The Pornography of Everyday Life

[bloom]

A film.

The film illustrates how the pornographic worldview is a generally
accepted discourse, a habitual mode of thinking and acting that
underpins not only sexism, but also racism, militarism, physical
abuse and torture, and the pillaging of the environment. As such,
pornography appears not only in overt, "hard-core" forms, but also in
virtually every aspect of everyday life.

As the film illuminates, even though pornography is generally thought
to be the opposite of religion, it actually is an irrational belief
system analogous to a religion. Like much patriarchal religious
tradition, pornography is shown to be misogynistic and homophobic,
and defines sex as "dirty" or debased and the opposite of the mind or
spirit.

Pornography is also shown to support the worst tendencies of
patriarchal religions by appropriating previously sacred and potent
images of women, sex, goddesses, and the feminine principle,
colloquially known as Mother Earth or Mother Nature, and then
ritually profaning and defaming them. This works not only to demean
women but to justify and legitimize male divinity and worldly
authority.

The film concludes by suggesting alternatives and by illustrating how
visionary thinkers and artists resist the pornographic worldview by
re-imagining and restoring respect to eroticism, female sexuality,
and the female divine, and by calling for new understandings of
sexuality, nature, and society.

http://www.berkeleymedia.com/catalog/berkeleymedia/films/womens_studies_gender_studies/womens_studies/the_pornography_of_everyday_life

[angstlessk]

1. $225.00 for a 34 minute documentary??? Do I LOOK crazy?

aint gonna happen...not in my lifetime!

[bloom]

2. It's the ideas that I was interested in

Though I was thinking about recommending it to the local peace group that shows various movies on war and peace and culture and that sort of thing.

It would also be good for someone who was a teacher with a budget for such things.

[noamnety]

6. Psssst

That's what interlibrary loan is for.

[mongo]

3. New age fundimentalism

By elevating sex to some mystical act, the authors can espouse the same old puritanical arguments.

And exactly how is gay porn homophobic?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

4. This destroys its own case by massively overstating it.

There may well be a grain of truth in what the article is alleging, but it goes so far over the top (pornography is an irrational belief system analogous to a religion? It ritually defames Mother Earth or Mother Nature?) that it's impossible to take it seriously.

A world in which pornography really was an all-pervading religion, being opposed in secret by the last few valiant supporters of goddess-worship through geurilla warfare, might make an interesting setting for a dystopian sci-fi novel, though.

[mongo]

5. hmmmm....

A world in which pornography really was an all-pervading religion, being opposed in secret by the last few valiant supporters of goddess-worship through geurilla warfare, might make an interesting setting for a dystopian sci-fi novel, though.

That would make a good plot for a big budget adult film too....

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

7. BWAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!

That's what I was thinking, too.

Somebody should totally make a porn with that plot.

[ismnotwasm]

8. The core of the "pornography problem"

Sex and patriarchal religion are so intertwined that the threads are very hard to pick out. Even those who consider themselves sexually free are in and of themselves are part of a system that tells them sex is wrong, or nasty. What I call the dirty little secret, much like the summary. Often times people have a need to reduce, or perhaps enhance, their sexuality to what they consider "dirty" or sometimes "filthy," if not by sexual acts themselves, but the sexual acts of others via pornography. It's sexually stimulating enough to defend while ignoring the psycho-sexual-social damage being done by certain imagery.

I'm agnostic but the role of religion can never be understated in any issue, but particularly how we perceive our sexuality. Gender studies are beginning to show the damage heteronormativity has done to our sexuality, to our social structure, our social growth and it's contribution to the second sex status of women. The idea that heterosexuality is "normal" even to those who are "gay friendly" is usually below our mental radar. And the roots of this too can be found in patriarchal religion.

To try to follow, or to be taught to follow a spiritual path--(and sex has been used for this for millenia in certain religions)only to be led into the imagery of "dirty", "nasty", "rutting" sex that may help give great orgasms-- while others pay a very high price for it-- then ignore that it costs anybody else anything is fucked up and very sad. One of the main reasons I'm not a libertarian.

[bloom]

9. Over the years

I've come to re-evaluate a lot of the crap that I had learned - esp. taught through the veil of patriarchal religion.

People who refuse to consider the oppressive nature of how male and female relations are portrayed through pornography and much of the media share more in common with right-wingers than perhaps they realize.

[femrap]

10. Amen.....I mean Awomen. nt

[mongo]

11. And since you've personally seen sooo much porn

and personally know what the bulk of the product is like, you just KNOW it's bad :sarcasm:

Jeesh. This whole thread and Ism's reply is just the same old puritanical views wrapped up with a new-age religion veneer.

[gaspee]

12. Since you

-- warning for frank language.

Seem to think only people who have seen a lot of porn are qualified to speak, I might meet your qualifications. I've watched a lot of porn. I used to have no problem with porn. I *write* erotica for a few online magazines. A few years ago, I got so disgusted by het porn that I've never watched it again. I will watch gay porn, either m/m or made for *women* f/f. I won't watch made for men f/f.

porn is degrading to women. Period. Mainstream porn, especailly. I've watched a lot of it over the years. I'm no spring chicken. I don't have a problem watching m/m porn. Funny, that. Know why? because I don't take it personally when men are treated like a fuck hole. Hmmm... I think I'm onto why most men don't have a problem watching women turned into nothing but a place to stick their dick.

When watching for what passes as mainstream porn these days, I get sick to my stomach. Anal, face fucking to the point where the poor girl is next to vomiting, slapping, demeaning talk. it's all there in mainstream porn. Why men are so turned on by anal in het porn has always been a mystery to me. Why women do it is another mystery. I can get why men have anal sex. Women do it because men want them to.

What makes me the most sick is the look in the girls', oh sorry, *actresses*, eyes. It fucking kills me these days, which is why I don't watch het porn any more.

And I'm speaking as someone who has seen a lot of it.

Now put on some Bel Ami stuff and my girlfriend and I are quite happy. Why? Watch it sometime, then watch the current top five or ten selling het porn titles and I think you'll see the difference. And if you don't, that's a little scary.

And to continually say that het porn "isn't like that" and looking at the top selling and rented titles makes me think you are being disingenious or in plain old denial.

Because the most popular het porn is like that.

And someone doesn't have to watch a lot of porn to see just how degrading to women it is. One or two mainstream het movies should do that pretty darn quick.

[Morgana LaFey]

13. Hmmm, no response to your post. Wonder why?

And someone doesn't have to watch a lot of porn to see just how degrading to women it is.

Yup.

and:

I don't have a problem watching m/m porn. Funny, that. Know why? because I don't take it personally when men are treated like a fuck hole. Hmmm... I think I'm onto why most men don't have a problem watching women turned into nothing but a place to stick their dick.'

Especially when they've been taught and continously reassured that women LIKE that, or if they don't something's wrong with them.

[Orrex]

14. Porn isn't the worst or only offender in this regard

porn is degrading to women. Period.

But except in terms of raw sexual dominance, it's hardly male-empowering, either. It's a mass-marketed one-dimensional masturbatory aid that shows empty caricatures rutting. The male figures aren't men; they're bipedal vehicles for transporting their penises from one orifice to the next. Are the women degraded? Unquestionably. But the males aren't exactly role models; it's just that they're the ones doing the inserting, and that's because the product is aiming for the target demographic through the means that have proven most effective to date (and that same demographic does the vast majority of the purchasing, does it not?)

to continually say that het porn "isn't like that" and looking at the top selling and rented titles makes me think you are being disingenious or in plain old denial.

One could as readily say "I hate rap because it's all about glorifying criminal behavior," and that assessment would be accurate if one judged only that fraction of rap that gets a lot of airtime.

I can't rattle off a list of non-best-sellers in porn because I'm not exactly a connoseur, but it strikes me as invalid to summarize het porn in general on the basis of what sells well. I'm not saying that your point is wrong, either; just that your choice to frame it in terms of the top ten het titles doesn't quite work. Sales-popularity does not equate to representational sampling.

Heck, while I'm at it, it seems to me that the really nasty gonzo hardcore fringe stuff is far more degrading to women, wherein the foregrounded intent is to brutalize, humiliate, and debase the woman, rather than simply to ejaculate on, in, or near her. Perhaps mainstream stuff is more insidious for its seemingly less degrading style, but if we pursue that logic then we must extend the discussion to mainstream media in general (as, I believe, bloom has done elsewhere in this thread).

Why, for example, do the women on Dancing With The Stars flit about the stage while three-quarters naked, yet the men stride around in suits? Is this not a form of sex-based dominance, especially since the males in this context are leading? Similar examples abound.

Popular het porn may be the crystalization of the phenomenon, but I'm not sure that it's the most egregious offender.