Explaining why they use pornographic images without the performers consent....complete with pornographic images, right there, on their site, where children can see it, and read all the degrading pornospeak text that goes with it!
Who needs degrading porn when you can just go to an antiporn site and wank to it for free!
And no new mails from Adam, I guess we're done "debating"...
A sanctuary for supporters of sexual free expression and the adult sexual media.
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ReplyDeleteAnd there's the problem in a nutshell with antis like Adam Cohen are doing. They're saying, "Look at the horrible image of Melissa Lauren being hurt. Isn't it obvious how terrible porn is!" Meanwhile, the voice that's conspicuously missing from all of this is Melissa Lauren – did she experience this as harm or suffering in any way? And the infuriating thing is that for people like Cohen, that doesn't even matter – his interpretation of what he's seeing is clearly more important than anything she'd have to say, anyway.
ReplyDeleteOh, and note once again, the comparison to Abu Ghraib – nice way to trivialize the very real suffering of those people, asshole!
IACB: Exactly. That is my point exactly. If Melissa Lauren said "piss off, I like this" what would they do then?
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, once again with the AbuGhraib manuver...it seems to be very popular...
You know, I am both Jewish and have a degree in History...you know what struck me the hardest about studying the Holocaust? Not the pictures...the statements of the survivors, especially when they stood there and told their stories in their own words...
That "Melissa Lauren" flick looks like it could be fun. Though the stuffed head has me WTFing.
ReplyDeleteI have to wonder if anti-porn and porn-naive feminists think this is what "girl-girl" porn fans, male ones at least, actually go for.
ReplyDeleteIts actually not a popular series among fans of that genre, to the point that LezLove Video, which is pretty much girl/girl central on the net, hardly keep any videos in that series in stock. This review of "The Violation of Terri Starr" pretty much sums up that community's opinion of "The Violation of...." series:
"After having viewed (or rather endured) several of these so-called violation videos, I guess it's my duty as a serious fan of lesbian porn to state what I believe is the only one really worth watching.
In this video there are basically two things it has that all the other violation videos don't: 1) a main character that the audience really has some sympathy for, 2) sex scenes that don't repeat themselves four times. In other words the people involved with this video actually took some time to produce something of quality.
Actually, taking a cue from the video's opening announcement, and if the writing was any better, this video might just be able to stand on its own, as a weird offbeat "camp," artifact. A sort of take off on those cheesy made-for-TV women's prison flicks.
So there you are. "The Violation of Terri Starr” is the only violation video that's any good. With regards to all the other violation videos, I can only quote a line from the abysmal "Violation of Kiki Dare." "BURN THEM!"
emphasis on the "nut." and i love how he doesn't even give you, like, a link, just one "click here to see," no, he has to gank it RIGHT TO HIS OWN FRONT PAGE.
ReplyDeleteand ffs, yes, that "lesbian gang bang" thing looks so REAL, JUST LIKE frigging Abu Gharib, you stupid fuck.
god, can we all just chip in and send Dudley Do-Right some old reels of Perils of Pauline or something? give him a new crusade. "my god! these women are being tied to railroad tracks! this is why we do NOT need an Amtrak station in our town."
Not the pictures...the statements of the survivors, especially when they stood there and told their stories in their own words...
ReplyDeleteyes well.
but i mean: watching your entire family get shot or hauled off to the "showers," working at forced labor on almost no food inside a barbed-wire compound, that's JUST LIKE a cheesy movie where a bunch of women in overalls tie up and spank another woman with a decidedly unconvincing look of terror on her face.
you know, i gotta say, that game on MoPo where you "throw" the cartoon of his head for points? not bothering me so much.
"you know, i gotta say, that game on MoPo where you "throw" the cartoon of his head for points? not bothering me so much."
ReplyDeleteDitto!
The sentiment expressed in the head bounce game is a natural after a few rounds with Mr. Passive-Aggressive.
Ren! I am so almightily glad you have started this blog!
ReplyDeleteThe Guardian is now mentioning charliegrrl as a 'high profile blogger'.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/women/story/0,,2125555,00.html
I was feeling pretty dismayed at their portrayal of feminist grassroots activism and thinking we need some kind of pro-porn collective. And here it is! Hurrah!
Are you linking UK pro-porn stuff too? Wonder if you might link Feminists Against Censorship? And maybe even Backlash? The criminalisation of possession of 'extreme porn' has been the issue that's dominated the UK feminist pro-porn agenda for the last 18 months or so...
"The Guardian is now mentioning charliegrrl as a 'high profile blogger'."
ReplyDeleteOH SWEET GODS ON A POGO STICK.
ew.
i need to go wash my eyeballs.
LOL! My friend texted me woefully. Another fucked off blog about UK radfems coming from me shortly...
ReplyDeleteIf it had been Holly Coombes writing, who also blogs for the F-Word, I suspect her perspective would have been very different... She's an FACer too. But the women's editor for the Guardian is anti-porn.
I was going to send a list of links (both "us" and "them") to Ren for possible listing.
ReplyDeleteI know all about FAC and Avedon Carol, but I'm not clear that they've been active since around 2000 or so. I've even checked out Avedon Carol's blog, which is pretty much exclusively about US electoral politics – she hardly every writes about sex or porn anymore after being pretty prolific about it (on and off the net) for about 10 years. I guess she felt she said all she had to say.
What is it with the UK and anti-porn activism? It seems to be far stronger over there, and way more in-your-face. In the US, its been a long time since any women's groups actually got together and got in people's faces out on the streets about porn. (In some parts of the country, there are religious right types who fill this role – gives them smething to do when they're not busy screaming at pregnant women about "killing their baby".)
that might be your answer--we've got the RRR for that.
ReplyDeleteand i suppose it's just possible that porn is more in-your-face in the UK than here. haven't been for a while, and didn't really think to make a comparative study when i was, but I know, like, female toplessness on TV has been ok for, oh, what, over thirty years?
not that that really answers the question i suppose.
on the other hand there seems to still be a small but thriving socialist feminism there, which is pretty much unheard of over here. who, at least as i've seen it, tend to be far more, sex workers' rights as labor rights, and--freaking out over pink and shit? you're kidding, right?
But the women's editor for the Guardian is anti-porn.
ReplyDeleteThat's Julie Bindel, right?
By the way, do you have any contact with any Irish feminists? I have this idea that the vibe is very very different, but there's not much of an online presence. not blogs so much, anyway.
and if charlie's "high profile," maybe she might want to cool it with the vandalism and brawls with fratboy stories.
ReplyDeleteor, well--whatever, her dwama, her problem, really.
ReplyDeleteThe sentiment expressed in the head bounce game is a natural after a few rounds with Mr. Passive-Aggressive.
I'm beginning to understand why he has TWO whole sites devoted to expressing exasperation with his/their shenanigans. if he's this annoying online, just imagine being his neighbor irl...
Verte;
ReplyDeleteI'd be happy to link them, no problem...
and thanks!
also, wrt the violation series...i do believe those are the brain child of Ashley Blue...female pornographer?
ReplyDeleteverte; if you ever want to post something here, just let me know.
ReplyDeleteIACB: Erm, I'm an active member of FAC. In fact, Avedon spoke at a conference in Durham earlier this year and we've been working pretty hard, actually. Does it not make sense that an SM Feminist would know a little something about anti-censorship feminism in the UK? Honestly, no offence, but you don't know what you're talking about.
ReplyDeleteBD: It's Kira Cochrane. Julie Bindel is a nightmare, though. Hmm, the Irish feminists I know are quite anti-porn, but I shall investigate. Lapsed catholics are often secretly filthy...
As to why there's a stronger anti-porn movement over here, truly I'm not sure. I wonder if it's because our media is so PC?
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ReplyDeleteverte said
ReplyDelete"IACB: Erm, I'm an active member of FAC. In fact, Avedon spoke at a conference in Durham earlier this year and we've been working pretty hard, actually. Does it not make sense that an SM Feminist would know a little something about anti-censorship feminism in the UK? Honestly, no offence, but you don't know what you're talking about."
No, I'm actually glad to be mistaken about what I thought was FAC's inactivity. (I was also under the impression that it was mainly Avedon Carol and a few associates, but I'm probably mistaken about that too.)
Back in the ancient days of the Internet, before the blogosphere, when Usenet the main discussion space, Avedon Carol really held the fort as the main voice of sex-poz feminism, and was a very effective counter-balance to Nikki Craft, who was also very active on Usenet at the time. She always gets major props from me for that. I also really liked her book, Bad Girls and Dirty Pictures, which was a really nice concise little refutation of common anti-porn arguments.
"As to why there's a stronger anti-porn movement over here, truly I'm not sure. I wonder if it's because our media is so PC?"
I get that impression, too. I remember in the early 1990s, New Scientist, a British general science publication I otherwise have a lot of respect for, publishing a pretty one-sided piece on porn and aggression studies and how that "proved" porn caused harmful misogynist attitudes.
btw, speaking of Other Places, came across this. How's peoples' French? I'm rusty, but I -think- she's saying she was comparing francophone and anglophone sites on wordpress, and noticed that the anglo ones talk more about sex as pertains to the news and so forth, whereas the francophone ones have more "sex talk."
ReplyDelete(I was following some links back from the antiporn site) she expresses surprise to find it, along with its concomittant list of anglophone anti-porn sites; and notes that there is no equivalent to "Womensspace" in the francosphere.
(which, i thought: o, it's unique alright, but...)
but anyway, i'm -pretty- sure i have seen anti-porn feminist French sites, although clearly this isn't one of them, unless i -really- misunderstand...
(yes, just for fun, then I did Babelfish. About as useful as I thought, but entertaining.
ReplyDeleteiacb:
ReplyDeleteAgain, apologies for being jumpy. FAC is now basically the few hardcore old members and a load of BDSM types (me, Theda of imafeministand, thene, DemRed of Backlash, etc), also louisefeminista of the Socialist Unity blog. Though I meet women all the time who are inactive FAC members. Theda and I have been frustrated that there's not more collective activity, but we all do things individually under the FAC banner.
And Ren: May-well-be, if that would be okay? I'm still putting together a very long post on the latest legislation over here. I was going to post it on SM-feminist, but it might be more appropriate here?
verte- sure!
ReplyDelete