"The End of Sex?"

"Pornography is changing the nature of physical affection"


http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?no=288787&rel_no=1


linked @ http://amananta.wordpress.com/

of the first line of John Varley's novel, Steel Beach:

"In five years, the penis will be obsolete."

Best.First.Line.Ever.

I haven't read that one. Sounds good

but not as good as The Persistence of Vision, which I truly love.

Take love and affection out of sex-- turn it into pornographic gymnastics.

Assume women want enormous penises and that men have to have them to satisfy a women.

Equate rape with sex

Blur the pleasure/pain pathways until they are indistinguishable.

Allow pornography to dictate what "good" sex is.

Sexualized females until they aren't recognizable as live women, but rather well done blow up sex toys. (that twilight zone episode comes to mind--the one where the Lone prisoner on a planet fell in love with a robot designed to give affection. Interesting how the robot was so lifelike yet still was beat into wires and tubes at the end)

I could see people just shutting down, with the influx of continuous sexual information, innuendo, assumptions, expectations--None of it tied to true sexual "liberation" but merely part of the vast sex industry that whats to tell people what they want, what to do and how to do it and what to buy to accomplish "it"

Makes for very sexually unhealthy and unhappy people.

to the horniest men out there. Ugh.

Men who got all their sex education from porn and focused on "technique" gleaned from The Playboy Advisor and thought real women were like that were always out there. After the first one, most of us were able to spot them by the time the entree arrived on the first date and end the evening politely but firmly right after dessert, often paying our share.

Most of them woke up eventually, even if they were never really good at listening to a partner and what SHE wanted, but after being dumped enough, they got a little bit of a clue.

It's hard not to feel a little sorry for them and the way they bought into this because their parents and their schools were incapable or unwilling when it came time to educating them about the whole picture.

I just don't want anything to do with 'em, thanks.

A lot of the points in it are things I've been irritated and ranting about for years. But the new thing that floored me was the part about sex getting briefer...that whole thing about sex in porn only lasting about 5 minutes from initial physical contact to orgasm and how that effects people's sex in real life. That's just sad.

My main partner and I engage in a lot of things that the author would probably find objectionable (all consentual and quite enjoyable btw)...but damn, at least we manage a LOT longer than 5 minutes.

There has been a pronounced rise in the number of surgical interventions in the labial region, too: the hunt for the so-called "designer vagina" has been almost entirely fueled by pornography, as a specialist in this area, Dr Ronald Blatt, medical director of the Manhattan Centre for Vaginal Surgery, matter-of-factly explained to MSNBC.com in June 2005: "People have suggested that they've looked at Playboy or Penthouse...They come in and say, 'Make it look like that.'"

Mutilating their own genitals to achieve perfection...what a sad society we live in.

Sexuality is such a challenging issue for feminists to explain to everybody else. "But look at those porn stars. Aren't they taking charge of their own sexuality? Aren't they living up to feminist ideals by being financially successful, not ashamed of their bodies, etc...?" Never mind that those bodies they aren't ashamed of are shrunk down and puffed up in all the right places, that the "sexuality" they're expressing is totally centered on what men want to see, that they make their money playing their assigned role in a patriarchal system that is detrimental to the vast majority of the female population who won't ever be porn stars.

I don't have a problem with erotic art, or even with pornography in and of itself. I don't have a problem with people exploring their sexuality and finding what works for them; if it satisfies you and everyone's consenting and of the appropriate age, more power to ya! What I have a problem with is a culture that claims to embrace female sexuality, but only when it's expressed in a way that men like and approve of, and only by women who fit the impossible standards of what is sexually attractive. Women aren't really allowed to be sexual beings in their own right, according to their own desires; and until they are, all our talk about sexual liberation is a bunch of hogwash.

It's to most people's detriment. I echo your statement that erotica can be very enjoyable and life enhancing. Plus, I certainly am opposed to censorship, so people who want to make and view porn are free to do so IMO. But I'm also free to criticize the heck out of the bullshit, sexist, formulaic, utterly unoriginal, and soul-destroying mainstream variety that is most widely consumed.

And the whiners who think I should shut up about it can piss off! It's bad enough that they demand an unending supply of fake women as fantasy fodder. But oftentimes, they tacitly (or openly) expect their partners to look and act like those women. And despite the claims that "I'm getting this lipo/boob job/labia tuck/whatever for myself" :eyes: , you bet your ass there's pressure from the partner to comply with the Official Porn Fembot mandate in a lot of cases. Really sad.

This seems to go with the "End of Sex" article...


I saw this posted at the Mad Melancholic Feminista - commenting on the Post article - see below -

Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Let Them Eat Viagra: Impotence Epidemic on College Campuses

She quotes Amanda:

"It would seem then that the problem might not be so much women’s equality; it appears the real problem is framing sex as an act of domination in the first place....

So he got over thinking that it was a sign of his power to have an erection at will and he put sex into the context of the affection in his relationship. And no one had to give up any rights. Too bad the article didn’t start off telling the truth, that it’s male dominance that psychs men out, not women’s equality."

http://pandagon.net/2006/05/07/mouthy-broads-destroy-the-holy-phallusor-do-they/

http://melancholicfeminista.blogspot.com/


From the Post article:

"I've had no problem with this before," he thought. "What if this gets out? What if she tells her girlfriends? My reputation will be ruined."
"Skrodzki is far from alone. It seems that for a sizable number of young men, the fact that they can get sex whenever they want may have created a situation where, in fact, they're unable to have sex. According to surveys, young women are now as likely as young men to have sex and by countless reports are also as likely to initiate sex, taking away from males the age-old, erotic power of the chase." etc.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/06/AR2006050601206.html

Someone pointed out on one of those blogs the oddness of using the word power in that phrase. Generally, it's expressed as the thrill of the chase. The implication is that sexually assertive women are depriving men of their strength and masculinity.

Also, the article is simply ridiculous because the comments of the actual experts don't support its thesis. They suggest a multitude of reasons for the supposed 'dysfunction', none of them having to do with the insatiable castrating female sex fiends that the author clearly wants to make responsible for the problem. Only one person, some dad who doesn't apparently have any credentials to comment on this subject at all touched on it. Sloppy journalism and blatant false framing. Was it a slow week for feminism-bashing in the WaPo or something?

I'm getting REALLY tired of them, and the NYT, trotting out regressive nonsense and disguising it as relevant cultural reporting.

Usually follows the same formula:

1. Take the experience of a select handful of wealthy white women (in this case young college men are added to the mix but you get the point). Edit to add: If the experience doesn't fit the frame you're trying to push just act like it does anyway because you can still get the headline to scream what you want it to.

2. Extrapolate the frame universally, regardless of the vast socio-economic dissimilarities between elite Manhattan-ites (or insert other affluent demographic) and the rest of us.

3. Call it a trend and claim that it signifies the end of feminism.

:puke: