*Sigh* Japan disappoints me again

[elfs]

Alternet is hosting this conversation between two clinical psychologists as to whether or not pornography is really harmful to its consumers or society. One of the writers says something that I found quite profound and essentially rang very true to me:

If there is one nearly universal common denominator in heterosexual porn it is that the women in it are generally portrayed as easily, constantly and powerfully sexually aroused, driven wild by whatever men want to do with and to them. For most men, this fact is crucial to their arousal, not because they're looking for a rationalization for their violent impulses but because they are guilty about feeling strong, selfish and masculine; feel overly responsible for and worried about women; and secretly believe that women are unhappy and relentlessly dissatisfied with men and their own lives. In the service of masturbation, these portrayals of "women in heat" momentarily reassure men against their fears, relieve their burdens and offer them a freedom they find lacking in relationships with real women.

That whole quote really rang true for me and I kinda hoped it was an accurate depiction of the genre. And then this morning I stumbled upon a manga this morning, a 230-page tome: Rape of the Warrior Princess, and in the lower right-hand corner it read, Volume 11. I don't find that topic particularly arousing, but... so much for the "nearly universal common denominator." It might be a common theme in Western smut, but it's hardly "universal." Not nearly.

Comments

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

I can, sort of, see how rape fantasies can connect with the claimed universal. But it's not a comforting thought. Instead of willingness, the women have to be somehow forced over some initial barrier.

Since it's a sort of fantasy I've seen produced by women, there's a lot of room to wonder if it really falls into the "most men" class. The obvious explanation is that it is a fantasy of pleasurable sexual excess without the same responsibility that comes from a free choice. There often isn't any protection, socially, from being a victim, but it works as a fantasy.

(And that freedom from responsibility may appeal to men too: look at all the pressure is to not have sex befopre marriage.)

It doesn't stop me being creeped out by some of the ways in which porn can be presented. It's not the enthusiasm, but the way in which so much, often captions rather than the actual images, still is set to diminish the status of women.

I don't think yopu need to throw around words like "ho" to make hot porn.