‘Striking a chord’ is an understatement when I think of the last article I wrote for Urbanette. The article discussed the detrimental effects of gonzo pornography (ie. the type that’s especially degrading to women, shot from the male perspective). Following its publication, my Twitter account was set ablaze with protestation, all but drowning out the voices of supporters.
Thousands upon thousands of tweets arrived in my notification box channelling – well, ‘hate’. These ranged from insults about the way I look and my supposed ‘jealousy’ of pornstars, to accusations of having been ‘kiddie fiddled’ as a child (yeah, that was a new term to me, too). Amidst all of this were the shocking threats of brutal violence; not from a few, but from many. The tweets came from porn stars themselves, like current flavor, Mercedes Carrera (who I recently became aware of); the ‘die hard’ fans (who are a law unto themselves!) and many, many very angry men (to be explained…!).
All because I spoke out against pornography.
And yet it wasn’t all bad. I was simultaneously receiving messages from both women and (a few) men who understood and supported the article’s message of exposing sex industry abuses. They elevated my spirits, lifting me out of the deep swamp of negativity. Although I felt like a moving target, I saw this backlash as opportunity. What was revealed was what we don’t usually get to see in academia. This was real-time, visceral feedback and findings on degradation-porn’s relationship to its fans.
As the days unfolded, and the varying degrees of abuse hit my inbox, I quickly realised that I had incidentally kicked a hornet’s nest. The anger conveyed was akin to a religious fundamentalist’s response after having their belief system challenged. Or the reaction you’d get after expressing support for Millwall FC at West Ham United match in the UK (they hate each other!).
For the porn fans, was it the threat of having their comfort zones examined? Had they become so accustomed to high speed vast arrays of hot babes getting dp’d that they now couldn’t live without them? The answer, technically, is yes.
You see, gonzo porn, in its full degrading technicolour glory, has created a society of helpless (but not hopeless) addicts. And this type of addiction is the same as that of a hard drug — it’s a bonafide physical dependence. Science has shown us that real neurological changes happen in the porn addict’s brain. Yes, porn actually physically changes the viewer’s brain. New neural pathways are created to accommodate the unnatural speed of arousal when viewing boundless quantities of extreme, explicit imagery.
As the porn addict slowly adapts to this unnatural, digital environment, there are consequences. Erectile dysfunction, and becoming desensitized to real sex and lovemaking, is not the least of them. You can read more about that in This is Your Brain on Porn.
Many consider pornographic actor, producer, director, Max Hardcore (AKA Paul Little) to be the father of degradation porn. Max initiated the puking, choking and fisting of women as solid codes of porn. As it turned out, demand was huge and he made millions. I find it interesting that he was brought to trial many times for child pornography distribution and obscenity, but it regularly resulted in a ‘hung jury’. We have to ask ourselves whether Max, and his love of sexualizing children and brutalizing women, struck a certain mutual approval with members of the jury, aiding him in his many acquittals. Although his influence permeates the the gonzo genre, whilst not using children in his scenes, Little often makes the actresses admit to being ‘twelve years old’ on camera. He eventually spent two and a half years in prison convicted of obscenity after extreme, degrading content relating to children and women were seized by FBI.
I guess what I expected the least was the reaction from women currently working in the sex industry. A far cry from solidarity amongst our gender, in its place arrived a show of anger and hate with declarations of how much they love sex. But it isn’t real sex that we are talking about here, it’s pretending to like porn-sex for money; more money than a working-class women could earn. Of course they pledge allegiance to an industry that will feed their kids and pay for the roof over their heads. After all, how many of us ever consider biting the hand that feeds us?
But this is the patriarchal bargain. For their mistreatment and the graphic display of their bodies, they get to buy the necessities – and a bit more.
And even if they lie about the empowerment they feel (when the truth is they hate the perving strangers), at least in bringing these issues to light, they will be forced to acknowledge the unavoidable truth: that it’s all a lie. It’s not in alignment with true liberalism at all. None of us like the perverts. It’s just a way to survive. Gonzo porn is the least liberally progressive phenomenon of our time, and as oppressive as the extremely racist speeches of the far ring-wing circa Donald Trump.
Now, read the article that sparked all the controversy: The Sex Industry, Gonzo Porn and Me…
As per my view rape is one kind of sluggish type work where one person is taking too much happiness but another person is not getting anything though it’s true that sex is always part and parcel in our life and we must have to enjoy ourselves in a proper way.
Your posts always hit the nail on the head. But not many people want to hear the truth, because their interests in the said subjects makes them feel bad about themselves, which means those people would have to express so many emotions and thoughts they would rather keep bottled up. So they may not like you for making them feel so uncomfortable. Except you have every right to make them feel uncomfortable because that’s what it takes to wake those people up into the reality of some really horrifying things which they have made themselves believe into think it’s okay.
Most people don’t like those who speak the brutal truth, especially when it crosses their comfortzone. They get what they call here “butthurt”. The first phase of butthurt is defensiveness, second phase is agressiveness and third phase is to verbally attack that honest person. That’s exactly what seems to have happened in your case.
Everybody who does a good thing has haters, as well as supporters. Your previous article showed that you have both, so you know you’re doing the right thing! 😉 Best of luck on the way to the success!
People show their truest faces when they feel endangered, offended or scared. They got all defensive and mean because you intimidate them, cause they know you’ve got a very big chance to win this battle against the porn industury. 😉
TRUTH!!! ???? Dogs only bark at those who they think is danger!! These guys fear you because the more people you reach out to, there’s a bigger risk they may lose their “precious” porn. Aww too bad for them. ? NOT!
I’m not too surprised that you got both good and bad comments regarding the topic. In my opinion porn is gross, and degrading, and I’m all for getting it banned, but some people are obsessed with it. As we all know obsession is sort of a mental illness, so those poor fellas don’t know how to react humanely when something offends them lol how sad really!
Oh those sad little men… As if their bashing was gonna stop you from doing what you know is right!
It’s Human nature. Whatever they’re stating obviously has flaws in it and i’m pretty sure they know it. They just firmly believe in it so much that any thought of it being false makes them angry. What other emotion’s do people get when their wrong? None. That’s what they’re getting for watching a lot of porno on the web.
I feel bad that you received “hate” comments. I honestly hope you received MORE support than that of insults. A question remains, how do I (or we, women) want to stop porn from spreading? Or is it really possible to stop this and create changes?
This is so true. It is amazing to me how prevalent, how acceptable, pornography have become to men and women. It makes men get wired if they watch/read too much porn. Your words are inspirational, incredibly wise, reassuring, and much needed. Thank you, Vikki!