Saturday 5 March 2011

An Opportunity Too Good To Pass Up…

I wasn’t going to bother with blogging about Jacqui Smith’s latest tawdry scheme to get her name in the media and thereby in the public eye, mainly because others, like the Grim Reaper, have already produced superb posts, and also because it felt like shooting fish in a barrel.

But then I read this, and I was unable to resist the temptation to take a bead on this particular Eptatretus goliath after all:
Eyeing my fellow passengers on the Tube heading for the Erotica show at Olympia last November, I wondered just what I was letting myself in for. BBC Radio 5 Live had asked me to make a documentary about the UK porn industry, so where better to start than its trade fair?
No better place to start, Jacqui? Are you sure?

It’s chock full of gems, actually, especially when Jacqui Does Pornstars:
I didn't expect to find much in common with those who make and act in porn films, but they were surprisingly honest and friendly.
Yeah. Like politicians, eh, love?
There is a gender pay gaprefreshingly, women earn more than men.
Oooh, does that conform to EU rulings, Jacqui?
Of course I understand that I was talking to those at the most "legitimate" end of the industry. I know from experience that there are many other women in the broader sex industry who are far from willing participants.
How many? I notice you don’t put a number on it. Is that because all the numbers produced so far have been, shall we say, massaged? And there's no happy ending (for you and your ilk)?
However, in the documentary, both philosopher Alain de Botton and relationship counsellor Simone Bienne make the important point that it is precisely because porn is so physically pleasurable that it can lead to addiction and a blurring of reality and fantasy. Pornography could be likened to gambling or alcohol or even shopping. A small amount can be fun and probably not too damaging.
Shopping..?!?
But the easy availability of porn for people who might already have other problems in their lives can lead to addiction, damaged relationships, distorted views of sex and dangerous attitudes towards women.
Only towards women. Never towards men. Has Jacqui not bothered with any gay porn?
Despite the claims of realism in the UK porn industry, the stories never show women really liberated or powerful.
As I pointed out to the porn director who showed me a film set based in a hospital ward, why are there never any women consultants or senior administrators in the hospital scenarios?
You want to see a quota system there? Have you been sharing your experiences with Harriet?
I favour an approach which means you have to positively opt in to have porn coming into your home. I'm pleased that Government ministers are taking this seriously, but I wonder how long we can wait for voluntary action from internet service providers.
I’d hope the coalition’s answer would be ‘We can wait a lot, lot longer than your lot ever did!’ but I suspect there’s a fag-paper’s difference between you…
The current regulatory framework covers DVDs and pay-per-view TV. It doesn't work in an era of free internet and smartphones.
And most people view that as a good thing. One less thing you interfering control-freak NuPuritans have managed to gain control over..
The drinks industry set up and funds the Portman Group to promote responsible alcohol marketing and sensible drinking.
There's a real opportunity for some social responsibility from the porn industry. Why not fund some real sex education in our schools, promote some safe sex messages and invest in relationship counselling for those who really can't tell the fantasy from reality?

Who wants to take the lead?
'Take the lead'? Just what sort of films have you been watching anyway?

21 comments:

Woman on a Raft said...

Why not fund some real sex education in our schools,

And what exactly have they been doing since 1997, during which they have pushed umpteen million hours of sex education in schools. Was that not the real deal, then?

Nothing to do with them, honest, guv.

Katabasis said...

That's it. We're beyond self-satire now - it's gone into the realm of hallucinagenic drug experiences now.

She complains of the industry that there are "never any women consultants or senior administrators in the hospital scenarios"

If this torrent of insanity from our corporatist class continues I think I may well soon be going out in a rain of gunfire.

Mr Ecks said...

Smith is a fat, stupid cow who, in a just universe, would be begining her sentence in Cell block H or ,better still, Abu G.

microdave said...

"Never show women really liberated or powerful."

"Who wants to take the lead?"

I'm sure if she really looks there are plenty of films with women dominating men!


And NO, I may be a wimp, but I don't subscribe to that sort of thing...

gildas said...

Increasingly bizarre...Am I taking mind altering drugs without knowing it?

Ian B said...

Well, I don't think Jacqui will like my depiction of hospital life then.

Link is very NSFW. Sorry about the self promotion, won't do it again.

Probably.

Seriously, the problem with lefties- and indeed social conservatives- is they just hate things like porn because it's market led. It provides what people want, not what the great and good think they should want. In particular it doesn't preach, and all puritans believe that all media should be preaching, presenting an approved ideal to the readers/viewers etc.

It's like, romance fiction. It's not realistic. It's not meant to be realistic. Romance readers don't want realistic drama. They want a fantasy. Puritans just can't comprehend that.

Stewart Cowan said...

You probably are without knowing it, Gildas. Just about everything else seems to be in the water.

P.S. Watching too much (i.e. any) telly has the same effect as taking mind-altering drugs.

Before you know it, you're believing those party political broadcasts and voting LibLabCon again...

Joe Public said...

".....the stories never show women really liberated or powerful."

As MD comments, Jacqui must have missed the FemDom category. Perhaps Richard gets enough of that at home.

Captain Haddock said...

Jacqui Smith .. a typical living, breathing example of why Porn was invented in the first place ..

Mjolinir said...

I see her as more of a Neoclinus blanchardi - just check out the mouth - the attitude to rivals - and the 'common name'
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=3520


@Joe - //As MD comments, Jacqui must have missed the FemDom category.//

But you misunderstand. Those films actually show men degrading women (by paying them to dress up and do such NOORTY things)

Mjolinir said...

I see her as more of a Neoclinus blanchardi - just check out the mouth - the attitude to rivals - and the 'common name'
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=3520


@Joe - //As MD comments, Jacqui must have missed the FemDom category.//

But you misunderstand. Those films actually show men degrading women (by paying them to dress up and do such NOORTY things)

Captain Haddock said...

Ian B said ...

"Well, I don't think Jacqui will like my depiction of hospital life then" ...

"Jaxtraw" eh ? .. so that's what the weasel is up to these days is it ?

Ian B said...

"Jaxtraw" eh ? .. so that's what the weasel is up to these days is it ?

Heh. I chose the name way back when I first got on the internet and wanted to post some cartoons to Usenet. I was trying to think up a cute internet 'nym, and a recent Question Time featuring Straw pontificating about "cleaning up the filth on TV" came to mind. Now all these years later I'm kind of stuck with it :)

Jiks said...

What a load of bollocks, if you will pardon the expression.

A friend of mine used to work in the adult entertainment business and she certainly was not abused or manipulated into that career choice.

She thought it was absolutely hilarious that she was paid insane amounts of money to pursue her favourite hobby, which was shagging any man, woman or electrical device she could lay her hands on. A few years later she had very nice flats in London, LA and Lisbon all paid for.

A choice between that and working in a call centre, the latter I think is more of an abusive environment.

Captain Haddock said...

No personal offence intended Ian .. it just struck me as amusing ..

I'm not a great fan of the "Manga" style .. but as something of an amateur artist myself (my stuff is in a totally different genre), I applaud your drawing skills, if the illustrations are hand drawn .. as opposed to being computer generated ..

Ian B said...

Captain Haddock-

Well, it's all hand drawn on a graphics tablet, wiv a stylus. In photoshop. After I got a computer that could do graphics, late 90s, I soon realised that paper was a thing of the past, for me anyway, and stopped drawing on it. But nothing's drawn by the computer if you see what I mean.

I don't really count myself as in the manga style, just a general cartoony comic style. There's one deliberately "anime" character on that page in the last panel, but her race in the story is a deliberate anime/hentai spoof.

I put my free stuff on a hentai site because there are just very few other places on the web it can be displayed for promotional purposes, sadly.

Captain Haddock said...

@ Ian B

Anime, Manga, Hentai .. its all "Greek" to me .. Lol

Being a dinosaur who loves his paper(s) & traditional materials and way of working with them ..

But all credit to those who work in other ways & with other media ..

Good job we don't all strive for the same results, using the same methods .. ;)

banned said...

I was chatting with some (adult) students a while back. The subject of internet porn came up and I asked whether, as the first generation to grow up with internet porn, they had initially been attacked by unsolicted porn (as Jacqui would probably assume) or had they gone looking for it?
There general response was that they did not know of any of their (male) peers who had not googled 'big tits' by age 13 or so.

JuliaM said...

"And what exactly have they been doing since 1997..."

It's a good question.

"We're beyond self-satire now..."

It does feel increasingly like the end times, doesn't it, having Jacqui do porn?

Going out not with a bang (snigger) but with a whimper (oo-er).

I'd better stop now...

"I'm sure if she really looks there are plenty of films with women dominating men!"

You might think that. I couldn't possibly comment! :)

"Well, I don't think Jacqui will like my depiction of hospital life then."

LOL!

JuliaM said...

"...and all puritans believe that all media should be preaching, presenting an approved ideal to the readers/viewers etc."

And another reason why they hate the internet.

"I see her as more of a Neoclinus blanchardi..."

Heh! He's rather pretty, though.

"A friend of mine used to work in the adult entertainment business and she certainly was not abused or manipulated into that career choice.

She thought it was absolutely hilarious that she was paid insane amounts of money to pursue her favourite hobby..."


They say if you find a job like that, you should never give it up! Sadly, I suspect this is the sort of thing you can only have a short-term career in.

Unless it's even more specialised than I'd previously assumed...

"There general response was that they did not know of any of their (male) peers who had not googled 'big tits' by age 13 or so."

The way literacy is going, I wonder how long before today's kids lose the ability to do even that?

Jiks said...

“Unless it's even more specialised than I'd previously assumed...”

I'm saying nothing ^^