Ok, I get that the fat cats are once again screwing the common man but what I find more disturbing is the massive audience that exists for this product. You can blame capitalists all you want, but capitalists are usually pretty easy to predict - they product what sells. So, why is the audience so huge for this stuff? When I look around at grocery line, how many men in the line are more interested in seeing violent sexual imagery that demeans women? That's what scares me...
To get back to capitalists, I would argue that marketing plays a big role here. Look at it this way. Currently, there are numerous bad films, television shows, and pop music performers that make a lot of money. People buy this stuff, but they also like the Beatles and the Godfather. What's up with that? Obviously, the low quality stuff is both available and heavily promoted. It's not that people think that these are the best products on the market; it's simply what's available. It's just what's on TV.
So, too, with violent and demeaning porn. People weren't into it in the 60s. They were into Playboy. Violent and demeaning porn existed, to be sure, but one had to want it in the first place and be willing to search for it. Today, it spams its way into our email boxes. It pops up if you click the wrong link and whatnot. Suddenly, there it is, and, well, what the hell, people check it out.
Ok, I'll rebut. While I agree that marketing does create markets, it's typically "lazy". You recreate what's worked before, hence band X is the biggest thing since the Beatles. Getting it back to porn, I don't think that the evil marketers and capitalists have created a market for this out of whole cloth. You mention that in the 60's there was not a market for this. You're right (I think, it's not like I've researched it). There also was not nearly the "threat" from women. They weren't liberated, they didn't steal our jobs, and pop culture told them to be submissive and bring us drinks when we got him from work. Well times have changed and so have women. If you like the changes, great, you're happy. If you don't maybe violent, degrading porn is just what you're looking for. It gives you the revenge fantasy and it feeds a wish that they are all dirty sluts who want you. It's a sick reaction to equal rights.
Ok, discuss.
Very good point, Matt. In fact, I'm reminded of the arguments Susan Faludi puts forth in her book Backlash which painstakingly details how the mainstream media started presenting anti-woman imagery in the 1980s as a response to the feminist gains of the 1970s. Masculine anxiety misdirected toward women may very well play a role in consumption of violent and demeaning pornography today.
The sad truth is that masculine anxiety has much more to do with what male elites have done to the economy and consequently male sense of personal control and social value: women (and other minorities) serve as a handy scapegoat despite the fact that they are really in no position to make men nervous about their lives.
Perhaps I'm inadvertently making an argument in favor of gay sado-masochistic porn. I sure hope not. The long and the short of it is that I still believe it goes back to evil capitalist pigs no matter how you look at it.
I knew you secretly liked gay sado-masochistic porn.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
haha, got to LOVE the Sein!
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