreeing to star in pornography is her sensitive gag reflex, but there's a much bigger market for porn of women gagging on cocks than for woman-POV fuckumentaries so her ability to produce realistic gagging would jump-start her 'career'. The delicate gag relfex excuse is the second most common one I get from pro-pornstitution women consumers after "I can't do sex work myself because I have a boyfriend."

[delphyne]

That has to be one of the most offensive articles I've read in ages. The bit about Dworkin - hello misogyny. The fact that she has imagery like that in her head to draw on is incredibly disturbing. The fact that she's happy to write it out publicly, even more so.

Dworkin is a real lightning rod for woman-haters of both sexes. She always draws them out. A lot of people still wanted to hurt Dworkin even after she was dead, I think some of them were angered that she'd escaped them.

[laurelin]

What a stupid, offensive, self-centred article. Fuckme pheminism at its vilest.

Yes, you may be turned on by porn. Duh, that's what it's designed to do... but that doesn't mean you should therefore promote it, or that it's therefore harmless. That's the excuse abusive men use; it's pure self-serving bullshit.

I'm so mad right now. I'm spitting feathers.

[laurelin]

oh, and this is the stated aim of the article:

Is it possible to reconcile an appreciation for porn with feminism? Searching for answers, Abby O'Reilly interviews Anna Span, the UK's first female porn director

Abby, if you're reading, rather than interview someone whose entire life benefits from pornography to find out about if it is 'possible to reconcile appreciation for porn with feminism', why not interview female victims of sexual abuse who will tell you how porn was used in their abuse, why not interview ex-porn stars and ask them about their lives, why not read Ordeal by Linda Boreman? Why not ask antiporn feminists why they are antiporn? Why not stop accusing them of censorship, a baseless accusation? I can point you to many places where you will find this information. What you get off to is irrelevant. It doesn't mean that porn is harmless or that women are not abused and exploited by it.

[MaggieH]

Abby, if you're reading, rather than interview someone whose entire life benefits from pornography to find out about if it is 'possible to reconcile appreciation for porn with feminism', why not interview female victims of sexual abuse who will tell you how porn was used in their abuse, why not interview ex-porn stars and ask them about their lives, why not read Ordeal by Linda Boreman? Why not ask antiporn feminists why they are antiporn? Why not stop accusing them of censorship, a baseless accusation? I can point you to many places where you will find this information. What you get off to is irrelevant. It doesn't mean that porn is harmless or that women are not abused and exploited by it.

I agree. This is so wonderfully put, Laurelin. Yeah!

[jo]

Just look at the cover of the video with the text "Genuine female point of view!" If it is from the woman's point of view, shouldn't it be a picture of a objectificated man? Why the stupid picture of a woman making the typical porno face, showing her breasts like they are something "naughty"? This talk about gag-reflex, shouldn't there be scenes of men going down on women only? From the woman's point of view?

[axjxhx]

i didn't read the rest of the interview beyond what is posted here. i got what i needed out of the article right off the bat:

"[irrelevant pornographic description]...was a difficult concept to digest while waiting for the bus home. <b>For some reason I felt predisposed to dislike it.</b>"

the rest of the article is her trying to convince herself that ignoring her intuition is somehow empowering.

the other bit that caught my eye:

"Part of my enjoyment arose from the feeling that I was unlawfully intruding onto male territory, <b>extracting pleasure</b> from something that, as an empowered woman, I was not socially or traditionally allowed to enjoy. I found this difficult to reconcile with my feminist beliefs."

i think this is another example of when her gut tried to intervene. too bad she uses porn to desensitize herSelf.

[sam]

Abby, if you're reading, rather than interview someone whose entire life benefits from pornography to find out about if it is 'possible to reconcile appreciation for porn with feminism', why not interview female victims of sexual abuse who will tell you how porn was used in their abuse, why not interview ex-porn stars and ask them about their lives, why not read Ordeal by Linda Boreman?

Reading this gave me flashbacks to the 2000 presidential election when Florida shenanigans were raising eyebrows. Some journalist, (I think from ABC News but I don't feel like digging around for the exact source) thought it was wise to call an election office in Florida and ask if there was anything funky going on, and when they said, "Nope, everything's fine" he dutifully reported back, "Nothing to see here folks, a government official says everything is fine election-wise in sunny Florida."

A couple thousand people, many black and Jewish, would go on to tell a much different story than the official government account regurgitated by the compliant mass media tool.

[CoolAunt]

What a stupid, offensive, self-centred article. Fuckme pheminism at its vilest.

Yes, you may be turned on by porn. Duh, that's what it's designed to do... but that doesn't mean you should therefore promote it, or that it's therefore harmless. That's the excuse abusive men use; it's pure self-serving bullshit.

Amen! My life would be easier if my white ass owned some black slaves, too, but it's fucking wrong. Just because using and exploiting others is good for the user and exploiter, that doesn't make it a good thing to do. For fuck's sake! Didn't everyone learn that as a child or was it just me?