(no subject)
Sep. 26th, 2005 12:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sophiaserpentiaChris Wilson of Lakeland, Florida, said in an interview that he created the site in 2004 as a simple Internet pornography venture: Users post amateur pictures--supposedly of their wives or girlfriends--and for a $10 registration fee, others can take a look. He claims there are about 150,000 registered users on the site, 45,000 of whom are military personnel. Of the 130,000 unique visitors who come to the site daily, Wilson estimates that 30 percent of the traffic, or 39,000 unique users, are US military personnel.
Early on in his Internet venture, Wilson said, he encountered a problem--potential military customers in Iraq and Afghanistan couldn't pay for membership, because credit card companies were blocking charges from "high-risk" countries like Iraq and Afghanistan.
Not wanting to shortchange US troops, Wilson established a rule that if users posted an authentic picture proving they were stationed overseas, they would be granted unlimited access to the site's pornography. The posting began, sometimes of benign images of troops leaning against their tanks, but graphic combat images also began to appear. As of September 20, there were 244 graphic battlefield images and videos available to members.
...The website has become a stomach-churning showcase for the pornography of war--close-up shots of Iraqi insurgents and civilians with heads blown off, or with intestines spilling from open wounds. Sometimes photographs of mangled body parts are displayed: Part of the game is for users to guess what appendage or organ is on display.
from The Porn of War (some foul language, so perhaps NWS), cited in The Heart of Darkness, linked byantiwar_dot_com
Is the link between sex and violence in pornography, which keeps coming up in myriad ways, an inevitable side effect of the medium? Or does this link form when pornography is produced and consumed in a society rife with imperialism and oppression? I lean towards the latter, and i still hold on to the idea that non-exploitative, non-sexist pornography can be a good thing.
A while ago i wrote about the suggested link between pornography and the Abu Ghraib photos. In that discussion i pondered the ways in which militaristic culture would twist the medium of pornography to the purpose of mischanneling pleasure as part of the culture's efforts to produce a class of soldiers.
If my thesis is right, then woman-positive porn should have some effect towards calming sexism, racism, and militarism -- that is, *if* consumers bottle-fed on high-impact thrill porn can develop a taste for kinder, gentler woman-positive porn.
Unfortunately, exploitation remains profitable, even (perhaps especially) in an industry like pornography. It is as if the archontic forces are aligned against the success of such a project: capitalism, militarism, desensitization, misogyny, racism, addiction, and... i don't know a term for "compulsively seeking prurient thrills in the depiction of violence."
Postscript. I recall having a discussion in my journal at some point, though going back through memories now i can't find it, about the prurient-violent depictions of Hell sometimes given by Bible-thumping preachers, in which it is clear that pleasure is being taken in the thought of sinners suffering in Hell. I think that style of religion plays a role in this too, as part-and-parcel of the cultural pattern of what militarism has done to American culture.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-26 05:51 pm (UTC)Even so, it is tricky to just say that rape fantasies are wrong, period, because many, many women have them, and each woman who does deserves to enjoy her sexuality without her needs being marginalized as pathological. One might say that simply suppressing rape fantasies altogether is a way of punishing women for their femininity a second time -- after their sex drive has already been coupled with the social ubiquity of rape.
I don't have an easy answer for that. But it seems to me that i would feel more comfortable with rape-fantasy depictions that were directed by women.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-26 06:44 pm (UTC)My gut feeling is that the answer is yes. I personally feel that fantasies involving non-consent are, on a deep level, reflective of internalized kyriarchal values. For one thing, rape fantasies reflect the idea that rape is rough sex, rather than a crime of violence and power, which is exactly how sexual predators want rape to be seen.
IMO this is reflected even in accounts i've seen of lesbian rape and battering, in that the rapist/batterer uses the prevailing social climate of sexism/homophobia to her advantage. For example, the batterer might threaten to "out" the survivor if she does not remain silent.
I'm not willing to engage in victim-blaming, however, and say that it is 'bad' for people to have rape fantasies. We react to injustice in our society and in our experiences in ways that best suit our survival.
As a person who has non-consent fantasies, i recognize their strong potency. A lot of the material i wrote during my own brief exploration of a career as a smut writer dealt with the fuzzy boundary between consent and non-consent.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-26 07:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-26 07:34 pm (UTC)I'm not sure what you're asking. I have no problem with consentual adult sex in any form. This isn't me being "prudish" and saying people shouldn't have rape fantasies, or that people shouldn't act them out.
I've had plenty of fun hog-tying people of both genders, myself... and having it done to me.
It's me saying that i do not believe a society without sexism, without racism, without homophobia, would see large percentages of people sexualizing their experiences of degredation.
I respectfully disagree about all expressions of power being related to gender. That would nearly mean that homosexuals have vanilla sex.
What i mean is that expressions of power in any dealings between two people are inextricably tied to the ubiquity of power relations in their culture. Sexism, racism, classism, and homophobia are in my mind variations on the same theme -- which is why i use the word kyriarchy instead of patriarchy. So i am not saying that power relations are a man/woman thing, but that our society's understanding of what it means to be a man or to be a woman cannot be removed from kyriarchy in our culture.
RE: consenting to rape-fantasies.
Date: 2005-09-26 07:11 pm (UTC)many of our fantasy lives will have things such as the "rape scenes" appearing into our minds during consensual intercourse (even if only momentarily), or even conjuring these fantasies inentionally in order to remove the faces of the original molesters (i.e. parents, strangers, ex's, etc.) and replace them with the identities of people that (we hope) actually love us and accept us and do not intend to harm/kill us... (because to be honest, during each actual rape, i was always waiting to die)....
BDSM is the only lifestyle that i "know", and that is able to get a physical response from my body... and even though i have tried to alter "the rules" as an adult (as i started to realise what dangerous situations i had placed myself in, in the past), i do still need it to feel like i am in my element, in the bedroom.... and the thought that i am playing into the sex/war really worries me...
its taken this long to get to this point, i can't make myself be asexual or celibate and i can't suppress my sexuality.. i just don't know what else to do.
Jules.
Re: consenting to rape-fantasies.
Date: 2005-09-26 07:44 pm (UTC)Particularly this:
"I'm not willing to engage in victim-blaming, however, and say that it is 'bad' for people to have rape fantasies. We react to injustice in our society and in our experiences in ways that best suit our survival."
So let me elaborate on that. I'm not saying that you or anyone should stop doing what you enjoy. You've had a lot taken from you already, you shouldn't have to give up anything more.
It would not be just or compassionate to demand you give up what you enjoy.
A lot of people read things like what i have written in this discussion and then jump to the conclusion that i therefore think that pornography is bad, or that rough sex is bad, or that BDSM or roleplay is bad, and i want to be VERY CLEAR that i am not jumping to those same conclusions.
This is why i have been very careful throughout the discussion to say that i myself enjoy smut, i myself have non-consent fantasies, i myself enjoy BDSM, and i'm not advocating against them in any way. My concern is with the misuse of sex, and the misuse of its artistic expression -- not with what people do to bring pleasure.
Re: consenting to rape-fantasies.
Date: 2005-09-26 07:55 pm (UTC)i think i was just venting a little to you because i knew you were a sympathetic ear....
i'm not even really overly-upset or wracked with guilt (most of the time), just feeling kind of lost and tired at times when i think about the connections and associations that my own fantasies play into, and how i *do* wish i could be different sometimes... just snap my fingers and be cookie-cutter squeaky clean with regards to my sexual appetites....
i hope you didn't think i was accusing you of being short-sighted about this...
just me being a dork and rambling again....
Jules.
Re: consenting to rape-fantasies.
Date: 2005-09-26 08:09 pm (UTC)Discussions like this tend to put people in a very defensive headspace and i was hoping you didn't think i am insensitive to your situation.
i'm not even really overly-upset or wracked with guilt (most of the time), just feeling kind of lost and tired at times when i think about the connections and associations that my own fantasies play into, and how i *do* wish i could be different sometimes... just snap my fingers and be cookie-cutter squeaky clean with regards to my sexual appetites....
I feel bad that stating my ideas about these connections has that effect on you, it is not my intent to contribute in any way, even by accident, to what has already been done to you. This is a difficult subject to discuss without making those who have been most affected to feel as though they are being set upon yet again.
I have some idea how you feel... i can't count how many times i wished i could snap my fingers and make my gender identity or sexuality normal, thinking about how much happier i would be if i could.
(edited for clarity)
Date: 2005-09-26 10:17 pm (UTC)I was thinking earlier today about how lots of anti-0feminists insist feminists hate sex, and I came to a disturbing theory on why - people who say that really think rape is the same thing as sex, and so rape can't be bad because it gets them laid, and so anyone trying to work to stop rape hates sex.
Rape fantasies are very different from actual rapes. The "victim" in the fantasies is actually in absolute, complete control of what happens. Even in "take down scenes", things is usually worked out very carefully beforehand and some sort of cool down or aftercare happens. It is nothing like having some jerk deciding that since you had a drink or two too many or no one is around to stop him he is entitled to take whatever he wants.
Re: (edited for clarity)
Date: 2005-09-26 10:54 pm (UTC)In the case of feminists who are concerned about the misuse of pornography, the presumed agenda is banning pornography and stopping people from having kinky sex. I understand the historical reasons behind that, but it is really distracting to have to defend myself against that accusation, especially to people whom i feel should know me better by now.
Rape fantasies are very different from actual rapes.
Indeed. That's why i mentioned that rape fantasies have the effect of confusing "rape" with "rough sex" for many people. Someone who has actually been raped is in no danger of having that confusion, but someone who has not may have trouble seeing the distinction.
Re: consenting to rape-fantasies.
Date: 2005-09-26 08:49 pm (UTC)