Complete waste of time
Those are the words I choose to describe the porn debate this evening. I was a fool thinking that it would actually be a rational discourse. It mostly involved a bunch of college age guys yelling obscenities at the woman from NOW. Now granted, I didn't agree with her point of view, but these guys were openly hostile. Also, there were tons of people there using their cell phones to play games or IM. That's okay with me, but why bother being there if that's all your going to do. I watched a girl in front of me play tetris for over 30 minutes. The thing that pissed me off the most was that there was a guy an isle behind us that not only was talking on his cell phone, he had the walkie talkie feature so we could hear the other person he was talking to. I immediately shot him a dirty look. When he didn't get that hint, I turned around and told him to take his fucking phone outside. He looked at me like I was from Mars....completely incredulous that I would dare say that to him. As I posted on Heather's blog, I can't stand people who use cell phones at innapropriate times and places. I literally wanted to pistol-whip him with his phone. I was that mad. Am I crazy? (yeah, I know I am), is there no sense of courtesy left in this world? So, there's that. As for the debate itself, it was piss poor. The opening statements were good, the lady actually was very well organized and well spoken. Poor Ron, on the other hand, was not. He just winged it. At that point they opened up the floor to questions. This is when all the yelling started. Most people didn't have questions...they just wanted their chance to rip this chick to shreds. Out of all the questions....only one person called on Ron to defend his position...and her question was lame. She stated that most people that end up in porn were abused when they were younger. Ron countered by saying that hardly anyone he knew had that kind of upbringing. The girl asking the question just scoffed at that, but who knows more about the porn industry? Some young college girl, or a guy who has been making films for almost 30 years? The same form of naivete or unwillingness to accept the truth also was apparent in the female NOW speaker. First, she postulated that women involved in porn had no choice in their decision based on things that may have happened during their life...I say bullshit, just like the post on homeless people....people always have some sort of choice (even if it isn't as varied as a priviliged suburban white boy such as me). Ron countered by saying that, yes, they have a choice. Many women choose porn as a good way to make money. The NOW lady (I don't remember her name) said that they didn't make good money, and not near as much as men. In actuality, women in porn are paid a lot more than the men. Ron fired back by saying an "average" woman porn star makes about 100k a year. I don't know about you...but that sounds like pretty good money to me. So, it goes round and round in circles like this for about 1 and a half hours...I was bored to tears. I actually had respect for the woman starting out, but that quickly diminished. The thing that cinched it for me was this...in her opening statement she said she was against censoring porn, she just hope to educate people as to how porn is exploitive and derogatory of women so that eventually people would just stop watching it. I don't think she really understands why people enjoy porn. That sounded good to me, that she was at least against censorship. However, later on someone posed the question about gay porn. I should mention here that this woman is a lesbian. So, she says that gay porn is a good thing because it exposes people to an alternative lifestyle. That was all I could take. What a hypocritical bitch. Am I to understand that straight porn exploits people that have no choice but that gay porn is okay and that it's all consensual and loving? What a crock of shit. Now, it may sound like I'm raking this woman over the coals because I don't agree with her viewpoint. It's true, I don't agree with her viewpoint, but her arguements were flimsy, hypocritical, and she constantly dodged questions and backpeddled. Not to say that Ron Jeremy did any better. The only thing he had going for him was his fame, and the fact that he knows the business on a more personal level than his opponent. Ron didn't have any well thought out points. Like I said before, he just winged it. I left having less respect for Ron Jeremy, and no respect for his opponent at all. Like the title says...I considered it a complete waste of time. I'm much more looking forward to the True/False film festival this weekend. I went to get tickets at lunch today (they went on sale at noon) so that we would have a chance this year to actually get tickets to the shows we want to see. I figured it would be an easy in and out. Boy was I wrong...apparently the festival has gotten huge in just 3 years. People were coming here from out of state to see the movies. I ended up standin in line for an hour and 20 minutes to get tickets. The good news is that we got tickets to all the shows we wanted to see. Over the weekend Jade and I will be seeing 8 movies and a concert. It should be a kick-ass time. Last year was awesome, and we didn't even get to see the movies that we really were interested in. That's all for now...it's 11:15. More to come this weekend.
posted by jason @ 8:30 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Susan Cole is her name. She's not from the NOW in the U.S., she's the editor of NOW Magazine in Canada.
Yes, I think she totally undercut the argument when it came out at the end in response to a question (rather than in her opening remarks) that she has more of a "tolerance" for gay porn, while the entire night, she was saying it was ALL harmful as far as the suble messages it sends with regards to women and power, etc. At least Ron made the distinction between legal and illegal (i.e. kiddie porn, S&M, etc.). I think if she had presented that from the beginning and even looked at the differences in gay/straight films in power structures and gender issues she would not have come out sounding like such a hypocrite. It is not realistic to think that the demand will ever diminish (which is what she wanted, rather than censorship). I do agree with her, though, that women need more positive models for sexuality in between right-wing Christians who want to squelch any sort of free discussion, and the Jenna Jamesons of the world.
~Jade
It's too bad that the NOW lady didn't have a better chance to expose even more of their hypocricy.
What has happened in the last 50 years that has made people become totally disrespectful of other people in settings where respect was once a prerequisite for attending? It's only proper to be respectful to extreme minorities (such as gays) and other groups who DEMAND to be respected.
Jason, you MUST respect the stupid people using their cell phones during a debate because they have a RIGHT to use their cell phones during a debate.
It's too bad the porn industry couldn't come up with somebody better than Ron Jeremy to lead their side. Jenna Jameson would have been an infinitely better choice. She's a very smart lady, and has proven herself to be that on many occasions.
it's too bad that NOW woman said anything about gay porn. have any of you ever SEEN gay porn?
I'm assuming she's probably talking about gay WOMEN porn, which is completely different from gay men porn.
Gay men, are still men. The are still infatuated with visuals, think about sex every 7 seconds, and have 'no time for love, dr. jones' - so to speak. So gay porn is just like straight porn, in that it has extremely hot guys with huge cocks doin' it like rabbits.
Lezzie porn (that i've seen) and straight women porn is completely different. there is an actual story line. there is acting (although bad), and costumes. Most times, there is also romance involved. Not just "STICK IT IN!" stuff (to quote Margaret Cho). So it sounds like she's never even seen gay porn, but more SOFT porn you would find on The L Word. That sucks.
But i know what you mean about people an cell phones. i worked at a Texaco all through college, and wouldn't help the customers if they came up to the counter on their cells. i politely waited until they told their calls 'to hold'. it always made me smile.
They actually make lesbian porn for lesbian women?
I can't imagine the market is very big for that sort of thing.
How was the movie festival??
It was very cool. I know that Jason has not had time to post because we're trying to get the bathroom redone and our jobs are both sucking major ass right now.
Highlights:
"The Devil & Daniel Johnston," about a musician/artist who signed his first record deal while in a mental hospital. Some call him a genious, but he can't even live alone.
"This Film is not Yet Rated," which reveals how deliberately mysterious the MPAA is in discussing who their raters are or how their rating system even works. Funny and scary.
"Awesome; I Fuckin Shot This," a Beastie Boys Madison Square Garden concert where they gave hand held cameras to 50 fans in the audience and cut it all together.
"Homemade Hillbilly Jam" about a great bluegrass band, Big Smith, and their Ozark influences. They performed afterwards.
Overall, it's a cool atmosphere and you see people of all ages. I heard there were 10,000 people here overall. And, it's not pretensious, so you may sit right next to the filmmaker whose film you just came from seeing. They bring in directors from all over the world to come answer questions and speak on panels.
~Jade
where was it held? sounds AWESOME!!!!
It was right here in downtown Columbia...Thursday through Sunday. I stood in line for an hour and 20 minutes to get tickets opening day and managed to get all the shows we wanted to see, except the documentary about the history of the f-word. The other movies we saw besides the one Jade mentioned:
Why We Fight: about the military industrial complex
What's Up Docs? A bunch of local animated features.
The Underworld Cinema of JX Williams: a lecture about a weird director in the 1960's...we cut out of that one early.
The other cool things about the festival is that every show has live music before the movie starts. Also, the directors take questions from the audience after the picture. Jade is right about the down-homey feel. A lot of the directors were in the audience of the same films we saw. Unfortunately, MCA of the Beastie Boys wasn't able to come...he is busy in New York shooting additional footage for the movie. He directed "Awesome, I fucking shot that!". Speaking of that movie...man, the Beastie Boys friggin rock in concert. I was blown away by their energy...especially since they are all about 40.
The thing that sucked about the festival was that it was hard to choose what movie to see. There were a lot of good movies showing at exactly the same time at different locations, so we missed some that I really wanted to see.
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