March 4th, 2010 -- by Bacchus
Porn Industry, Are You Listening?
Adele Haze has published a manifesto that should be required reading for anybody who makes, sells, or markets porn.
No, wait. It’s not a manifesto, it’s a tweet. But still:
I’ve written about a million decriptions of sexy pictures this morning. And none of them involve insults. See? It can be done.
Similar Sex Blogging:
This entry was posted on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 9:37 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response.
Shorter URL for sharing: http://www.erosblog.com/?p=4676
Shorter URL for sharing: http://www.erosblog.com/?p=4676
With the recent Olympics, I became aware of an odd quirk in my psyche – I was uncomfortable watching some of the female figure skating – The costumes were so sexy and the young ladies unquestionably very attractive – I was very aware of a sexual attraction and yet these are not porn stars or celebrities that I am quite comfortable oggling. They were somebody’s daughter, wholesome girl-next-door types and despite the costumes, supposedly not in the slightest seeking my attention sexually. (In reality though, sex in figure skating appears to be a gigantic elephant in the room – never mentioned but obviously very much in your face.) it was the ambiguity that made me uncomfortable
I wonder if the porn industry IS reading their market right – the models can be too wholesome and good and it needs to be made clear these are “bad” girls which is done with the derogatory labels and the insults. “Bad” girls are Ok to oggle, fondle, and fuck so the porn being marketed is acceptable.
I suspect many guys feel very protective of women, those like their sisters and mothers, and they need a very clear distinction between those women and the objects of their base lusts in their porn.
Personally I like watching porn were the models seem to be very intimate and really into each other – enjoying the sex, with no obvious degradation going on. However I find this hot imagining myself to be the one she is happy to be with and doing these thing with her is somewhat romantic.
Much of the slut/whore porn that involves insults is not of this nature at all – rather it is caveman stuff were the womens feelings don’t matter a damn. In this case I believe some men need to de-humanize the woman – just as we do to our enemies when we go to war to kill them.
Perhaps the porn industry insults allow the audience to break free of their normal inherent respect for the character portrayed.
You know what? I like it as a manifesto :)
I believe that pornography and it’s advertisement are largely debasing and hurtful at present because in our twisted society, this garners a greater audience than erotica does for a number of disjoint reasons.
You have your segment of people who are probably more interested in humiliating their imagined partners than in anything sexual, and who view sex as merely the most effective form of humiliation available. And you have those who wish to be on the receiving end of same treatment.
You have people who feel that sexual fantasy should be as far removed from standard behavior as possible, who wish to break every taboo in sight as one might break the dishes, sweeping them from a table to make room for love. Those who feel the need to exclaim every dysphemism under the sun as a symbol of passionately letting go of their inhibitions.
And finally, you have the cognitive dissonance borne of the fact that our society cannot see clear to mix respect and sexuality in the same bowl. Being promiscuous is viewed as “shameful”, so those who wish to indulge in their promiscuity often seek out “shameful” or “slutty” individuals to fantasize about. Or it might be the preemptive strike that demeaning your partner quickly and thoroughly removes the focus from the fact that you are behaving just as “shamefully”.
I think that everyone should do as they see fit with their own fantasy lives, but that the market itself is such a cesspool at present only due to our cultural landscape. If mature sensuality were to be made mainstream, then harmonious erotica would also become more readily available to we who prefer that.