My apologies for taking a little break. I was trying to get some work done, trying to keep my head above water. But things are okay. I'm still feeling a little green, but the initial wave of wanting has passed. Thank you to everyone who wrote me a nice little note- it was good to feel so much internet lovin'. And not that kind of internet lovin', you wierdos.
I think I'm going to bring this up on dish and spoon, but I thought this might be a good post here too. And for those of you who have strong opinions about this sort of subject, please come and comment on dish and spoon!
Sweets and I watched a foreign flick the other night- sex and lucia and we had a little conversation about pornography and the American market. There seems to be a large European market for movies that would be completely out of the American comfort zone and we weren't sure why. In this particular film there are scenes that seem so much more like what real life is like- women aren't carefully concealed so that certain parts aren't seen, men have penises that change shape, everyone isn't heartbreakingly attractive but they have nice smiles. And we both independently thought that you would never see a movie like this made in America. It seems if an American film wants to be sexy, there is a limit to how far it will go before the sex is turned into something criminal or something so tragically comical that it almost turns you off sex altogether. And then, BAM! we have hard core pornography. There's nothing in between. But European films seem to do so much better with sexual content overall.
It feels a little to me like Americans don't want to admit that they check each other out, that people are curious about each other, and once that curiousity is exposed you get lesbian porn with straight women playing the parts of women who have sex with women. And then you get a whole discourse about how sexual content is demeaning to women and paying to see such films only deepens the oppression and objectification of women.
So where's the middle ground? Why can't Americans simply enjoy watching other people get it on without the assistance of soft focus schlock or super-focused artifice?
I'm just working out my ideas about this topic, but am definitely interested in other people's thoughts on the subject. Why does openly appreciating sex turn someone into a smutty freak?
I have no answers.
