Orgasms and chain saws…

In a recent post on his blog Hugo responds to Dethb0y on the topic of pornography and violence. The response is, as many of the things Hugo writes, polite, measured and utterly based in beliefs systems I find utterly flawed.

It started with a post by Hugo on the topic of anxiety and arousal and Dethboy’s commentary. Dethb0y had a lot to say, and made some very, very good points. Interestingly the most useful of those points was ignored in Hugo’s reply.

“How many of the influences on a young woman’s life come from the vast majority of material their exposed to – literature, television, movies – vs the tiny amount of pornography most are exposed to? I have a hard time envisioning a single glance at playboy turning a young woman into an anxiety ridden, socially phobic wreck, so torn by the images of glossy naked women that she can no longer function normally.” – Dethb0y

Dethb0y then goes on to discuss the issue of pornographic vs. violent media, and why pornography seems to bear the brunt of feminist anger. It is here that I think he misses the mark somewhat.

“Would you rather have your children see a woman having sex, or a man being shot in the face? Hugo stands in the middle of a burning house, demanding that, right now, the candle be put out on the night stand, because it’s the *real* problem, not the walls catching fire or the ceiling caving in.” – Dethb0y

The issue comes to a head really in a utterly false belief that Hugo and many of the radical feminists who share his views. Though to be honest many of the radfem blogging community ( a sort of extreme sports version of feminism)  consider Hugo be an evil patriarchal influence. The view is summed up by Hugo himself.

“Pornography is ultimately more harmful than depicted violence because of the far greater likelihood that those who watch porn will want to imitate what they see. Dethboy refers to “facials”: the ubiquitous habit in modern porn of ejaculating onto a woman’s face. When I was growing up, facials weren’t common in porn. And none of my male friends with whom I talked in great detail about sex talked about the practice; now, I hear frequently from young women whose boyfriends are eager to “try it”. Most of the women, understandably, are at best ambivalent about having their faces and their hair splattered! “Facials” are just one example of a “learned behavior” from porn.” – Hugo

To these people all this debauchery is not only evil, but completely and utterly foreign. Since clearly no self respecting female would like such a thing it simply must be the result of those nasty pornographers and their patriarchal conspiracy to ‘keep the wimmin’ down’. This faith based view is then backed up by a little skewed research and the wholesale rejection of any evidence to the contrary. To whit we have the following axioms in the religion of radical feminism regarding sex:

• Any woman who is uncomfortable with a sexual act or image is clearly and obviously well adjusted and telling the complete truth, with no underlying emotional problems, fears or motives.
• Any woman who is comfortable with a sexual act or image that the radical feminist in question dislikes is obviously suffering from a personality flaw brought on by or exacerbated by the patriarchy to her own detriment.

Basically, if you agree with them you are healthy and if you disagree you are a “fembot” who has (through no fault of their own) turned traitor to her sisters and is clearly weak and desperate for male attention. it’s a beautiful strategy for insulating one around your own judgment about the world. Simply reject the reality of anything that disagrees with you as a symptom of the problem you have decided exists.

To them then there is no such question as pornography vs. violence. They simply classify pornography as violence and be done with it. They even have the perfect tool to do the logical somersault with and they call it “feminist analysis” or sometimes “feminist critique” and use it to evolve :meta narratives” that fit their world view. For all intents and purposes it is a system of symbolic transformation through which you can decide that any given media item is representative of hatred of women. Of course they never turn these tools upon their own actions or words, but maybe they should.

“Apparently Dethboy is unfamiliar with feminist critiques of horror films, particularly the slasher genre. Teenage girls being chased by knife-wielding serial killers? The girl who is killed shortly after losing her virginity? No patriarchal messages their at all!” – debbie

In a very real way radical feminists are entirely correct to decide that pornography is more dangerous than violent horror films. Their critique of horror films is both paranoid and fatally flawed but since almost no one who watches someone get cut up with a chain saw desires to try that this flawed analysis is easily ignored as the sort of fringe weirdness it is. It does not really inspire backlash.

Many more people who watch porn are left with the germ of inspiration. They see something that turns them on and then they might (shock and horror) want to see if they like that same thing in real life. They know that this is hot to them. They might even find a partner who thinks it is hot (or is at least willing to indulge for the fun of it). Now when that same feminist insanity comes along and tells them that wanting to get a blowjob or maybe orgasm on their girls face means they are misogynistic women hating oppressors and that their partner is a self hating tool of the patriarchy they instinctively rebel. The rebel because they know better.

Telling me that enjoying a slasher film makes me a evil woman hating scmubag is sort of impersonal. It’s easy to see you’re out of your mind and grasping at straws. Telling me that because my girl and I think its hot when I orgasm onto her face or into her open mouth means that I hate her and she hates not only herself but all women in addition to being a weak willed mindless “sexbot” is a little harder to ignore.

Porn is more dangerous than violence in that way… it points out exactly how deeply scared and alone the radical feminists who dislike it are when they try and attack it.