Flutterby™! : Deep throat 2005-03-01 15:15:59.908091+00

Deep throat

2005-03-01 15:15:59.908091+00 by Dan Lyke 3 comments

Bwahahahaha! Debra had a link to a gossip-column report on a screening of Inside Deep Throat in NYC, this being thirty some-odd years later of course there was post-film discussion with distinguished panelists:

Mitchell looked on helplessly as McKinnon did her thing, claiming that the film we had just watched was promoting the acceptance of rape. At one point, however, her righteous zeal became unhinged when she claimed that it was not possible to do deep throat safely, that it was a dangerous act that could only be done under hypnosis. "What's so funny?" she snapped as the audience rippled with mirth. Todd Graff's hand shot up - "I can do it," he said, and the room echoed with a chorus of gay men going "me too!" (Gigi Grazer - wife of Brian - later told Graff to stop bragging and that she could do it better than him and had the rocks on her fingers to prove it. Touché).

This is an interesting example of the split between Feminism and Queer Theory. Whereas Feminism advanced the notion that a feminist or female viewpoint or understanding has significance and merit - that much of our view and understanding of the world is inherently masculine: male dominated. Queer Theory balances the Feminist reactionism to that dominance with the idea that it is possible to choose be dominated - that there may be viewpoints other than male and female.

McKinnon took a classical Feminist stance - originating with the idea that all pornography is detrimental to women - and advanced to deep throating being equivalent to rape - only to get an unseen alternative view slapped in her face.

I think the better pullquote is the one at the end, which is so true it hurts to laugh:

"Michael Musto said, 'Congratulations, you've managed to incite the exact same debate that happened 30 years ago. People said exactly the same things they said decades ago. That really takes some doing.'"