Take your WRAP and fuck it.
October 25–November 1 is WRAP Week! WRAP = White Ribbons Against Pornography, and this post is my little way of helping to celebrate! What better way to celebrate the puritan anti-porn squad's self-proclaimed crusade, than a big, resounding GO FUCK YOURSELF, f-ckingc-nts-style?
Instead of a White Ribbon, wear a Plaid Ribbon. When people ask, say it’s for Porn Awareness Week and your gratitude for the First Amendment. ~Dr. Marty Klein
Feel free to borrow the lovely rainbow plaid ribbon I've made for the occasion Why rainbow plaid instead of a traditional tartan plaid? Because porn ain't just for traditional folks. No sirree … the porn industry cheerfully and sweatily caters to every possible permutation of human sexuality… the whole rainbow coalition community and then some. Let's be equally inclusive, yes?
WRAP Week was brought to my attention by Dr. Marty Klein's wonderfully up-yours response, suggesting the plaid-beribboned answer to WRAP's festivities: 10 Ways to Celebrate Porn Awareness Week. Two of the first six comments on his post were predictably anti-porn. You can't mention porn on an even moderately trafficked liberal website without getting a few of those.
They got the expected "porn causes crime and victimizes women" comment, backed up by a ton of citations from old studies (that sound suspiciously like they had serious methodological issues). Oddly, the commenter completely ducked their chance to rebut the suspiciously pro-porn factoid mentioned in the article (emphasis mine):
"…according to the FBI, [violence against women, child molestation and divorce] have ALL declined since the country was flooded with internet porn in 2000."
Then they got the obligatory "porn destroys relationships and women's self-esteem comment, which left me with the sneaking suspicion the commenter's underlying emotional issues had a lot more to do with her marital difficulties than her husband's unobtrusive porn consumption. God forbid though, any "jerk" suggest perhaps she's the one with the problem, rather than hubby & his titty mags. Unfortunately, even were she and her DH to sally forth and get couples counseling, the therapist would likely jump hubby's shit about his dirty movies too.
The only thing that genuinely brings me joy in regards to anti-pornography hysteria activism is the way it brings together the hardcore Christian twits like Girls Against Porn, and the equally holier-than-thou enlightened "feminist" contingent, like Dr. Klein's commenters (oh, I would dearly love to see one of the women over at feministe.us dissect Dr. Klein's musings!). When the fuck else are you going to see the likes of those folks in bed together? (Please dear god, not in a porno, OK? That is just a visual I never need to see.)
I realize some people don't like porn. That's just fine and dandy with me. Much like my other favorite politically polarizing sins causes, marijuana and abortion, I figure you're more than welcome to not partake of strip clubs, nudie mags, and dirty movie websites. It is absolutely your right. Just like it's your right not to drink, marry a same-sex partner, or read newspapers if you choose not to. But for fuck's sake, do NOT treat me like some kind of mental incompetent who doesn't understand the implications of my actions if I choose differently.
Seriously, life for a woman in N. America or the EU is about a million times better than it was back in the days before the invention of mass printing; and let's face it, that is pretty much when dirty pictures started to be mass produced. When moving pictures were invented, people started filming sex. When the internet was invented… indeed. While I'm certainly not giving porn credit for being the driving force behind women's lib and all the gains we've enjoyed from it, it is also clearly NOT destroying our lives.
You want to live in a world without porn? Let's see what we can come up with… of course, there's life back before mass printing. I doubt anyone would really argue women were better off back then. No voting, few property rights, virtually no legal rights within marriage, no birth control… Hmm. OK, nevermind that one.
Maybe a modern, affluent country without the scourge of the smut peddlers? Saudi Arabia comes to mind… Other than that, I'm pretty sure all the 'modern, affluent' nations that actually allow women to vote and drive and generally be self-sufficient adults actually do allow porn. It's all part of that weird "personal freedom" thing, y'know?
A big part of protecting your own personal freedom to do things other people don't care for, is in turn agreeing they have the right to do things you don't like. Call it the Golden Rule, the Law of Reciprocity, Karma, or whatever you want… You want other people to stay out of your damn bedroom, your womb, your church or whatever? Return the fucking favor, and stay the fuck out of our fantasy lives. (Oh, and stay out of the professional lives of all the folks making a perfectly legal living enhancing them, thankewvermuch.)
There's really an anti-porn movement? Seriously? Is it me, or is the C-word (choice, not the other one that one might often hear in a porn film) an endangered species. Or is it just intelligent thought that's jumping out the window?
28th October 2009 at 11:26 pm | permalink |Yeah, the right wing anti-abortion crowd is pretty much all anti-porn (although not nearly as organized about it, thank goodness), and a lot of hardcore feminists are to. Funny they're pretty much opposite on every other "women's issue" out there.
Hell, I keep wondering why nobody's fretting over the well-being of the male porn performers. Apparently only the women are poor, suffering, helpless, abused creatures.
28th October 2009 at 11:49 pm | permalink |I aways find the "porn victimises women" argument hard to accept, because there is such a thing as gay porn, where men do objectifying, degrading things to other men. I can't say I feel in any way demeaned, threatened or even slightly outraged about it, although I suppose it could just be because I'm not gay. Or maybe I'm just able to accept that some people like that, and since I don't, it's none of my damn business
29th October 2009 at 12:37 am | permalink |@TallTroll: Hell, there's TONS of porn out there with women doing humiliating things to men… I think the point there (from both the über-feminists and the Bible humpers) is that OH THE POOR WOMEN ARE FORCED INTO A LIFE OF WHORISH PROMISCUITY. Y'know. Who really cares what kind of acts they're performing? The fact is, THESE WOMEN ARE FUCKING IN PLAIN VIEW OF EVERYONE. The horror. (Nevermind the guys. Everyone knows men are whorish by nature, no?
Let's see…
2. Having sex for fun—even within marriage—is highly suspect.
3. Being naked or dressing "whorishly" is horrible, because you're leading men into temptation, you Jezebel, you. (Those women probably have abortions too. All whores do, y'know.)
2. Sex with men—even without getting paid—is highly suspect.
3. Getting boob implants and/or dressing "whorishly" is horrible, because you're objectifying yourself for the sole enjoyment of the inherently oppressive patriarchy, you Victim you.
Now, I figure the über-feminists couldn't give a fuck less about the men in porn, since it's all really Men's fault to begin with. (Not just porn. It's ALL Men's fault. ALL of it.)
The Xtians, on the other hand? Well, maybe there's something in the Bible about female "purity" being more valuable than male purity? I know the Old Testament allows men to remarry after divorce, but not women…
>> Everyone knows men are whorish by nature, no?
Oh, that's right, I have a penis, and THEREFORE am a slave to my animal instincts etc and am obliged to stick it in any orifice that gets in range and so forth. Unless the bitch is in the kitchen, fixin' me a sammich. She can stay there then, that thar is womens territory. And stuff. Yeah
The mass printing thing, not so sure, the Kama Sutra for example predates printing by several centuries, at least. Hell, depending on your interpretation, Stone Age "Mother Earth" figurines could be considered a very early form of porn, depicting the female form in the contemporary version of a size zero model, presumably.
It does seem odd that the rise of the accessibility of porn and the increase in womens rights seem to track so well together in general though. I'm not sure theres a direct causal relationship though, I suspect it's more likely they share causes, sort of thing
29th October 2009 at 2:07 am | permalink |Gaddammit, I was about to go to bed. lol I'll make it quick…
Goddess knows no feminist worth her salt would ever consider depictions of sacred sexuality or fertility "pornography", young man! But seriously, what the anti-porn crusaders are talking about (and I'm happy to agree on the rough definition) is commercially produced and distributed material.
And yeah, I'm pretty sure there's no causal relationship there either. My money's on women's rights and porn being concurrent products of the industrial revolution…
…and I said I'd make this quick, didn't I? Right. That's me shutting up and going to sleep.
29th October 2009 at 3:07 am | permalink |Maybe I'll have something more to add when I've got over the Girls Against Porn also apparently being "Girls Against Both Graphic Design In General And The Use Of CG Images Newer Than Last Century". It may take a while.
GABGDIGATUOCIGNTLC has a much better ring to it that GAP.
I'd have added "And Who Are Also Violently Opposed To Spelling And Grammar" but that would have fucked up the acronym.
29th October 2009 at 4:30 am | permalink |>> Goddess knows no feminist worth her salt would ever consider depictions of sacred sexuality or fertility "pornography", young man!
I bet you a huge pile of flint tools that cavedudes used to jack off to them nonetheless.
29th October 2009 at 4:58 am | permalink |Welcome back LOVE!
29th October 2009 at 6:50 am | permalink |how suppressed have the anti's got to be…just to let the fertile (but lonely…of either gender!)make there day to day existence …well err!!! just have that spark of ignition….
29th October 2009 at 1:27 pm | permalink |@grimbles: Jeez… I didn't mean to traumatize anyone! (At least not anyone on my side.)
@TallTroll: OK, I found a ridiculously weird link explaining the hardcore Xtian side of the issue: A Christian Sex Toy Store's User Guidelines.
As for the über-feminists, everyone knows the male end user's activities mean nothing. If material is produced for sacred reasons, that's all that matters… if it's produced for evil, capitalist, hetero-sexist-lustful reasons, it probably doesn't matter even if a bunch of lesbian-separatist goddess worshippers use it as an altarpiece, it's still wrong.
@Ray: Thanks.
@bertie: Yeah, repression never does anyone a bit of good.
30th October 2009 at 1:20 am | permalink |>> This site should ONLY be viewed by married couples!
Wow, how would you create a CAPTCHA for that?
>> Sex between a married man and woman is a very unique form of intimacy, pray over any purchases made in this store.
… and remember to wash the appliances in holy water after use.
I see they sell condoms, so presmably they are dirty Protestants then?
@grimbles Yeah, I found it odd that the GAP site logo features girls with distinctly male-fantasy figures, personally. So long as they are *against porn* though, I guess its OK then
30th October 2009 at 3:41 am | permalink |It's a christian site, not a crazy-feminist site. Everyone knows it's a good christian woman's job to be sexually attractive for her god-approved partner.
30th October 2009 at 5:52 am | permalink |My parents let a very curious young me watch porn when I was young (don't remember how young, but I wasn't even 10 at the time). It was always supervised, and I continued watching it through present day.
As a result of being exposed to it while I was growing up, I think I'm quite "down to earth" about sex. I'm extremely careful about using protection, and I'm very conscious about my partner's needs and desires. I don't know how much of it is me and how much is from my exposure to adult cinema, but I never believed that stuff about acting out what you see on the screen. I remember even back then knowing the difference between television and real life, and adult movies were no difference. It was a part of my life growing up, and, unlike so many other people, I feel better adjusted to the subject of sex than a lot of other people because of it.
30th October 2009 at 5:44 pm | permalink |I've been happily married to my high school sweetheart and best friend for 15 years and we like porn. If you take away my porn I WILL SUE YOUR ASS!
Signed a woman that likes porn,
Fuck you very much,
Val
PS if you don't like porn then maybe try using a condom and having less children so your wife won't have you by the fucking BALLS in the divorce cause you are miserable! Damn, I need to go blog don't I? lmao I could move on to the issue with women and porn, it has nothing to do with it being demeaning…
1st November 2009 at 3:14 am | permalink |Glad to see you back in business AB
2nd November 2009 at 6:25 pm | permalink |Personally I like sex more as a participation sport, rather than a spectator sport, so I'm not much of a porn watcher. But, I don't think there is anything "wrong" with it.
Have you ever noticed that it is most often the jealous one in a relationship that turns out to be the cheater?
I think that the same mechanism is probably at work here.
Just like the gay-hating preachers & politicians who turn out to be in paying for gay sex.
As Shakespeare wrote "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
The Bertha better than you crowd have closets bursting at the seams with skeletons.
The Christians claim that secular America has declared war on them, but the opposite is true.
Hey there good to see everybody again. Good topic as well. Porn is like religion – it is here to stay. However porn attracts people naturally, whereas religion is forced. Which is worse ? Which one causes the most heinous crimes … Son of Sam didn't kill because porn told him to do it.
7th November 2009 at 9:50 pm | permalink |The fuck is wrong with porn? Repressed motherfuckers.
9th November 2009 at 8:19 pm | permalink |Bitch gotta eat.
@TallTroll: >> This site should ONLY be viewed by married couples!
Wow, how would you create a CAPTCHA for that?
Oooh. Fuck, that's a good question. Thought of anything yet? rofl!
Elie: My mom certainly never let me watch porn, but she was pretty up front about the whole "sex is a natural, good thing to do with other consenting adults" attitude, so that kinda trickled over to my attitude about porn. All the porn performers I've met (or currently follow on Twitter) are perfectly well consenting about it all, so why not?
@Val: ROFL … did you ever write your own post about it? I'd love to read it!
@Zeke: Good points, all. I wonder how many anti-porn ppl get all tingly inside while they're doing their "research" to see exactly what sort of evil it is they're doing battle against? lol
@fabrulana: True true. Porn never started any crusades, or inspired any terrorist attacks either… hehehe
@Ursula: And if bitch can have fun while earning her $$$, more power to her!
12th November 2009 at 4:16 pm | permalink |