Porn Perspectives

I love how seductive the pornography is to even the most unlikely bedfellows. I recently learned that Christian dating site BigChurch.com is owned by Penthouse Media Group (full article here). (I'll do my best to avoid jokes about the site helping Christians come together...)

I love learning about the secret financial dealings of supposedly conservative groups--it feels like such sweet victory for people like me who understand the legitimate economic contribution of porn. Yet the hypocrisy still manages to surprise me. Conservative groups just love wagging their finger at the porn industry but even its most outspoken critics can't resist the lure of porn money. Here are some other classic two-faced companies:

• Time Warner and AT&T find it highly profitable to offer porn through their cable networks, yet interestingly, AT&T doesn't separate its porn revenue in its income statements--it's lumped in with pay-per-view wrestling and the like
• The Marriott hotel chain, owned by Mormons, offers porn in its hotel rooms
• General Motors sells more graphic sex films each year than does Larry Flynt (as of 2000)

Corporations aren't the only greedy ones--a 2005 CREW report details how "15 Members of Congress, including 11 Representatives and four Senators, all of whom revile pornography, have accepted campaign contributions from corporations and executives who derive substantial profits from selling pornography." Check out the report here.

Frankly, I'm all for everyone dipping a toe or more into the porn industry. But it's probably best to avoid trash-talking it on the side...you just end up looking ridiculous.

I wanted to shout from the hilltops upon the publication of a recent article in the Scientific American on the neurological roots of sexual pleasure. Among the myriad insights in the article were these gems:

• Women are aroused by visual images just like men are
• Sexual arousal is complicated and inextricably linked with the mind (like my momma always said, the most important sexual organ is your brain)
• Women's brains go blank at the moment of clitoral orgasm--notably the emotion regions--while men experience heightened activity in the part of the brain governing reward circuitry
• Vaginal/"deep" orgasms may result in stimulation of the limbic system, which deals with emotion (my personal theory is this has something to do with childbirth)

As readers may be aware, I have always vigilantly disagreed with the widespread assertion that women cannot be aroused by visual images. How incredibly condescending it is to presume that women can't become sexually excited in the absence of emotional outpourings and piles of chocolate. Women's imaginations are, believe it or not, able to extrapolate suggestive imagery into erotic ideas. Their bodies are capable of a physical response, even without a bouquet of roses and soft lighting. Viva pornography!

It is true that this article deals almost exclusively with heterosexual biologically-identified "women" and makes huge generalizations within this group. Nonetheless, it embodies a major step forward out of regressive pseudo-scientific ideas that have hindered female sexual development (e.g., women's genitalia is essentially an inverted penis, women do not possess a sexuality, orgasm is female hysteria, and so on).

In any event, check out the article--it's a worthwhile read.

I realize I may be late to the party here, but Sasha Grey is the future! The 20 year-old starlet has been in the porn industry for a couple years now, and I'm adding her to my list of women who get it.

The girl owns her own name, promotes industry self-advocation, associates herself with bedrocks like Belladonna and Nina Hartley, and clearly offers a lot of talent on top of it all.

Excerpt from an interview she did with the Citrus Report:

I've been pushing Sasha Grey as an idea not just a person. There are for sure larger things to come. I don't want to spoil the surprise, I'll just say sooner than you think. I own my name as a corporate entity, which seems like a no duh issue, but you'd be surprised how many girls don't own shit.

Yes, my girl! That's the right idea--your youth and beauty will fade, but your BRAND will last forever.

She is opinionated and feisty:

I'm really fucking tired of "gonzo" porn with little dumb thematic teases. I mean c'mon, does anybody really believe for one second that I'm a "bad little school girl" or that this is my "first time" having anal sex, the pizza guy, or just stupid shit like that.

Love it.  Despite a potentially ill-advised appearance on the Tyra Banks show, during which her skyrocketing career was reduced to an after-school job (see segment and Sasha's response)--as an aside, aren't we over Tyra yet?--she seems to be on track for major success. Best of luck to her. I'll be watching her career closely!