When ideals collide... porn vs. feminism

[rrneck]

74. You refer to "ugly realities" without being very specific.

Let me help.

Labor issues: People who perform in pornographic movies have the right to a safe workplace and to a fair wage for doing so.

Social issues: There has always been and there will always be art of one sort or another that people find repugnant. Some of it is good repugnant art, some of it is bad repugnant art. That distinction generally lies in the intent of the artist and the individual viewing the work. It is impossible to regulate artistic interpretation, although artists have a grand time tweaking the noses of those who try.

Marketing issues: It's one thing to rail about the genuine travails of anonymous people half a planet away. It's another to offer the public a convenient handle to give an agenda an added punch. We don't see people brutalized over there, but we can rail about fictional presentations of it right here and free associate our way to mutual moral outrage. Are women and children enslaved to make violent pornography? Of course. Do people consent to and get paid to perform in violent pornographic fiction? Yep. But it's difficult to decry constitutionally protected speech, so a measure of accessorizing is in order.

That's how we get mention of fair wage practices, crimes, outrages against humanity, specious sociological studies, personal tragedies, and who knows what else that actually have nothing to do with the right of people to make bad movies. All that shit gets added on for emotional impact to drive an agenda, the nature of which is as hard to determine as artistic value since it varies from individual to individual.

There, can you work with that?