I for one, blame the Queen of the Wands, they’ve put the mood of rhyme in me since their vagina dentata song!

…on the note of rights, it’s really bull that the little men in the southern states of America managed to get sex toys banned. I guess the zucchini sale will go up!

The hatred that I feel for the pornographers who first decided that a jackass with a camera harassing actresses pretending to be random people on the street “Gonzo” is nearly unrivaled. I actually spent years pursuing a journalism career out of respect for Hunter Thompson’s body of work (before eventually deciding that I like procrastinating too much to get started in the business enough to goof off as he did). The hateful, utterly fake nature of it runs so contrary to what Gonzo was supposed to mean that I want to beat someone with a pool cue.

Men had to compete with women on an increasingly level playing field, in the workplace and financially. Many found, horror of horrors, they couldn’t.

“Bitches gotta pay”…

You might want to examine your assumptions about “girlfriends” and “partners” here - they may not be how said manipulators see the women in question.

I heard a caller on Dan Savage’s show the other day about to break my heart. She made sure to swear up and down that she’s as pro-porn as they come, etc. And she and her boyfriend have it on every time they do it, and that’s fine, she swears, she’s not a controlling bitch and did she mention that she’s not a controlling bitch? But what bothers her—and really, she hates to have such a horribly feminine sex-hating reaction—was that he doesn’t look at her when they’re fucking, but seems to regard her as similiar to his hand when he’s masturbating, just a slightly different feeling. She’s not a controlling bitch, though! And she feels terrible about even bringing it up, and she’s sure she’s wrong to be bothered…

Dan thankfully told her that if she’s not cool with being a masturbation aid, she can reject that. But it was sad she felt so disempowered that she didn’t feel she had a right to have sexual experiences with her boyfriend that involved her actually being a part of the sex.

Amanda, what is your point in this post: is it to raise cultural awareness of the fact that porn has become more blatantly misogynistic? or is it a call for political action - an enforcement of obscenity laws or a the creation of a newer version of the Minneapolis Civil-Right Ordinance?

Bah-wah?- I agree, which is why I mentioned it. I have seen some very straight lesbian porn for men, but I have never seen anything abusive in them (though I bet its out there, and I know there is female dom-female sub porn out there). It seems like the “lesbian” porn is marketed towards couples as less threatning to the relationship.

Including a makeup artist who finally quit, because it was too disturbing to refresh makeup after every shot after it had been cried off by the actresses.

Except for the actresses who had already blown their day’s pay on well, blow, in order to make it through.

Statistically, most sex workers had been sexually abused as children. It’s unsettling that basic betrayal and debasement is not only being reenacted, but that debasement porn is becoming the norm.

For instance, one woman who was a makeup artist for porn films, but couldn’t take it after a certain point.

She’d have to refresh makeup after every scene because the actresses had cried off — and those who weren’t sobbing on set, were on drugs, so that they’d blow whatever they were paid in order to get through that scene.

I’ve been on the planet over a half century, worked as a journalist, live in Los Angeles, and have heard a lot of stories, and have read more than enough on feminist topics.

So I’m also aware that sex workers were, in high numbers, sexually abused as children. That debasement and betrayal of trust is being played out again in their porn work, and it’s unsettling to realize that debasement porn is becoming the norm.

But is not the reality just as important as the film product in talks about porn? After all, the whole point of discussions like this on porn is the real harm it does to women (and to men, obviously, though in different ways). It’s not evil by itself, and it doesn’t exist in a vacuum — it is both symptomatic of and contributing to a violent women hating culture.