PornTastic

wow, see what happens when you don't read your comments? some entries ago, where i do believe i was having a usual baseless rant, i got a rebuttal to my random porn musing. whoot!

wherein, though, i think that my words were misconstrued. of Course sheila jefferies doesn't make tired porn arguements. she makes good ones. so do lots of people, like dworkin, and mackinnon, and and and... just now-a-days, most of the arguments are dull rehashes of what has already been said. danke for the book recommendation and url - just, er... miscontruing what i say in a blog rant is mildly irritating. but, hey, danke anyway for your interest. mainly, i think, a lot of the debate is boring. in the sense that the 'pro-porn' people throw out the line of logic that i had previously mentioned - the 'choice' debate - and i am not focussed on the nature of consent here, because that is also the point. as i said, the argument, and the point is not about how if women choose to do something, it is therefore feminist. that is stupid.
the industry is, by its very nature, based on exploitation. ta da. the end. i don't feel like debating something that seems very clear to me, or discussing it. not that it isn't important to discuss issues. just as, however, some people don't give a shit about sweatshops, or animal rights, or the environment, or child fighers, or buddhists imprisoned in china, or tibet, or the vile nature of the cosmetics industry in the west, or eating disorders, or teen suicide, or ... or... i mean, i only have so much energy to go around. i don't like porn, at all. i think it is vile. but personally, i want to fight for other things. i appreciate people fighting for awareness in porn, and the insidious nature of it. i am grateful for them. ok, but it's not me. i have only a select number of years in this blessed incarnation, and i have to pick my action causes carefully.

though, i feel jefferies tends to weaken her arguments with her tone, and a lack of sources. this isn't in relation to porn, specifically; i found her ideas on likening genital reconstruction in the west to female circumcism deeply troubling. no, not likening, i can clearly see a similarity. however, i feel to say that they are on a par is grossly exaggerated. the act of holding down little girls and cutting through the most compact area of nerves in their body with no painkillers, before the little girls have any idea what circumsicion is, is so repulsive and reprehensible that i feel sick just thinking about it. these are people with no education, in a system based entirely on religious control and economic structure. to compare that with the privileged western woman, who has benifited from a good education, and is economically stable enough to afford cosmetic surgery to her genitals for NO medical reason, under full aenesthetic, to a safe recovery is deeply, deeply problematic. we may debate the nature of choice and consent, but i have to say, her arguments of choice and consent left me feeling unconvinced that this is, in any way, an apt comparism.

still. complex matter, simple blog-statement from me. there is more to it then that.


the
tiredness
for me comes for from the pro-porn. they ain't saying anything new, or anything i agree with. like 'bad girls and dirty pictures.' it is always deeply valuable to read something you dissagree with in order to understand your own motivations more clearly. so why debate it? i ain't going to convince people who get off on porn. i've been there and done that online, and really, i don't want to sit around and re-instate my beliefs smugly with people who agree with me. and, if it is an issue i have more to learn about, and want to learn more about, then yes. but porn? i know i don't like it, and am ethically apposed to the nature of production, the industry, the basis of exploitation of women that it is largely based on. knowing more about why it is bad will not make me thing that any more. and unless someone have an amazingly grouse pro-porn argument, which i deeply doubt, i'm not about to change my mind.

the moral of the story is, i like book recommendations. and article recommendations. regardless of if i agree or disagree, or whatever. more understanding, more freedom.


and, well, more to the point, i can't get to west end on a weeknight to a women's only thing because i have no car. i might try and drag cousin nikhi to the next one. then again, i want to go to stitch and bitch tonight. or watch a film? i have a Pile. the cup! oh it looks lovely.

i am making happiness in my heart with my old halloween yarn right now, i needed a break from lace for a bit, so some repetative moss stitch is soothing me away to happyland.

today is the Melbourne Cup. this makes me both sad and angry and sick to the stomach. i hate horseracing on many levels. it's our tamer, prettier version of bullfighting.