Welcome to NSFW Sunday! Let’s get you out of those pants.
+ Sometimes public nudity is all it takes to be comfortable with being naked. In Marie Claire, Fernanda Moore writes about her first experiences nude in public, and body acceptance:
“She moved slowly toward her boyfriend, who was lying on a blanket. As she walked, water ran down the curves of her body; when she realized her boyfriend was watching, she struck a pose. She was confident and gorgeous, and she was, by conventional beauty standards, at least 75 pounds overweight.
I imagined this woman shopping for a bathing suit, frustrated by what society insists are body flaws, trying to find a suit that flattered her magnificent, uncelebrated form. Fact is, such a suit doesn’t exist: The fashions we aspire to wear flatter no one but the perfectly toned. And the majesty of this woman’s body would be rendered absurd if she stuffed herself into a brightly colored suit. She looked like a Renaissance goddess — to cover her up would be like spray-painting over a work of art. I suddenly felt silly about how much I worry about what I look like in bed — cellulite, muffin top, small breasts — and I realized that here, on the naked beach, the only thing I wanted to change were my tan lines, which immediately marked me as an amateur.”
+ In a review of Catherine Hakim’s Honey Money: The Power of Erotic Capital, Abigail Ross-Jackson argues that:
“On modern-day, Western feminism Hakim really hits the nail on the head when she says that ‘Feminist theory often erects a false dichotomy: either a woman is valued for her human capital (her brains, education, work experience and dedication to her career) or she is valued for her erotic capital (her beauty, elegant figure, dress style, grace and charm). Women are not encouraged to do both.’
Indeed, modern-day feminists tend to be incredibly squeamish about the idea that women can be quite comfortable using their feminine wiles to get ahead while at the same time remaining fully aware that they are not defined solely by this aspect of themselves.”
Ross-Jackson also says that while a large part of the book is taken up by less-than-stellar arguments about “erotic capital,” which seems to consist of a variety of factors summed up by the opinion the male gaze might have of them, Hakim also makes several interesting, if not novel, arguments about sex work: specifically, that prohibiting it makes as much sense as Prohibition, and that viewing all sex workers as victims is not productive.
+ In Scarlet Road: A Sex Worker’s Journey, director Catherine Scott follows three years in the life of Rachel Wotton, a sex worker who has disabled clients almost exclusively. It also looks at the experiences of two of her clients: John, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and Mark, who has cerebral palsy. According to Scott:
“People with disability are not seen as sexual beings and on the other hand sex workers are often portrayed as oversexed, victims or damaged goods. I really wanted to tackle these stereotypes head on. It was a delicate balance. I wanted to show the touch and intimacy, without objectifying Rachel or her clients and reveal the sexual tenderness without titillating or shocking the audience.”
An interview with Scott, and the trailer, are available on SBS.
+ Lady Gaga will be very naked in January’s issue of Vanity Fair.
+ Katrien Jacobs’ People’s Pornography: Sex and Surveillance is a look at the results of a two-year study on online hookups and porn in Hong Kong and China. Jacobs, who was a media professor at a university in China, conducted her study by joining Adult Friend Finder. According to Amazon:
“Since its establishment in 1949, the People’s Republic of China has upheld a nationwide ban on pornography, imposing harsh punishments on those caught purchasing, producing, or distributing materials deemed a violation of public morality. A provocative contribution to Chinese media studies by a well-known international media researcher, People’s Pornography offers a wide-ranging overview of the political controversies surrounding the ban, as well as a fascinating glimpse into the many distinct media subcultures that have gained widespread popularity on the Chinese Internet as a result. Rounding out this exploration of the many new tendencies in digital citizenship, pornography, and activist media cultures in the greater China region are thought-provoking interviews with individuals involved.
A timely contribution to the existing literature on sexuality, Chinese media, and Internet culture, People’s Pornography provides a unique angle on the robust voices involved in the debate over about pornography’s globalization.”
+ Travelling with some sex toys is OK. Travelling with a car full of them will get you a three-hour search:
“The four custom guys stifled giggles as they spent the next half hour pulling my car apart looking for… for what, semi-automatic weapons disguised as Rabbit Pearl vibrators? Cocaine-injected dildos?
When they were satisfied I didn’t in fact have a trunk full of illegal French ticklers or whatever it was they were looking for, they sent me on my way.”
+ It is OK to be a feminist and watch whatever kind of porn you like:
“It’s no surprise that a feminist like yourself would use “demeaning smut” as an escape — in fact, it’s exactly the sort of sexual cliché that one should expect. That’s right, I just called your deepest, darkest, most embarrassing fantasies cliché – but this means you’re not alone: The majority of us find an erotic charge in the forbidden. Not only is porn generally a lightning rod for controversy in feminism, but you’ve fixated on a genre that graphically represents the very concerns that the movement devotes itself to: exploitation, degradation, objectification — and so many other troubling “–ations.” There’s more friction, more heat there for you than for someone who thinks that sexual inequality is no big thing.”
For excellent queer porn that won’t upset your sense of feminism, check out the Crash Pad series, which I can’t recommend enough. Also they have lots of previews!
+ Melissa Ferrick’s “Drive” sounds exactly like lesbian sex, and if you didn’t hear it in the I Kissed a Gay Girl and I Loved It playlist, you need to listen to it immediately:
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