Thursday, July 12, 2007

Why I'm pro-porn....

Hi, Iamcuriousblue here, contributing my first post to this wonderful new forum.

Like the blog's motto says, "Why, yes, I am pro-porn". But what does that mean, anyway? Radfems often attack sex-positive feminism in general as being "pro-porn", but the two things aren't entirely the same. Related, yes, and largely overlapping, but not the same thing.

Sex-positivity is the view that sex is an inherently good thing (which is not to say that all things involving sex are good or acceptable), that sex is innocent until proven guilty, and that the sexual proclivities of others, so long as they're consensual, are viewed positively even if they don't happen to be one's own cup of oolong.

Sex positivity may or may not include enjoyment of porn, though its generally correlated with a non-judgmental attitude toward people who do. (I'll leave the question of whether its possible to be fundamentally anti-porn and truly sex positive for another time unless somebody wants to bring it up in the comments.) However, contrary to the beliefs of some, sex-positivity is not all about porn and in fact, there's a lot of sex-poz people who's energy and activism around sexuality is largely directed at areas other than porn. There are even some sex-poz folks who feel that the majority of porn produced in the current mainstream porn industry largely reflect sex-negative attitudes and, hence, porn in its current form doesn't do much to promote positive sexuality.

So for me saying I'm "pro-porn" is a step beyond merely saying I'm "sex-positive". So what does being specifically pro-porn mean to me:

  • In general, I can honestly say, I like pornography. Not just, "tolerate" it as the price for free sexuality and free speech in a free society. I enjoy watching sex – not as a substitute for "the real thing", like some might imagine, but becuase I think watching sex is pleasurable in and of itself, independent of what I like doing with a partner.

    This is not to say I like all pornography. In fact, its not to say I like most pornography. Nor does it mean I agree with anything done by anybody in the porn industry at any time in the name of making pornography. However, when porn is produced under conditions that aren't objectionable to those involved in making it (or better, actually enjoyable to those involved), when its made according to high standards that show pride in the craft of making such porn, and when it stimulates my particular sexual fetishes and interests – then I like it very much and have no qualms about promoting it.

  • I think porn is an art form and really appreciate a lot of porn on that level. (I'm very interested in visual art in general, particularly photography, film, and comics, and am quite well-versed in art history.) As I've posted about before, I really think that the division between "erotic art" or "erotica" and "pornography" is highly artificial and is a distinction I refuse to make. The best porn has the qualities of being both erotic and pornographic, and is totally stimulating to both the mind and body. (Just like good sex, really.) Presenting the human body and sexuality in a beautiful and engaging way is a craft that not everyone succeeds at, and I genuinely admire those who do.

  • I think porn is interesting. Porn reflects the larger culture and is an amazing cultural barometer. A lot of things that aren't dealt with in more "respectable" media are dealt with in porn. Because I see porn as reflecting the larger culture rather than driving it, my reaction to the usual line of porn atrocities that anti-porn types love to trot out is less panicky and more analytical. What does the sudden interest in all things anal mean? What about the motif of paramilitary types dominating or even raping "lolitas" or "twinks" in East European porn – where's that coming from? I suppose for this kind of "pornographic anthropology" a grudging tip of the hat is owed to none other than Andrea Dworkin. On her first trip to Israel, apparently the first place she went to was a porn shop looking for Holocaust porn – she apparently found what she was looking for.

    Also, I think the people in porn are interesting – I follow podcasts like Radio Blowfish, Porn Star Interviews, and In Bed With Susie Bright regularly. A lot of people in the porn world are the total opposite of the stupid, shallow, and damaged individuals they're stereotyped as – there's a lot of very intelligent and articulate people in that milieu with some interesting things to say. (Its unfortunate that, for a lot of people, their main exposure to porn stars is via forums like the Howard Stern Show and Opie and Anthony, which don't exactly encourage intelligent discussion.)

  • To me, being pro-porn is related to some other things I'm "pro". I'm also highly sex-positive, so even with the above disclaimers, for me, being very positive about the idea of portraying sex is a no-brainer. And, at its very best, I think some porn is a seductive statement of sex-positive values, and powerful agitprop for a more sex-positive society.

    In general, I'm very pro-pleasure and pro-things that provide pleasure, including things that many people might consider vices. (I'm very much for the decriminalization or outright legalization of most recreational drugs as well.)

    Also, I'm very big on the idea of free speech. In fact, I'm pretty much one of those evol "first amendment absolutists" that "progressive" authoritarians like Catherine MacKinnon and Mari Matsuda love to hate. To me, strong free speech protections, including sexual speech and "obscenity", are absolutely vital to any society that can reasonably call itself liberal or progressive. I reject the idea that there should be categories of speech, such as obscenity or "hate speech", that a progressive society would benefit from censoring. (I also reject the idea that pornography can be reasonably considered a form of hate speech.)

  • Finally, I reject the anti-porn position, both out of basic philosophical disagreement and because they get their facts simply wrong. A lot of what I've written above wouldn't matter much if porn was made be people who were essentially being raped on film, or if porn somehow had the power to turn significant numbers of men into rapists. Thankfully, the worst claims made against porn by the anti-porn movement are exaggerations or are downright false. Which is a lead in to the subject of my next post, namely, why I'm anti-anti-porn.

4 comments:

  1. iacb: love this post...love it. actually, i think we all should do a why I'm pro-porn/anti-anti porn post...

    which will then all go in the important reads section!

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  2. hey, that is a great post. I'm doing a bit of research on the porn though, i'm not sure if you're open to talking about it.

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  3. Curious as to how you define art.?

    ReplyDelete