Blockbusting Pornography

   Pornography has been a huge industry for the last few decades! Whether we like to admit it or not this industry has made millions of dollars and more and more people are feeling the stigma of Porn fade away. Some see porn as taboo, but many are loosening up to the idea that it has become so main stream that it has become a part of everyday life.
   Many people criticize porn and fail to take into account how race, gender, religion, and orientation affect the conditions in which adult porno content is viewed and shaped. Both authors Taormino and Serano talk about the exploits of porn and how many women (especially feminists) started their careers, first as activists for the feminist movement, and later found as pornographers. In some cases these transformations from fem to porn was merely a means of integrating their practices. By being able to lay claim to your own body and how it is portrayed/viewed allows for more control. A quote  from a young kindergartner in response to to her teachers protest to her "inappropriate" t-shirt is probably one of the best quotes from a rising feminist, claiming "If a woman can't decide what to do with her own body, how can she possibly be in control of the rest of her life?"  It is thinking like this that allows us to break away from ideologies that help shape mainstream society and give negative connotations on things like pornography and BDSM. How are we to even see other sexual practices, that are societally seen as harmful, shameful, or disrespectful, as normal or in a different light when we can't be in control of our own bodies? We can't begin to have objective view points instead of subjective ideas of other practices if we can't be in control of our own thoughts, acts, bodies, and desires.
  If pornography is practiced in safe form then does this help take away any more of the stigma that comes along with the act? Many mainstream and not so mainstream porno producers require safe practice from their workers. Some even go as far as requiring physical exams and blood tests to allow for the safety and ease of mind for their workers. In Taormino's book "The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure" she talks about women starting their porn careers from getting early life experiences from their feminist practicing mothers. Many of the women who starred in pornography did so because they needed money, but did not feel bad about doing so because they quickly learned the values of knowing owning their own bodies.  Nude photo shoots sometimes developed into solo video shoots with masturbation being portrayed as art when the camera is focused on the face, but as porno when the camera is pointed at the crotch. The pay checks become fatter and their ability to perform becomes even more enhanced because of these paychecks.
  It becomes easy to see the similarities in porn and feminist movements when we start to look at how liberating the body can become a means to liberating our minds. When we realize that society doesn't control our minds and patriarchal ideologies can be broken then we see that we own our own bodies are also our own and we can do as we please with them. Working in the porn industry doesn't have to carry a stigma with it. Millions if not Billions of people view porn and do so in the comfort of their own homes . So why can't we stop making those who work in the industry feel as if their jobs aren't worth anything at all.
 

Role Play For Your Sex Life!

   Many people do not understand race play, BDSM, or other "kink community" acts and beliefs. This is mainly because many people become comfortable with the mundane and are afraid of experimenting outside of what is viewed as normal. It is even harder to understand why feminists would want to partake in any of these acts that may put them in a submissive position, even though its sexually submissive. How is it that one may want to be controlled and dominated when this is exactly what they have been fighting against?
   There are many different forms of race play that put someone in a higher dominating position. This type of interaction overlaps with BDSM and can be taken in to consideration in a similar manner. A lot of the time the bottom, or submissive person, in these relationships is usually someone that has been put in a submissive poison in the "real world". Many time people who have had to fight for equality and rights end up wanting to be placed in the same position in their sex lives because it becomes easier for them to work through their emotions. By being beat and making physical pain, which can be derived from emotional pain,  turn into pleasure, allows for some to interpret and express those emotions in ways that are very different form internally oppressing certain feelings. This, in turn, becomes a means of therapeutic intervention. It allows for people to turn pain into pleasure.
  In contrast to my earlier statements, race play can be a means to contradict the everyday hardships of life and can be a means of escaping the struggles one may have to experience. For example, black women are viewed as being "tough"  or "hard" or "strong" and by being dominated in the practice of BDSM or any type of "play" allows for a role reversal. It gives them a way to feel like they can release and not be so tough. Giving up power is sometimes exhilarating and can allow for transformation.
  Sex and penetration can become mundane and even boring for some people. Role play spices up sexual relations and makes it more dynamic. People are able to experiment with roles that are not typical to their everyday lives. This can become empowering and can help to release endorphins during role play and make for a more provocative and sensual stimulation. White privilege can become erased in race play! Black domination can be sexual subjugation! Subordination can become desirable and fantasy becomes less abstract!
 

Super Sized Sex.

    The way that we have been brought up in life has a lot to with another topic that I have already blogged about. Media has had its dirty little hands in shaping our minds since its inception. The weekly ad mags and daily tv commercials help to distort our perspectives of our neighbors and selfs.
We as Americans strive to look like supermodels and gym trainers and when we don't reach these goals we are forced to feel horrible about ourselves.
  The idea that we must feel like horrible people if we don't live up to someone else's standards seems a bit contrite, in and of itself. Lets go ahead and make someone who weighs more,  is too short, or not the right fit, feel like shit just because they don't live up to what "society" thinks is beautiful. Isn't this kind of thinking elitist and didn't it bring about the practice of eugenics and World War I? So lets take a look at how we are shaping our society and possibly raising our selves and our children into little monsters that don't respect others. Lets take a look at how we treat big bodied people and lets talk about sex!!!!!!!!!
    What is it about large bodied people that we as a society feel that is so taboo? Why does one body type alertly make us feel uncomfortable when exposed nude?  It's because of the we way we are brought up that we believe that the only way to be sexy is to be thin (and if you're a guy, tall). For Americans this seems a bit unacceptable because two thirds of all us are overweight. So that means that two thirds of us feel guilty and wrong about our own body types? Thats insane! So why don't  we  start to utilize the media, advertisement, and entertainment to our own advantage. Why don't we make ourselves feel good for once instead of blaming ourselves for eating something that we desire?  Why don't we engage in healthy sex and not feel dehumanized for it?
   In the show the Homeland their is a scene where the main character has sex with a "fat" woman. The shocking part about this is that the scene is made to seem entirely honest and that both parties are doing this with no hesitations or strings attached. I say shocking because what we see normally in scenarios such as this is what follows this scene, where the couple goes out to breakfast and gets harassed by a couple of douche bags about a rather attractive fit man and fat (yet attractive) woman being together. This is a problem with society! Where men feel that they can harass someone because they aren't what society feels is Beautiful!
   As a collective we can start to feature more "normal" and larger sized people to replace models in advertising and in movies. Yes this may put out some  models from working such hard and long work hours, but don't you think this is the ticket to resetting our societies vision of what beauty is? Can't everyday people be beautiful? Yes we can and Yes we are!