Porn, exploitation and autofellatio!

[theouroboros]

Brace yourselves, this isn't the typical "oh hey guys I can suck my own dick check out my pics" / "is it gay" / "how far can you go down?" post ...

Having grown up in a part of the country where porn is considered disgusting by many and where many "rehab" centers treat what is called "sexual addiction" ... and of course being too young to have witnessed the national outrage over the premiere of Deep Throat in the 70s starring Linda Lovelace, I grew up without much exposure to it. But also having been brought up in a feminist household, I quickly picked up the attitude when I was younger that (hetero) porn exploits women and treats them as objects. (I guess with a little stretch of logic you could extend the same broad characterization to the receiver in gay porn as well, given the way our culture equates "receiver" with "female" tendencies but I'm getting off on a tangent here, plus, I've heard there are expectations to perform on the penetrating male actors in all genres of porn which cause them to undergo some stress as well.)

I eventually came to the opinion, though, that it's not the pornography aspect that leads to most of the exploitation, but the money involved in the porn industry that leads porn execs to push the limits, to treat their actors/actresses as human cattle. Watching this documentary (http://hcdocu.blogspot.com/) convinced me even more strongly of this view. But one must also consider that, in some relationships, sometimes one partner dominates the other psychologically, so one might "consent" to be filmed having sex without really wanting it. Someone might even be coerced into filming themselves masturbating.

Not so with autofellatio! Self-suckers take delight in sharing their talent with the world. There's no potential for exploitation there at all. All the classical feminist, moralist arguments against pornography ... just vaporize. I find this fascinating. Your thoughts?

[ganymedetroy]

2 points come to mind:

1) There is something antigender in becoming both the top and the bottom. It was revered by the Egyptians who used it as part of their creation cosmology for its depth and metaphor.

2) I appreciate getting to bottom myself, so I'm still getting off of being used, even if it is by me. Maybe I'm doing it wrong though...

[aleingang69]

Thanks for a thoughtful post, theouroboros!

As a lifelong anarchist (here's some of what that means if you're not familiar with it as a political philosophy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism ) I've always been very concerned with issues of power, exploitation and coercion. When I started making my videos it was a decision based on some of the ideas you bring up: producing the videos myself and running an almost completely one-man business was a way to step outside - as much as one can - of a system (I'm speaking of the dominant social system, not porn in particular) that I disagree with and want to live outside of as much as possible.

I know I'm still embedded in that system and have to deal with it - I charge money for my videos and when I sell a DVD I"m selling a physical object made from toxic chemicals and manufactured by horribly exploited workers in Asia - but I'm avoiding at least some of the exploitation that I object to. I'm also doing something that I love and that I'm very good at, and I'm making part of my living from it while bringing a huge amount of pleasure into the world - I love knowing that there are people all over the world enjoying my talents, and that my example has inspired countless men to find new ways to enjoy their bodies.

As to the mainstream porn industry: is the exploitation and coercion there really any worse than it is in the rest of our system? A lot of the energy (and money) behind the anti-porn and anti-trafficking activists comes from weird alliances between feminists and right-wingers. Is someone who's paid to perform in a video they may not be thrilled about really that much worse off than someone who's working 2 or 3 low-paying, mainstream jobs to keep afloat? A lot of the power of the anti-porn camp comes from manipulating people's guilt about and discomfort around sex.

There are a lot of sleazy, exploitative scumbags in the porn world, but anyone who pays attention to the news should know that a whole lot of very similar people have ended up in the banking and finance industries - they just look and sound more respectable.

Al

[theouroboros]

Probably not that much worse in principle but there's a certain amount of exploitation people grow accustomed to over their lives. You get a paycheck that's much less than what your boss draws, and your boss earns much less than what the owner of the company does, for example. The boss gets to yell at you if they get frustrated and usually there's little one can do about it. And in many countries basic rights are being stripped away. I suppose compared to that the exploitation in the porn industry is rather insignificant, but it would be false to presume that it's not there, especially with the companies that compete to produce the really degrading, hardcore stuff, because in the search for new extremes you'll eventually come up with something no woman (at least none that fits the role) will do for her own enjoyment, regardless of how kinky she is.

Of course then there's the vanilla sector that doesn't put so many challenges to the women (men too?) but to break into that you either have to be gorgeous or famous, often both. Some women become very successful through the porn industry - Jenna Jameson has even broken into the mainstream once or twice. On the male side Ron Jeremy is more or less ubiquitous (your inspiration? or does he take tips from you Al?) and pretty much everyone has heard of him and knows what he's famous for.

I agree it is weird how feminists and right wingers get together sometimes, but like they say politics makes strange bedfellows. Of course now you have the sex-positive feminists and even some porn-positive feminists ... the ones against porn are almost exclusively Bible-bashers in reactionary organizations these days.