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Pornography and sexual inequality, a lecture by Robert Jensen

  • "All my bones shake" - book
  • "Getting off" - book
  • Background - feminism - hierarchies become visible (race - see US as an empire), is a rebel - finds our 'left' more open and integral, was academic, now writes for public, doesn't like how academia works and formulates ideas, defected from TV, open to being facebooked.
  • Q What analysis have you been doing about SA?
  • US still patriarchal and racist and full of sexual violence therefor not post-patriarchal, not subtle, secular discussions obsess about physical differences, psyche differences between W&M. All the indicators have racial overtones - wealth, childbirth, etc. US is white supremacist society. Superior European knowledge used to analyse.
  • Q How does that play out in storytelling - or the mass media? 
  • Guides how we think - society brainwashes us, what are the underlying commonalities? (Objectivity) - actually trying to hide politics. How does the news cover sex assault - 1 in 5 will report it - 20% coverage. Sexual intrusion should be the terminology - and should include everything from cat calls to date rape - 100%. "I am stating the obvious."
  • News shows only the worst instances, rarely are stories such as Clinton's blowjob talked about - and they don't call him a sexual predator. Rape charges are hushed.
  • Comment: News is attached to blond vs black bodies - reports the blonds. It's a crime if it happens to whites.
  • in TV shows the most desirable stars are male/white, the age effect - older white males are desirable and paid well
  • porn: masturbatory tool - like a movie, are passive, learning to become aroused by that form of brainwashing
  • feminist vs Christian/Religious critique of
  • feminists are pro and anti - Jensen is anti
  • Q What to do about it? Censorship? Banning?
  • porn is misogyny embodied (Gonzo) (S&M) delivering objectified female bodies
  • Q Porn for women? 
  • Soft/Hard - process of degradations, increases routine brutality
  • Q Violence - is it a sublimated apathy - fear - helplessness - frustration?
  • pornographers aren't worried about critique - but how can they make money with free porn online
  • porn is the most overt and racist
  • Comment: Dan Savage says we fetishize our anxiety and porn lets us 'play' our fetishes, but that we must make a distinction between play and real
  • bodies have race and are written on - the woman's body is sub and the man is the super dom
  • 'interracial' only means 'blacks' - white is normal
  • the 'violent black man' is a justification for violating black men
  • Q What threat to women pose?
  • White men are the consumer of interracial porn - counter-intuitive - black men violating their white women turns them on.
  • intensification of the sexual charge is the sell factor for pornographers - plain sex is boring
  • Q Can men be educated to use porn 'decently'?
  • evades
  • Q Is there feminist porn that snuffs men?
  • values are transmitted, relationship between attitude and behaviour is complex - can't just say porn affects values, as TV violence doesn't necessarily make violent kids
  • to focus on structure doesn't mean you can ignore agency
  • Q Censorship?
  • Why is $15 billion spent making porn. Feminists oppose the State (patriarchy) in control, women must have control
  • Damages in civil court not criminal court - should
  • cannot be absolutist about free speech - damage your reputation, you can't speak freely
  • gay men are celebratory about porn (Dan Savage)
  • Q Female produced porn
  • pornographers PR - women are being socialised by the same mechanism and are also vehicles of the patriarchy
  • Choice should be emphasised, and MEN should choose not to watch porn (his personal opinion)
  • Q Alan Moore - comic - how wonderwoman was sexualised. Japanese Henti - porn as total fantasy, woman raped by squid. Is this where porn is going
  • Criminalisation of child porn  - what about if any performer is harmed. Comic version is legal but can't be advertised
  • Q Abstinence education?
  • No causal relationship between watching porn and raping
  • Comment: Upmarket product, ads, soap operas - black man white woman not vice versa. Black women are gold diggers. Power in benevolent mode - black men benevolent - media is constructing them as.
  • Q Complicity - between users and pornographers. Academics are on the outside
  • Jensen not Freudian. Domination is a modern construct. Straight porn - HIV in industry. Monthly HIV test. Transmission rare, anecdotal reports of STDs, can't insist on condoms. Gay male porn - condoms and no testing. Equates prostitutes situation with working women, can assert their agency - but when out of the industry speak out against porn. Self protecting activities - drugs, justification. Demand vs supply - pornographers create desire for wierd stuff - double penetration (T! I don't believe this), deep throating, creates industry for them to capitalise off of, keep pushing new products - like food industry introducing green ketchup - who needs it
  • Q Gay male porn - where does the patriarchy show there?
  • Sexualising of power - men still sexualise sub/dom, can be seen in ads that overtly state their dom/sub status, rejecting a range of sexuality doesn't undermine core practices that construct a just society - won't proscribe. Conversation about what the options should be, open, but from the focus, what kind of culture do we want to build.
  • "The price of pleasure" - documentary
  • Amandla Publishing brought Jensen to SA - alternative to mainstream media
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