How did you celebrate protection from porn week?

Zhimbo ran a thread which asked if Islam was the new red threat. While I agreed that Islam was being used as a scapegoat for why we need to sacrifice freedom for security, I argued that it was actually hedonism (specifically sexual hedonism) which was the true heir to the title "red menace".While people will rush to defend Islamic friends, or even strangers, who get arrested for alleged crimes, almost no one is willing to step to the plate for any accused "sexual predator" or question the need for them (even if no violence was involved) to have sentences beyond those of murderers, and a life sentence of monitoring once they have served their time.In that thread I posted a link to a news article about how the US government was preparing to launch a war on porn (the regular adult kind), right before 9-11 happened. They have recently (last May) begun the stalled war.:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/US/porno030828.htmlOn Oct 25 (that's a couple weeks back), the President officially declared the last week of October "Protection from Pornography Week".In his announcement he cleverly began the slippery-slope equivocation of adult porn with childporn and child molestation, and more importantly signalled that indeed sex is the more important terror (to him) than Islam or Islamic Terrorists.:
Briefing Room - The White HouseInside you will see that the Department of Homeland Security, whose original mission was to work on intelligence dissemination for the purpose of counterterrorism, is now having resources diverted to the IDENTIFICATION of POTENTIAL SEXUAL PREDATORS, and tracking them. (note: you will also see Bush mispell exploitation as "exploi-ta-tion"?)With adult pornography being linked to child molestation and the war on adult porn already underway, it is not unreasonable to suspect Homeland Security will have even more resources diverted to that "front."You don't have to be a lover of porn (like I am) to be disturbed by the shifting of such resources, especially when Homeland Security is in its infancy and should be focused on its main priorities until it gets that right.Do you feel that the US government should be engaged in a war on porn, and that it is just as important as terrorism?------------------
holmes

I celebrated the week by masturbating to porn, because my wife and I were too busy working non-overlapping work hours to have sex. I think I saw her for like 10 minutes, total, last week.I suspect her week was occupied in the same manner, though likely minus the porn.The war on porn is stupid. Porn is good. It's strip clubs that really exploit women. I'm still floored to have learned that most clubs actually charge the women to work there. I'm of the opinion that Playboy did more for women's equality than 30 years of feminism.

Anti-porn week? And I missed it entirely? Heck, if I'd known Homeland Security was against it, I could have at least have peeked at a little!

(note: you will also see holmes misspell misspell as "mispell"?) Sorry, couldn't resist. That exploi-ta-tion typo is very strange in that it somehow slipped through all the checking that is presumably done, but my guess is that it happened during the draft review process when exploitation was split at the end of the line and someone used cut-n-paste between incompatible tools, like Word and Notepad. But twice? Hmmm. Well, our government at work, gotta love 'em.So, no celebration suggestions? No favorite porn site list?--Percy

I celebrated by listening to Bill Hicks:

You are assuming of course that that was not intentional on my part.
Oh. Ahhhh...
Okay it was justice, sweet cruel justice. Damn, about as humiliating as getting caught reading my porn stash back when I was young. Well since Bush snuck that one past me I didn't do anything in particular this year, but if it manages to be a yearly thing (I couldn't tell if his proclamations are yearly, or one time only) I plan on sending the Prez a giftwrapped video or magazine every day of the week! I may send presents to Ashcroft too.And I think the bows on the packages will be made from "organically" reinforced kleenex.I would happily give a list of my favorite porn sites, but uhm don't need to get this site investigated, when voluminous traffic from here to there raises red flags at Homeland Security.Unless people really want to know...------------------
holmes

I agree. If actors and actress are grown up and are doing it willingly, there is no reason to fight against porn with legal measures. I do not agree. Although I have some voyeuristic trait myself, I think that most porn is very, very bad. I see nothing bad in porn as phenomena. What is wrong is the way most porn is made. Lot of porn IS humiliating — usually to women as well as men. Most porn movies I had an opportunity to see were boring and quite disgusting after a while. The only good porn I know is the ancient Indian and Japanese one. The pornography as we can see it today only reveals that we have still big problems with our sexuality — as individuals as well as society. We can see that most porn is not focused on beauty of sexual intercourse but depravities, domination etc. We are freaks. All of us.------------------
Life has no meaning but itself.

I'm not sure how else you would make it. The realities of filming two or more people in sexual congress dictate certain things, like a whole film crew, for instance.Is it truly humiliating to the actors? They're getting paid a lot, after all. And they choose to do it. Really, it's a kind of selfless act - taking on for a moment a kink that doesn't really do it for them, but that some poor person simply can't find expression for in any other way. They're like sexual martyrs. That's a value-loaded judgement, don't you think? Why is coitus any more "beautiful" than, say, a blow job? All forms of sex are equally beautiful, given the consent of all participants. What makes "Debbie Does Dallas" less beautiful that the Kama Sutra?

It maybe a personal judgement but I think what is being complained about is not what the actor's are experiencing but what the characters being protrayed are. I'm not an expert and haven't seen much porn but there is, I'm sure, a significant piece of it depicting the humilation of individuals as part of the "story".I agree that that is a bad side to porn without condeming all of it.

Isn't that true of all cinema, though? There's always a character that suffers humiliation or defeat. Conflict, after all, is the source of narrative.I'm not saying that porn is known for depth of plot, after all. But I don't see the humiliation of characters as something unique to porn.

Yes, NosyNed, not exactly what I wanted to say, but very close to it.In my opinion nothing reflects demand better than pornography and in that way it also reveals our attitude towards our own sexuality. Now I believe that sexuality is physical experience as well as spiritual. But no pornography addresses the spiritual side (attention — I am not talking about love here, but something I do not know better term for) — simply because there is no demand. But why? Because many people are still confused about their sexuality. There is still certain feeling that sexuality is something dirty and at the same time most people feel they are oppressed in some way (not only in sexual matters, but generally) so as a consequence their sexual fantasies are often about something forbidden not because they really want to do such things, but because sexuality is traditionally connected with freedom (see Orwell’s 1984 for instance — or Marquis de Sade for rather different approach). Well, I do not know whether I made myself clearer now or the contrary, but I tried my best.------------------
Life has no meaning but itself.[This message has been edited by Raha, 11-09-2003]

I *think* (but don't want to carry this on too long) that there is a difference in the reason for the 'conflict', 'humiliation' etc in the two genres. There are, of course, themes in mainstream productions that I don't like. "Kill Bill" for example, based on the reviews I have read (I intend to watch it on DVD at another time). In porn it may be the humiliation itself that is central more than it may be in most maintstream productions. To the extent that this is true I don't like any of them.These are all personal values, but I am willing to stick my neck out and draw a line beyond which I don't wish the society that I am a part of to cross.

I do think you have made you point. And I agree with it. Sex is a powerful force in humans. It seems that if it gets just a little off course large consequences follow.To be a bit less serious I have my own definition to define "kinky".Kinky is what other people do.

And BTW - there two ugly stereotypes in recent pornography: shaved pussy and silicone breasts. Silicone breasts are not only unnatural — they are life threatening. And shaved pussy can work only on pedophiles.------------------
Life has no meaning but itself.

How exactly do you think a movie could communicate spirituality?Pornography is fantasy. People are attracted to the idea of sex without messy interpersonal interaction. You may be of the opinion that sex is only good in the context of deep personal connection, but that doesn't mean that most people fantasize about connectionless sex. That's what makes it a fantasy.I'd say pornography frees people from the need for sex to be so value-laden. I'd hate to see your view of sex, where it's only ever good when it's "spiritual", become a dominant view in our culture.