For instance, how many women now endure their BFs giving them "facials", a degrading act popularized by porn.
Actually, I know a large number of women (and men) who LIKE receiving facials, including people who'd never seen it before in porn (or seen any porn at all).
Porn is poisonous to our human inter-relations, and it degrades the erotic essence that is the foundational alchemy of all things - by commoditizing it, sex just becomes another thing to have, but the depth and meaning has been stripped from the common understanding of it.
I have to disagree with this as a generalization. I know too many people who have used pornography as a positive force in their sexual lives, as well as a number of people who have used this same pornography as a platform for enhancing their erotic essense and as an integral element of their own foundational alchemy - actors like Annie Sprinkle and Nina Hartley, writers like Anias Nin. I am personally familiar with people who use pornography as a deliberate act of spirituality in action, such as the webmistress of http://www.ropelover.com
I understand the sort of 'commoditizing' that you are talking about, but I don't see pornography as the engine of that. That commoditization is an integral part of modern culture, from McDonalds to MTV to self-help infomercials. The twisted sexual images found in the mainstream media and advertising do much more to degrade the erotic essense of life by consistantly displaying sanitized eroticism with a conflicting undertone of guilt and accusation for responding to that.
This is not to say that the porn industry is not a nasty degrading place in many areas. However, I've personally observed too many powerful and meaningful events, organizations and individuals that are the result of that same industry to use to as the scape goat that most people insist it on being.
So, the new culture, the new generation is growing up disconnected from one of the greatest connective forces in the universe.
Alienation from the Divinity inherent in sexuality is not the exclusive domain of the 'new culture'. While pornography is more accessable in many ways today, it hs existed for millenia in various forms, from low-class courtesans in Ancient Greece to the writings of the Marquis De Sade in France to burlesque shows in the 1920s to the hot lesbian action section on Kazaa.
Pornographuy is not the problem. It's not even the symptom. But it is an easy target.
I'll admit I was on a bit of an anti-porn rant a while back, but I was really just confronting some of my own habits. you're right - the commoditization of sex is not really porn-related at all, but cultural, driven by ecomonic forces. I agree as well that porn can be used spiritually - I use it for my own sex magicks and solo tantric practices. The porn industry itself I haven't much problem with - there are some bad patches to be sure, and I suppose my lament is for the porn of better days, porn done with context, story, enjoyment of those participating. However, much porn on the web is filled with content which does (IMO) pose a threat to mental hygiene (I can't believe I just used that term): rape, child porn, snuff, etc. I fear this may be a match to the powderkeg that lies in the hearts of all those repressed angry men (of which there are many, I'm positive). I've seen relationships torn apart by porn addictions, and I worry about what having access to extremely hardcore porn will do to developing minds; adolescents and the like may have trouble contextualizing the content. But in the end, porn isn't the problem - as you say, it's just an easy scapegoat. The problem lies in our culture's attitude towards sex itself. I was projecting the problem onto the porn industry (which has taken some questionable turns lately, though I realize they are simply responding to a market demand - so again the problem lies in the culture that demands to see rape and violence towards women).
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branchandroot
Re:
Date: 2004-02-21 10:34 pm (UTC)Actually, I know a large number of women (and men) who LIKE receiving facials, including people who'd never seen it before in porn (or seen any porn at all).
Porn is poisonous to our human inter-relations, and it degrades the erotic essence that is the foundational alchemy of all things - by commoditizing it, sex just becomes another thing to have, but the depth and meaning has been stripped from the common understanding of it.
I have to disagree with this as a generalization. I know too many people who have used pornography as a positive force in their sexual lives, as well as a number of people who have used this same pornography as a platform for enhancing their erotic essense and as an integral element of their own foundational alchemy - actors like Annie Sprinkle and Nina Hartley, writers like Anias Nin. I am personally familiar with people who use pornography as a deliberate act of spirituality in action, such as the webmistress of http://www.ropelover.com
I understand the sort of 'commoditizing' that you are talking about, but I don't see pornography as the engine of that. That commoditization is an integral part of modern culture, from McDonalds to MTV to self-help infomercials. The twisted sexual images found in the mainstream media and advertising do much more to degrade the erotic essense of life by consistantly displaying sanitized eroticism with a conflicting undertone of guilt and accusation for responding to that.
This is not to say that the porn industry is not a nasty degrading place in many areas. However, I've personally observed too many powerful and meaningful events, organizations and individuals that are the result of that same industry to use to as the scape goat that most people insist it on being.
So, the new culture, the new generation is growing up disconnected from one of the greatest connective forces in the universe.
Alienation from the Divinity inherent in sexuality is not the exclusive domain of the 'new culture'. While pornography is more accessable in many ways today, it hs existed for millenia in various forms, from low-class courtesans in Ancient Greece to the writings of the Marquis De Sade in France to burlesque shows in the 1920s to the hot lesbian action section on Kazaa.
Pornographuy is not the problem. It's not even the symptom. But it is an easy target.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-22 07:19 am (UTC)you're right - the commoditization of sex is not really porn-related at all, but cultural, driven by ecomonic forces. I agree as well that porn can be used spiritually - I use it for my own sex magicks and solo tantric practices.
The porn industry itself I haven't much problem with - there are some bad patches to be sure, and I suppose my lament is for the porn of better days, porn done with context, story, enjoyment of those participating.
However, much porn on the web is filled with content which does (IMO) pose a threat to mental hygiene (I can't believe I just used that term): rape, child porn, snuff, etc. I fear this may be a match to the powderkeg that lies in the hearts of all those repressed angry men (of which there are many, I'm positive).
I've seen relationships torn apart by porn addictions, and I worry about what having access to extremely hardcore porn will do to developing minds; adolescents and the like may have trouble contextualizing the content.
But in the end, porn isn't the problem - as you say, it's just an easy scapegoat. The problem lies in our culture's attitude towards sex itself.
I was projecting the problem onto the porn industry (which has taken some questionable turns lately, though I realize they are simply responding to a market demand - so again the problem lies in the culture that demands to see rape and violence towards women).