The Parables of Porn [View All]

Dear Gentlemen:

I have just read your article, "The Politics of Porn," on the CommonDreams.org website today.

I am not surprised by the evident scorn with which you treat the viewpoints of what you consider to be a "minority" group of people who question the intrinsic value of pornography and the ramifications of its relatively unchecked and so meteoric rise in American society.

I presume you are both white males, as only white men would collectively group women, Jews, Muslims, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians together and then call them a "minority" group without pretending to be at least slightly uneasy with the term.

I agree: adult entertainment's "continued expansion and development" is beyond question, what with the proliferation of pornography, escort services, massage parlors, sex instruction books/tapes, strip clubs, and the like. However, there is a blinding oversight I do not blame you for making, for if my presumption while reading your article is correct, it is in your own best interest to ignore. Nonetheless, it stands to say it is the worst kept secret in America that pornography is overwhelmingly a white man's habit, as is true of all the areas of adult entertainment, thereby conspicuously excluding the above mentioned members of your "minority" group. I also agree that arguments against pornography are filled with the "usual rhetoric and hyperbole"; however, the same can be said for the arguments for pornography, which is why I do tire of the 'free speech" defense.

The Socialist and Communist Parties in America practiced free speech for social reform; the local and federal unions for labor rights; the Black Panther Party to retaliate against mass lynchings and Jim Crow laws; radical women and homosexual movements for the dignity of their own bodies and choices. Every single one of these parties were censored almost incontestably and often to a fault: struck down by state and federal laws with outrageous fines and/or prison terms, if not hunted down, rounded up, and shot to death.

I wonder if you have read the "country's documented appetite for sexual fare." It will show the expanse and development indeed of the almost exclusively white male palate, still craving the "golden days" when they could freely and legally sexually exploit any member of their "minority" group, and so practice free speech for the right to be able to sexually fantasize about exploiting members of their "minority" group, since they are no longer freely and legally able to actually exploit them now.

It is obvious to anyone who has ever persued the adult video shelves that the hundreds of titles referring to "slant-eyed, chocolate colored, and over the border," are not meant for Asian, Black, and Hispanic men, as titles referring to "sluts, whores, bitches, wenches, and bi-girls and boys," are not meant for a female or homosexual audience. Indeed, if the "minority" were the major purchasers of porn, the battle for or against censorship would be obsolete. The rise (or fall, rather) of pornography and its staunch advocates would be yet another chapter in the history books of a defeated movement to "preserve and restore the moral fabric of this great and higher minded nation."

I chuckled to read your sincere shock at the absence of adult entertainment representation at the US Sentate Committee hearing. Unlike sports, television, and movie fans, how little if anything porn fans know about who and what is behind the scenes of their favorite form of recreation. Though there should be nothing shocking about a porn fan's willful ignorance when regarding the object of his affection...

I am not ignorant of pornography and the producers, directors, writers, and of course, the women in the industry. It was porn producers themselves who coined the "kings of sleaze," being quite proud of their grossly obscene and highly offensive material, as they will gladly tell you it is. A few articles and interviews can be found (they are not the most articulate men in the world, to be sure) and one I met in person echoes them all as he told me with a straight face that "Men are animals, and animals like to humiliate their prey, right? Women are the prey and they like to be preyed upon and they like to be humiliated, and that's what it's about." Another is quoted as saying that "Men are basically sick fucks, they like to watch sick fucks, and that's what I show. (laughing) I show sick fucks for sick fucks."

While being candid and honest, these are not the most sympathetic statements to present in defense of their industry, which is the sole reason they failed to appear at last month's US Senate hearing or any hearing for that matter. Their failure to appear, according to the AVN, was that nobody was notified in advance by the committee's staff. What the AVN (notorious for its omissions concerning the widespread drug, alcohol, physical and sexual abuse, veneral disease, fraud, racketerring, blackmail, and abduction that pollute an already dirty industry, because AVN is sponsored by (surprise) the porn producers) omits is that advance notice wouldn't have made any difference: they will fail to appear regardless, anywhere they may be asked to answer, because they know in advance what their answer will be. Unlike the legions of white men who buy and buy, these few white men don't tuck under their mattresses and sheepishly shuffle their feet about what they sell and sell. They trust you will defend them, time and time again. "If you have them by the balls, you have them by the minds, too."

In short, you are losers at your own game, no better than the "minority" you gleefully exploit, you are willing participants in your own degradation. Though the great "minority" group are not the only ones being sexually exploited by you at somebody else's expense, but other white men are just as ruthlessly exploiting you, too.

"But this legislative snubbing is indicative of a larger emerging problem whereby the government allows the viewpoints of a few to shape the national speech agenda for the whole, particularly on the topic of sex."

The monumentally stupid use of your closing statement could conclude the opposing side's point better than it concluded your own, I should think one of the two of you would have read that statement and realized what a galactic fumble was made.

For it is precisely the viewpoints of a few pornographers that the goverment allows to shape the national speech agenda for the whole, particularly on the topic of sex, and the "antipornography clan" is not going unchecked, but Hustler, Barely Legal, SexyChinaGirls, and GangBang#22 are.

Our national speech agenda for the whole now dictates the freedom to masturbate with unchecked abandon to white women, women of color and/or nationality, and gay men and women depicted in any given neighborhood, profession, background, or walk of life: in short, any individual among the "minority" group exploited, oppressed, and/or otherwise denigrated in this nation at one time or another. The freedom has extended to include depictions of mothers, sisters, wives of good friends, nieces, nephews, girls next door, to the "deliciously cute" elementary school age boys and girls who "teasingly" ride their bikes by your house.

I would strongly suggest to you, gentlemen, when it comes to your oh-so-precious freedom of speech and expression, that you bear in mind you have the freedom to speak and express yourself, you do not have the freedom to not be questioned or criticized for what and how you choose to speak and express yourself. So when called upon to answer as you can and inevitably will be, be very careful to avoid "the usual rhetoric and hyperbole" your opposition is prone to use as well. But you, in particular must be very, very, careful...

Unlike your opposition, gentlemen, your appetite is well-documented.