I attended the Price of Pleasure by dir. Chyng Sun and Miguel Picker last night with the Director Q&A session in the thompson center. That is why I had to leave class early last night to make it across campus by the music hall at 7pm. The documentary is all about the pornography industry and how it objectifies women. Professor Robert Jenson is a professor from UT who has been following and analyzing the pornography industry from a feminist perspective for over 10 years. He was in the movie and also at the screening. So basically, the pornography industry has gone from being in the back alleys and dark crevices of America, into accepted mainstream America. Porn Stars are glamorized and have been interviewed by every major media outlet. An interesting fact I was unaware of was that these same major media outlets such as ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, HBO, Showtime, etc. all profit (in the millions) annually from the pornography industry. This could help to explain the recent emergence of porn into the mainstream media; it's simple cross-promotion. The Doc then went into how the pornography industry objectifies women. Most porn stars have little to no education, and are basically forced into prostitution/stripping/pornography as a viable alternative to making money to support themselves. They could make more in a day at a pornography shoot than they could make all month as a waitress or at any other entry-level job position. Pornography filmmakers take advantage of that and force these girls to act and fake pleasure in their films, while the girl is often extremely not happy to say the least. She just does it because it is a job. The filmmakers often make these girls do "fantasy" type things that are far beyond normal sexual acts. This causes some pornography consumers own sex lives to be extremely twisted and perverted, usually destroying their relationships with their wives and girlfriends. The industry makes over a billion dollars a year. All in all this was definitely an interesting documentary that I would recommend to anyone in the class. Mahalo
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
The Price of Pleasure
I attended the Price of Pleasure by dir. Chyng Sun and Miguel Picker last night with the Director Q&A session in the thompson center. That is why I had to leave class early last night to make it across campus by the music hall at 7pm. The documentary is all about the pornography industry and how it objectifies women. Professor Robert Jenson is a professor from UT who has been following and analyzing the pornography industry from a feminist perspective for over 10 years. He was in the movie and also at the screening. So basically, the pornography industry has gone from being in the back alleys and dark crevices of America, into accepted mainstream America. Porn Stars are glamorized and have been interviewed by every major media outlet. An interesting fact I was unaware of was that these same major media outlets such as ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, HBO, Showtime, etc. all profit (in the millions) annually from the pornography industry. This could help to explain the recent emergence of porn into the mainstream media; it's simple cross-promotion. The Doc then went into how the pornography industry objectifies women. Most porn stars have little to no education, and are basically forced into prostitution/stripping/pornography as a viable alternative to making money to support themselves. They could make more in a day at a pornography shoot than they could make all month as a waitress or at any other entry-level job position. Pornography filmmakers take advantage of that and force these girls to act and fake pleasure in their films, while the girl is often extremely not happy to say the least. She just does it because it is a job. The filmmakers often make these girls do "fantasy" type things that are far beyond normal sexual acts. This causes some pornography consumers own sex lives to be extremely twisted and perverted, usually destroying their relationships with their wives and girlfriends. The industry makes over a billion dollars a year. All in all this was definitely an interesting documentary that I would recommend to anyone in the class. Mahalo
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18 comments:
"Most porn stars have little to no education, and are basically forced into prostitution/stripping/pornography as a viable alternative to making money to support themselves. They could make more in a day at a pornography shoot than they could make all month as a waitress or at any other entry-level job position. Pornography filmmakers take advantage of that and force these girls to act and fake pleasure in their films, while the girl is often extremely not happy to say the least. She just does it because it is a job."
Can you, or anyone else, prove that statement? I am guessing no, because you know what? No one every really bothers to ask the women (women, mind you, not "girls") in porn what they actually think about it. Including, according to those women themselves, Jensen and the film makers. The interviews with Annie Cruz and Joanna Angel you see in TPoP? HOURS worth wittled down to scant seconds- the scant seconds the makers of this film wanted to use...film makers who are, for all claims that their film is fair, honest, and unbiased, anti-pornography.
If you actually want to know about women in porn, ask or listen to them-not a people who make money and build academic creds via talking about how poor, uneducated, hopeless and helpless are. You might start by looking at people such as Mika Tan, Nina Hartley, Aurora Snow & Tera Patrick.
Very interesting comment.
I admire your passion evolution, would you like to be in my next movie?
Mike:
In some circles, TPoP is being called the 21st century equivalent of “Reefer Madness”. If you do a little research on the consultants you will find that Jensen et al. are rabid anti-porn people. In addition, all of the comments you saw were cherry picked specifically to make the interviewees look bad. This film is anything but unbiased.
Mike, you have been invited to read some comments from “the other side”. It would be well worth your time to go and read.
link
Regards,
Outis
I'd have to know what the heck you are talking about film wise to even ponder that request.
I'm interested in seeing this documentary. Do you know if and when it will be screened again?
There is also a genre called "feminist porn" where women direct and control the filmmaking.
"There is also a genre called "feminist porn" where women direct and control the filmmaking."
Actually, Jensen and the producers of TPoP are very much against that, too.
i own it pruitt, if you would like to borrow it. I decided to buy it at the screening
For real?
So then, here we have it, direct evidence of anti-porn people profiting from pornography they did not make, which does not bother with consent or notification of the performers in it, for which neither the performers or the orginial producers and owners of the material are compensated in any way. And oh yeah, 2257 anyone? Congrats, they are now illegal pornographers...scum worse than me, even!
I wonder, do people buying it get carded before purchase?
way to go mike, you've brought outside people to our blog. i never gave much thought to the moral issues of the porn industry. my understanding of behind the scenes pornography comes from boogie nights, dated, not to mention, fictional. maybe i should watch this severely anti-porn doc and see one side of it. i like it's comparison to reefer madness.
Well actually Jensen and the others aren't profiting from it, renegade. There was a local book company there who I purchased the film from, and Jensen said 100% of the profits are donated to Safe Place which is a rape hotline. As for the carding of consumers, I am not sure. I saw the film at a screening here at The University of Texas at Austin and everyone there was a college student.
Mike: Legally, it does not matter WHO is profiting from it. The law is about 'profit from the sale of pornographic material', and it does not matter where that money goes. A pornographer could make a film and donate all the profits from it to a charity, the law still applies.
really? that is a hardcore law! Hopefully Barack can do something about that!
An actual discussion on our blog! Very insightful.
wow, outsiders, amazing...
I'd be interested in seeing this doc. I've never heard of it before, but controversy is one of the best ways to get more people to see a film.
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