late night porn blogging

well, when else should you blog about porn? long rambling unorganized post ahead.

So, Winter's got a good post up, inspired by a conversation we had about the dynamics of lesbian porn in lesbian relationships. I agreed with her opinion; and personally, I think lesbian porn could facilitate as an avenue of communication or even bonding between a couple. A lesbian couple could use porn to discuss their needs and desires, explore their sexual dynamic. And it could be a way to establish shared values: talking about why one partner likes a certain genre and the other doesn't, etc. Having said that, bear in mind I've never been in a relationship that's been long enough or serious enough for the question of pornography to even arise. So, grain o' salt.

But I'd like to explore two of the points that Winter suggested:

What I am asking is whether lesbian pornography has different meanings for lesbians because:
[...]
B. lesbian pornography is produced in very different circumstances to heterosexual pornography
C. as a genre, lesbian pornography has different meanings attached to it than the meanings heterosexuals generally attach to hetero porn because the context is different and it comes from a different culture.

I like On Our Backs, but my first copy of Slit blew my mind. Here was a magazine that was deeply political, that backed up its radical aims with more than mere sound and fury. It states its mission right upfront: "sex::culture::politics::porn". Dyke sexuality as the nexus of these issues: what we like to do and why, how politics informs our sex lives and vice versa, how to create a culture that validates dyke sexuality, what role porn plays in that culture. Sure, it's centered around photos and stories of naked women in flagrante delicto, and in my not so humble opinion, it's pretty hot stuff. But that's only the beginning: next to the dirty photos are interviews with Jack Halberstam and Joan Nestle, Buck Angel (FTM transexual porn), articles about the lives of sex workers, transgender history, aboriginal queers and black Parisian lesbians, features on artists of every possible kind, activists working on all fronts. You're damn right I read porn for the articles! Slit stages events centered around each issue's theme. And they're non-profit, completely indie. From their first issue:

we are interested in considering the possibilities of creating a dialogue of sex and sexuality which is non-commodified and which takes back control over our bodies and desires rather than proscribing them. 'cause we are trying to figure out how to find an axis of liberation, cracks in the structure of capital, autonomous enclaves where we practice an economy of desire rather than capital. and cause one way to do this may be through getting sex crazy! this is a dyke sex mag. but what is dyke sex?

I eschew the labels "sex-positive" (an unhelpful term at best) and "anti-porn" and refuse to ally myself definitively with either camp. I find both "sides" (for lack of a better term) have valid arguments--why do you think I have Twisty Faster and Susie Bright next to each other on my blogroll?--but I don't think it can be boiled down to "yes porn is revolutionary!" or "no porn is evil!" I was taught to distrust any argument that uses the words "always" and "never." Slit doesn't always get it right, to my mind; there's sometimes stuff that I find uncomfortable, problematic, or downright offensive. But I don't think that invalidates their efforts. I want an avenue of dyke culture that pushes me and provokes me, makes me think, while it gets me off. I believe lesbian porn is produced in vastly different circumstances to het porn; the lesbian porn I've encountered in addition to Slit is coming from a place that's trying to challenge the status quo in the process of depicting dyke sex. Non-feminist het porn seems to be all about reiterating the values of dominance, abuse, exploitation, objectification. Of course it does, any media produced by the mainstream, the powers that be, whether it's a blockbuster Hollywood movie or a hit TV show or Girls Gone Wild is going to maintain the status quo. I would argue that even the most simplistic dyke porn is a challenge to the dominant discourses of sex, if only because it promotes visibility. Criticism of the porn industry is a worthy goal, but I think we need to do more than that. Porn is a hugely influential part of our sexual culture, and I think we all agree there are some pretty fucked up sexual mores in this day and age. What we need is people to create alternative sexual cultures, ones that challenge and deconstruct and rebuild and celebrate fucking and healthy sexual expression. That's what Slit tries to do, and while it's not always successful, its efforts have been invaluable to me. Porn like Slit magazine helped demystify lesbian sexuality and erase the shame branded into my consciousness all my life.

the problem with late night blogging is that you get too tired before you get all your thoughts out. so, that's it for now.