Women’s liberation in the 1920’s served as a catalyst for political, social, economic and cultural changes in the U.S. Society. In the 1920’s, women began smoking as it became a symbol of rebellion and independence for many college women and factory workers, skirts and hair were shorten and, women’s suffrage was won. The liberation of women has an obvious connection with the two magazines that came out there after called, “The Nudist” (1934) and, “Esquire” (1933). Interestingly enough, although these magazines were among the first readily available on news stands, they were only limited to the rich who can afford them and to the elite who were allowed to read them. Although women’s liberation gave rise to equality among men and women, the gap between poor and rich is still visible. From this we can infer that classism was more important to Americans than sexism during the time of female liberation. Although these explicit magazines in those times were only available for the elite, I always wondered why high-class inviduals be interested in such literature that can safely be called, “Uneducational”? Perhaps, they had more time to read this material anyway because the poor spent most of their time working and providing for their family and spending the time they had left with their families. Also, if pornography was used to criticize authority and most likely, the elite were the authority, why would they want to challenge themselves? These are just some of the questions that came to mind while I was watching several lectures from last week and this week and I am hoping will get answered either by the professor or by other students.

As mentioned in Lecture 11, AIDS crisis apparently caused the phone sex industry and video sales to skyrocket. Is phone sex an answer to safe sex? One of the benefits phone sex offers is simulation of masturbation and sexual intercourse, a sexual satisfaction with abstinence from direct sexual intercourse and, thus safety. Phone sex is beneficial to those people who cannot engage in real sex life due to moral and legal ramifications, psychological inhibition, and lack of physical ability, unwillingness of a committed partner or the fear of social stigma. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_sex) In addition, phone sex is also beneficial to privacy. Perhaps, someone who may feel embarrassed to purchase a prostitute or go to a strip club can engage in something more private and visible like phone sex. The idea of phone sex most likely led to the idea of cyber sex as well. Thus, not only did phone sex allow for privacy but also for future innovations such as cyber sex chat rooms.

However, video sales may encourage sexual intercourse by mesmerizing sexual fantasies. Watching pornography has been proven to promote violence against women and children. Although watching pornography on video is so-called “safer”, it may encourage unsafe and vulgar sexual activities. Maybe in the 1980s when the idea of AIDS first threatened society, people looked to alternatives to sex; however, now with the more knowledge of AIDS and precautions one can take, more and more people engage in real life sex and participate in phone sex for other reasons than a mere alternative to actual sex.

With the invention of VCR, camcorders, digital cameras and the Internet, production and distribution became easier and starring in stag films no longer required professionals.  Amateur pornography seems to attract more viewers today because of its advertisements of natural, girl-next-door amateurs and is readily available.  Like any business, pornography always strives to bring something new into the market – young college girls, innovative sex positions and now most unfortunate- the abuse of women, which is pretty sickenining to even imagine that violence against women would arouse someone. Amateur pornography definitely allowed a huge expansion of pornography and drove sales because of the idea that anyone can produce and act in stag films and you do not have to put in a lot of money for production nor pay a huge salary to the actors.  The downside to amateur pornography is its easy availability to young adults and the birth of child pornography, as well as the treatment the actors receive.

Watching the Frontline Special- American Porn was psychologically disturbing and, a definite eye-opener.  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and hearing from Lizzie Romano, producer of porno films that feature rape and the degrading of female porn stars. The most unfortunate part besides getting spitted and peed on is that these actresses do not even know what their role in the film requires them to do.  However, that part only seems disruptive to me because the female actresses certainly do not mind it according to the segment.  They just see it as business and do not consider the human cost behind the billion-dollar industry.  I was shocked at some of the things Lizzie Romano was saying, implying that women like to get beaten and they like the rape and the disrespect. It is absolutely disgusting what money can do to people and can make people say and do.

Then, we look at the pornography boot camp??? All these young girls are making a $1000 per shoot and maybe $45,000 a week or so but they human costs are priceless. They seem naive to me and their dreams a fairy-tale. As shown in the segment, as a porn star, you do male to female films first and then the lesbian films will rise in prices; however after you do a few, the demand goes down and eventually after you’d done it with all types of partners and in different positions and engaged yourself in various types of sexual intercourses, you’re pretty much done.  The average pornography career is 3 years or so. What was interesting in the segment as well was the discussion of the future of the personal lives of the porn stars.  Who will marry them now after they had sex with 600-800 partners, after 300 porno tapes with at least 2 partners per film??? I wonder if these young girls going into the porno acting career or even the amateur pornographers who film themselves and sell themselves on the Internet, do they ever think of these consequences?

After watching this Frontline Special, I begin to see the concern feminists and lawmakers see about porn and its encouragement of rape and violence against women. Previously, I did not have a strong opposition to porn nor did I truly believe that porn is responsible for the increasing violence against women in our society today; however now I understand why porn is unhealthy and degrading to women.   I cannot believe someone would actually find enjoyment in watching this type of pornography.

Porn videos like this are responsible for the ordinary comments we hear in our society such as, “a ‘NO’ really means ‘Yes’” and, “Girls like when guys treat them like shit.”  Many of you who maybe reading this blog entry may disagree with me and believe that there are other factors that affect such thinking and human behavior. I agree the violence against women and pornography maybe not be correlated but they are causal.  There is some relationship between the two and one shapes the other. Pornography shapes the way males think about women and almost gives them the, “Okay’ to demonstrate aggressive behavior on women.

Pornography and the Internet are interconnected; the Internet and new media makes pornography more accessible, private and cheaper while pornography provides funding for the Internet. Technologies such as VCR, cable, Bulletin Board Service (BBS), CompuServe and the Internet facilitated pornography and allowed people to view it at home without being seen in the theaters. At the same time, the growing business of online pornography has spurred Internet activities such as trading files, streaming video and shopping online. Even digital cameras were inspired by pornography because they allowed people to take skimpy photographs without having to go to the corner photography store or local CVS and develop these embarrassing photos. After all, no one wants strangers viewing their nude photographs. Mobile porn is already a growing business as well and this invention started when Apple announced an iPod with video playback capabilities. Immediately, the pornography industry picked up on this and began developing video programming in the player’s format.

Pornography and its relationship to the Internet has both, advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages are obvious: the exploitation of women and children. Many women and children are involved in the pornography industry because of they need a source of income and they need it fast. The pimps’ luxurious cars, homes, designer clothing, etc impress them. The advantage of pornography is the funding it provides for the Internet to run and the development of advanced technologies. In addition, the concern of children and sex-and-the- Internet encourages parents to keep an eye on their children and to become more computer literate in order to track the computer activities of their children. Wherever there is a gain, there is a loss. Everyone enjoys the advanced technology in the United States that other countries do not have or are just beginning to adopt. However with the new technology and its benefits also come the negatives – the concerns that pornography raises. This is just a process of technology development that people have to accept if they want new technology such as the cool iPods, DVDs, etc.

In July 1974, Larry Flynt, an American magazine publisher and the head of Larry Flynt Publications (LFP), which produces over twenty pornographic magazines, published a magazine called “Hustler”. This magazine was the first one to feature “pink shots” – explicit photographs of open vaginas, as well as demeaning photographs of women posing as dogs on a leash or placed inside a meat grinder. A year later, this magazine also featured nude paparazzi pictures of Jacqueline Kennedy, which spurred celebrity pornography.

The publication of this magazine is significant in the history of pornography for several reasons. One of the reasons “Hustler” plays an important role in porn history is because its pornographic photos present the feminist definition of the term, “pornography” and makes the industry unpopular and controversial in the United States. The derogatory photographs dictate that pornography belittles females and may cause rape and violence against women. From just reading the description of the photographs featured in the magazine, I would agree that these women are presented in the demeaning and disrespectful way. Such poses indicate that women are worthless for anything else but sex; they are just a piece of meat and should be treated as such. Unfortunately, with the publication of “Hustler” and the continuous growth of, “Sex-Sells!” advertisements and films, the point of view of women is worsening each year. This belief that some males hold harms social relationships today. Many young college men today prefer “friends with benefits” rather a relationship because they are more interested in having as much sex as possible during their college career with as many women as possible than dating these women. In the “ancient” times, men dated women to potentially get married and form a family. Now such behavior is unthinkable and is often poked fun at. Now with the rise of pornographic photos such as described in the “Hustler” and perhaps, pornography in general allows the men to take advantage of women and use them for their own pleasure and once the task completed, these women are no longer worth talking to.

The nude paparazzi pictures of Jacqueline Kennedy spurred celebrity pornography such as the Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson sex tape and the, “One Night in Paris” pornography film featuring Paris Hilton. Most times, these celebrities make the tapes for themselves and not for the public but the popularity of celebrity sex tapes as well as the enormous amount of money gained from this business inspire their showing and selling.

Coopersmith’s article ties very well with the first lecture where Professor Halavais explained that pornography and new technology are closely related in a sense that pornography gives rise to new technology, lowers its costs, provides more privacy, and makes it easier for regular consumers to produce their own films right at home. The benefits such as the ones listed above are enormous and if it wasn’t for pornography, maybe our technology would not be as advanced. However, we must also consider the huge disadvantages to pornography and the new technology such as camcorders and VCR’s that spurred as a result of it. For instance, such innovative technology gives the consumer a “right” and power to produce any type of videos without any or limited restrictions such as self-made pornography, child pornography, peeping toms, etc.  Although owning a camcorder allows the consumer to record important family functions, school projects, documentaries, we cannot forget how one can misuse a camcorder or a VCR. With the invention of the Internet, pornography is uncontrollable. I think that pornography has its benefits but with the benefits and the gains come the disadvantages and the loses. Everytime a new technology is created because of pornography, it just makes the worse use of pornography and as a result does worse than intended.  The pornography industry’s self-interest is obviously to create better technology to enhance pornography itself, to make more efficient medium and means of distributing it. I believe that like politics, businesses, especially the pornography industry are self-interested and work based on their wants and needs. I think the pornography has created the new technology to better its own industry rather than give better access to consumers for other things than pornography. 

Yesterday night, I have attended the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo and observed an interesting exhibit by the artist whose name is Spencer Tunick. Tunick photographs thousands of nude people, both men and women, who volunteer for his photography projects all over the world, including the United States. The thousands of nudists form a new shape and fill in the environmental and architectural spaces in which they are placed and photographed. It is quite amazing and I definitely recommend the exhibit to those of you who are interested in Erotic Art. Interestingly enough, Tunick was arrested five times in New York City and had no problems or bans anywhere else in the world. Once again, this shows the norms and the culture of the United States. Europe is definitely more open to nudists than the United States. His work is clearly not pornographic although based on lecture 3, we can argue that some of the poses are sexually explicit such as the bending over with the rear ends facing the viewers or some poses demonstrate private parts or genitals or this work is adult and should not be shown to children. Although the three points underlined in lecture 3 are all present in Tunick’s work, his artwork is not pornographic but is adult. So how do you draw the line between unique and creative artwork and pornography? Well it depends whether it is sexually arousing or not? Whether you would masturbate to his photographs or not? I think that with the large masses of nudists used to fill landscapes or architectural space, the nudity transforms into abstraction. I am enclosing two of the photographs I’ve viewed yesterday in the museum and was also able to find them on line.

As some of you may know, Canada’s top court legalized clubs that feature group sex and partner-swapping, also known as swingers clubs. Their reason was that consesual sexual activity in private clubs is not harmful to anyone. I wanted to know the class’ opinion on the Supreme Court’s decision and if you think these type of clubs should be legalized here, in the United States?
Here is the link to the news article: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051221/SCC_swingersruling_20051221/20051221?hub=CTVNewsAt11

“Pornography” vs. “Erotica.”

The definition of pornography is completely subjective simply because of the different views people in our society hold. Conservatives and liberals may have opposing views and find different ads and videos offensive. Also different cultural views of people of various backgrounds will produce different reactions to and opinions of what is pornographic and what isn’t.  For instance, one cultural shock for me was that in the United States, photographs of naked children is inappropriate and illegal. However, in Moldova and in most European countries, it is absolutely acceptable and even considered, “Cute.”  The Calvin Klein underwear ads with children posing in not pornographic to me either.  If these children were to wear bathing suits, would these photos be considered pornographic? In my personal opinion, pornography is a display of sexual behavior that arouses sexual arousal in its viewers and encourages abusive behavior such as rape. There has been research done before of men who are potential sexual assault criminals and the research shows that most of these men have a history of excessive porn watching. A lot of people confuse erotic drawings or artistic photographs with pornography. There is a huge difference. Artistic photographs such as ads with models demonstrating the new underwear collection are not pornographic. There has been thought and graphic design rules placed into the formation of these ads. There has been a consideration to lighting, composition, font size, logos, colors, etc.  Such photographs are aesthetically beautiful. However, since photography has never truly been appreciated by anyone other than photography junkies, most people see many photographs of nudes as pornographic while approving of paintings that are more explicit, so explicit that they go far enough to show rape or oral sex. Ads will always feature sexually inviting models if they are selling sexy products such as lingerie or perfumes/colognes; its about the intimacy and both the products mentioned above and sexually inviting models are intimate and leave your mind to imagine much more. That is what advertising is about: make you aware of a product and keep it in your mind so if you see it on the market, you are more likely to purchase it. With so much competition in the market, advertisers are paid to come up with creative ways to single themselves out in front of their competitors.