Flutterby™! : 2257 violations 2008-06-29 14:24:42.490011+00

2257 violations

2008-06-29 14:24:42.490011+00 by Dan Lyke 13 comments

Renegade Evolution has an interesting "porn meets fair speech" conundrum: Anti-porn slide-show uses images without permission. Claims they're "fair use", which they probably are, but, they're not being published in a 2257 compliant manner. Please, can we get a federal prosecutor to come down on these disingenuous creeps?

I'm working with some folks right now and we're dealing with some.... interesting notions for playing patent, trademark and copyright law to control interoperation with software and devices and do DRM. I hadn't thought about using embedded porn...

I have to laugh at the "Do you ever feel overwhelmed by pornography?" intro line at these hypocritical nutjobs. I am rarely exposed to what I would classify as "porn". Still, I had to watch the slideshow.. complete with intro lines "feminist analysis of.." just to see what the fuss was about.

I saw more "porn" watching the anti-porn flick then I have in years. I'll bet the narrator has some interesting skeletons in her closet. Still, I'll admit, they picked some of the grungier of the porn industry. I'll bet she's got quite the collection, and rationalizes the watching/reading of it with her "Stop Porn Culture" agenda.

What is really going? They picked a highly emotional and controversial topic and are soliciting donations. Yep, it's all about money.

After watching (most, not all) the video, I think I need to go home and get some therapy, because I did not heed the warnings and have a proper support group / mechanism in place before watching the movie.

I shared the above link with my older son in Cambridge MA, and he noted that on the (not) packed events calendar, there is a "Slide Show Training" event in Boston in early July. After some joking about whether the room would be dark, and whether they'd be giving out lube or Kleenex, he suggested that he probably knows 40 or so MIT and Harvard students who might be interested in attending this training, to make known their view that ALL DISCUSSION OF SEXUALITY OUGHT TO BE BANNED. If such a group were to attend this event, I would be sure to let you know how their thoughtful commentary is received.

Did you notice their negative check-off for age testing on that site? ("Click here if you are not over 18." Right. Most of the 17-year-olds I know will be clicking right there on that link. Not.)

#Comment Re: made: 2008-06-29 21:38:12.459094+00 by: meuon [edit history]

<sarcasm>>Whew, I made it home without doing anything socially irresponsible after being exposed to all of the that "porn culture" from the Stop Porn Culture people. </sarcasm>

After a little therapy with my therapist, she commented (while smiling): "Maybe you need to watch MORE porn."

Which really gets down to the core matter, want to really work to reduce "Porn Culture", people need more of the real thing without all of the hangups over it. We'll still need kinky porn, it has it's place. But I think it'll evolve into a much more relevant medium of higher quality and standards.

Re: the people who think all discussions of sexuality should be banned: People promoting ignorance of things as important to the future and happiness of humanity should be flogged. If they can be flogged without becoming aroused.

My son figured that his horde might be welcomed (rather than immediately tossed out) if they espoused this position, but still might eventually make their point clear to the organizers about positions that are ludicrous and hypocritical. (heh heh, she said "positions", heh heh)

Diane, given the prevalence of cell phone and similar cameras, I think that that'd make a great upload video...

I've watched about half the video. I'll try to get to the rest later. But I feel I have to disagree with much of the sentiment here.

First off, what they showed wasn't "some of the grungier of the industry". In fact, they put efforts to show how the spectrum of porn extends from soft-porn, like Maxim Magazine to what's becoming more accepted (MILF Hunter, ATM, etc.). It used to take real effort to get that far down the spectrum (i.e., going to a sleazy store on the wrong side of the tracks). Now it's a Google search away.

Second, what they are doing is a post-modern critique (Feminist) of the current state of pornography and it's relationship it the attitudes of young women. It's trying to get at answers to the question of: why young women are increasing debasing themselves publicly (check out the Facebook group 30 Reasons or reports about themed parties on college campuses).

I personally think the current state of pornography is a backlash to extreme feminism. I was raised to treat women as equals and to be very demure physically. But this is somewhat contrary to general mammalian sexuality. Despite what my head rationalizes, something inside of me longs for a female that unconditionally wants me in a purely physical, sexual sense. Because of the impact of early feminism on my upbringing, I find those feelings repressed. I struggle to see my wife as both my equal and the being who wants me in the way that I need to be wanted.

The portrayal of women in modern pornography directly addresses this longing in men. These portrayals also reflect a counter-swing to the hard push by early feminism to almost de-feminize women. The result is an mental image of women that is hypersexualized. Both the physical image (thin, white, conventionally attractive) and the sexual image (loose, ready and willing to take on physically injurious sexual acts) are impossible for young women to replicate.

At the 29th Street Mall in Boulder there is a play area for small children (6 and under) that happens to be located directly next to Victoria's Secret. There are display windows that face the small courtyard where the play area is (as well as some outdoor seating for Starbucks). But other than the children and young mothers in the play area, essentially no one else sees the manikins (exclusively thin, white, conventionally attractive) in the display windows dressed in lacy thongs and "push up" bras. This display is considered acceptable now, in large part, because of this "Pornification of Culture".

I have trouble criticizing strong Feminists because I feel that they do still need to "shout from the mountaintops" in order to be heard. But I also think that some of what is being said and driven into society is, ultimately, creating as much need for psychological counseling as the pornification of culture does.

It's a simple yin/yang balance. The more feminism pushes away from the balance of masculine/feminie, the more porn pushes in the other direction.

feminism: When I see that word I think it should mean: more female, more "girly". But it doesn't. It seems to mean less. Women should be equal in all the ways that matter, vote, schooling, jobs.. and in many facets of the relationship/marriage as well. But I can also revel in the way they can be different, more or less is a matter of perspective, role and relationship needs vary and there needs to be room for many kinds of relationships as well as their sexual interaction.

The ying/yang balance needs a twist to reach a more moderate center. I don't know how to achieve it over a larger society, but I do know that as I lost my judeo-christian propaganda created notions of many things and tried to find some inner truth based on what I could experience... things like mall store lingerie manikins lost their erotic appeal, and for that matter, much of their marketing power.

I think the yin/yang is internal. I don't want porn 24/7, but I don't want a world without it either. I don't find myself wanting women I am certain I'll always dominate, but I do want that aspect sometimes (and vice versa.) Porn DOES speak to a baser side of men and a debasing side of women, but I have that side among my many other sides when it comes to interaction with women and I've known a goodly number of bright, strong, sensual women who wanted to be debased/taken/used on occasion (and, again, it's cut both ways in my interaction.)

The magic is in not hating myself for what I am, need, and want at any given moment via repression or censoring, but honoring that I am fully human. I feel you, Eric, on the respect vs wanton desire struggle. One can play games with it in relationships: allowing intercourse to be termed by only the f-word in the bedroom or having a day of debauchery once in a while which has no conversation that isn't about what you wanna do to each other. Again, accepting myself for what I occasionally want or need without berating myself and feeling guilty for characteristics which simply aren't "higher level" interactions is what works for me. To bastardize Wilde, we're all in the gutter and I try to look for the stars, but sometimes I confuse the broken whiskey bottles with stars.

Ya know, I kinda thought the whole porn/feminism thing was fairly well defined here on Flutterby. Guess I was wrong. I'll try to put my thoughts together on that, I haven't watched the video from the anti-porn wackos yet (not that I'm pre-judging or anything), but...

What I was really giggling over was the notion that we might be able to circumvent fair use and reverse engineering protections by inserting pornography into data streams. If the legal system has silly rules for one mode of speech over others, then why not exploit that silliness? It'd take a properly motivated prosecutor, but prosecutors can be motivated...

In general I think Ren does a pretty good job of taking down the anti-porn wackos and the Maoist "feminist"s.

Topspin: "known a goodly number of bright, strong, sensual women who wanted to be.." - I can only assume that is a Biblical "known". :)

Dan Lyke: "was fairly well defined here..," - We've all evolved over the years, I sure have. Flutterby has. Dan Lyke has. Society must evolve, flow, ebb. Do not confuse stability with stagnation. Even the "porn Culture" issue is but a swing of the pendulum.

Ren's Blog is good. And I think it speaks to where we are headed - albeit slowly. She's on the cutting edge of Feminism whereas the mainstream of Feminism is still dealing with what it means to be equal but different; what it means to want to give up a career to stay home with the kids. Giving consent to be filmed in sexual acts and giving consent to leave a career are really the same decision. Fifty years ago, it could be clearly argued that women weren't allowed to give this consent. They were expected to give up the career or give up their ass for the camera.

The great thing is that once we get to the other side of all of this, men can anticipate getting what they want most: a sex partner who is consenting to and desiring their strength. (if that's what they want)

My prediction is that once we are there, demand for extremely debasing pornography will drop off. And maybe having a Victoria's Secret next to a playground might even be OK.