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Category Archives: Pornography
Pedants of pornography
From here:
The new academic journal Porn Studies, due to start publication in spring 2014, has called for submissions of articles, scholarly papers and book reviews.
U.K. publisher Taylor & Francis says it will be “the first dedicated, international, peer-reviewed journal” devoted to the study of pornographic products and services in the contexts of culture, history, economy, society and the law.
Content will explore the “intersection of sexuality, gender, race, class, age and ability.”
Several educators and authors have provided endorsements for the journal, which will be edited by two women – British academics Feona Attwood and Clarissa Smith.
“Porn Studies is a wonderful and much-needed resource for anyone interested in pornography and its relationship to wider cultural contexts,” Ronald Weitzer of George Washington University said. “The journal addresses virtually every aspect of porn and will challenge readers with novel, cutting-edge articles on the topic.”
In 1964 when Justice Potter Stewart made the famous observation that, although he could not define pornography, he knew it when he saw it, he could not have anticipated that in 2013, academics would still be trying to figure out just what it is “in the contexts of culture, history, economy, society and the law”.
I suppose the heartening thing about this is that there must still be a vestige of shame left in academia. After all, everyone knows that these prurient pedants simply want to look at naughty magazines but at least they have the decency to erect a smoke screen of respectability to conceal their scholarly concupiscence.
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Hotel replaces Bibles with trashy novel
The hotel owner helpfully explained that, since private bedrooms are no place for Bibles, he has replaced them with tenth-rate pornography. No, I haven’t read Fifty Shades of Grey and have no intention of doing so even if its popularity does suggest that, contrary to expectations, it may actually be third-rate pornography.
Besides, I’d rather read the Song of Songs.
From here:
A hotel in England has replaced in-room bibles with the erotic bestseller “50 Shades of Grey.”
Instead of the standard Gideon bible, the owner of Damson Dene opted for the steamy novel known for its explicit sexual content because he thought it was the hospitable thing to do.
“Because everybody is reading ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ we thought it would be a hospitable thing to do, to have this available for our guests, especially if some of them were a little bit shy about buying it because of its reputation,” hotel owner Jonathan Denby told NBC News.
The hotel said it discretely stashes the bestseller in the bedside table for guests to discover –the place one reserved for the bible.
Denby told NBC he found religious books a “wholly inappropriate” choice for private bedrooms in England’s modern, secular society.
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Pornographic vegetarianism
PETA, in a flash of marketing insight, has decided that treating women as pieces of meat will prevent cows suffering a similar fate.
From here:
An animal rights group, which is no stranger to attention-grabbing campaigns featuring nude women, plans to launch a pornography website to raise awareness about veganism.
[….]
Visitors to the X-rated site will initially be presented with pornographic content as well as images from PETA’s salacious ads and campaigns, Rajt said. Those images will be followed by pictures and video shot undercover of the mistreatment of animals. The site will also include links to vegetarian and vegan — using no animal products — starter kits as well as recipes.
No doubt pornography addicts will be lining up in droves for their vegetarian starter kits.
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St. Mary's vs. Good Vibrations
From here:
AN Anglican priest is furious that a sex shop will open today, Easter Saturday, opposite his church.
Reverend Nick Wallace wants the Good Vibrations adult shop on South Rd, Clovelly Park, closed.
“I’m absolutely outraged,” Reverend Wallace said.
“We at St Mary’s feel as if we’ve been ignored and treated with contempt by not being consulted about this shop which faces directly across from our heritage cemetery and place of worship.”
The adult store, which was previously occupied by a paint shop, is within the boundary of Marion Council, but the church is within Mitcham Council’s area.
Perhaps the church should look at this as an opportunity: parade around the “adult” (that term always amuses me, since there could scarcely be a more childish view of sex than that of pornography) shop carrying placards warning the patrons of the deleterious effects of smut on their sex lives. Hand out tracts containing the four spiritual laws. Photograph people entering the store and publish the images on the church website with the offer to buy prints. Send the choir into the store to sing hymns.
The possibilities are endless.
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.xxx domains are about to arrive
Pornography is about to get its own domain suffix.
From here:
After a 10-year battle, Internet watchdog Icann has finally given in to the creation of an Internet domain dedicated to pornography.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which governs the website naming system, yesterday approved the creation of a top level ‘.xxx’ domain, opening the way for a red-light district online for pornographic websites.
Icann gave initial approval last year, but carried out further consultation checks over the application.
It is now poised to sign an agreement with the ICM Registry, which is backing the domain, allowing .xxx the same level status as .com and .org.
Religious groups argue that giving adult websites their own corner of the Internet legitimises the content.
But pornographers aren’t happy either, and worry it will ghettoise their sites.
I’m in at least three minds about this:
First, I am in favour of free speech on the Internet and that includes saying and displaying things I disagree with.
Second, I think pornography is harmful; since we are well past the stage where it can be banned, ghettoising it might be the next best thing.
Third, pornography is only a symptom of Western decay; to focus energy on its evils is to treat the symptom, not the disease. The West needs more radical medicine.
I think I’ll settle on number three, garnished with number 2.
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Amazon defends selling a book entitled “The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure”
From here:
The e-book, authored by Phillips Greaves, was published late last month, according to product details on Amazon.com. It sells for $4.79 on the company’s Kindle Store.
“This is my attempt to make pedophile situations safer for those juveniles that find themselves involved in them, by establishing certian [sic] rules for these adults to follow,” a product description reads. “I hope to achieve this by appealing to the better nature of pedosexuals, with hope that their doing so will result in less hatred and perhaps liter sentences should they ever be caught.”
Amazon is standing by the decision to sell the e-book.
“Amazon believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable,” the company said in a written statement. “Amazon does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts, however, we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions.”
In the last month or so the book has had 1737 consumer reviews on Amazon, 1688 of them negative. I rather doubt that most of the reviewers have actually read the book, but this might be a rare occasion when judging a book by its cover isn’t such a bad idea.
Our civilisation has reached a grubbily sordid point when a vendor of books feels the need to appeal to the evils of censorship to justify publishing a how-to for pedophiles by a barely literate imbecile.
I generally dislike slippery slope arguments, but this all started when I was a teenager and D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover was the subject of an obscenity trial. The book was deemed not obscene by the jury – partly because it was thought to have literary merit; the jury was wrong on both counts. I was delighted at the time since it meant I could get my hands on a copy. Lady Chatterley was rapidly followed by Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, Nexus, Plexus and Sexus – all of which I devoured with considerable interest; even then I noticed Miller’s books were marginally more literate than Lawrence’s, although that was not what had initially piqued my interest in them.
Since then, of course, our pornography has not needed redeeming features of any sort and we have – I hesitate to say struck bottom – reached a nadir: Pedophilia for Dummies.
Update: Within the last hour or so (it’s 11:19 p.m. EST), Amazon has removed the book from its site. When it was there, it looked like this:
