reasons porn may suck

[keryx]

Naomi Wolf thinks it demystifies sex and makes real people confusing.

Feministe expands on Wolf's examination of college boys and the collegiate environment.

And I think it all too often furthers the message that there's some way you personally aren't hot enough. Or, for that matter, that you need to be hot. Cause we needed to hear that one again.

[Note that by "pornography" I mean any sold representation of sex, including advertising.]

Comments

[attrice.livejournal.com]

I think attacking porn for making women feel less desirable or for making men want unrealistic, porn star women is not the strongest argument against it. I think the fact that porn is basically prostitution with a camera, that it reduces women to convenient holes for fucking, and that many women in the industry are harmed physically and psychologically by making it are much more compelling arguments. I liked "The Beauty Myth" but I think Wolf's problem is that she often doesn't see the forest for the trees. I mean, the whole, head-scarf=mystery thing. Well, why not just force women into wearing floor-length skirts again. Then legs would be mysterious and men would be under their erotic spell. Bullshit.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I don't think this is Naomi Wolf's whole position on porn. It's just one of her weekly columns - much like a blog post, it's more "I just learned this thing and here's my expansion upon it" than "this is the entirety of the problem with porn".

Her use of the analogy of other culture's attitudes towards sexuality wasn't effective, though. A BOOK on other cultures and sex might be, but in this case it ends up making her argument sound too much like "waaah - sex isn't mysterious enough".