sdyer@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Dyer) (02/19/84)
The discussion on pornography in net.women is very thought-provoking,
not the least because it seems to illustrate a difference between the
situations of men and women. Note here that I'm not even going to
TOUCH the issue of good/bad/better, merely discuss some of the
differences by means of an example.
Take gay male pornography. It arguably runs the same gamut of genres
as "straight" pornography--soft-core, romantic pulp to stuff which
would shock just about everyone, yet there is little cry of outrage
at any violence or depersonalization depicted within. "Rebellion"
against any of this is almost entirely on an economic level--you don't
like it, you don't buy it. Why is this?
Perhaps it's because male/female couplings, especially those involving
submission or violence, can be interpreted as acts between two disparate
classes, and carry an implicit political message. On the other hand,
it's hard to imagine any generic sexual acts between any N men which
suggest the same unambiguous interpretation. Too, in gay male pornography,
the objects and the objectifiers are one and the same, the agreements
are mutually understood. The same cannot be said about straight
pornography, and this asymmetry has engendered the whole controversy.
I believe that feminists are misunderstanding the male psyche when they
imbue pornography with greater influence and significance than it has.
The same actions are seen in both gay and straight pornography; only the
political context has changed. I would argue that the motives of
men who read pornography, gay or straight, are the same--they want to get
their rocks off. It doesn't necessarily mean anything more.
Further comments, if they are gay-related, should follow-up on net.motss,
otherwise on net.women.
--
/Steve Dyer
{decvax,linus,ima}!bbncca!sdyer
sdyer@bbncca.ARPA