Absolutely Horrifying

That frontline special about sex slaves was one of the saddest most terrible things I’ve ever seen. Its more than disturbing to think that human beings can be so heartless, cruel and horrid. I seriously don’t even know what to do with myself after watching that.

Those women were abused so deeply inside and out, its unimaginable. How can this happen? how can people do this? How does a human conscious allow you to ever EVER let this happen. Absolutely terrible.

SO MANY people were involved in this. All of the traffickers, clients, pimps, cops who let this happen, legal systems who don’t do a dan thing. All of these people are evil. Absolutley heartless. How? I don’t understand.

I was so glad to see that some women have escaped, but I can imagine that mostly they are all sick, abused, and dying. Just so that some terrible terrible people could get off, or get some money.

Makes me sick. I can only hope and prey that something will happen to help this situation, but it doesn’t seem to be a possibility at this point.

I Totally Deserve an A : )

I’ve been reading my blogs over to assess for this weeks assignment, and personally I think I’m doing an excellent job! haha I bet everyone is writing the same thingh this week. Seriously though I’ve been trying to be on top of this class because I’m afraid that with it being on-line that it will be easy to put off and fall behind. So I have tried to work towards an A and hope to fall as close to one as possible!

Based on the rubrik I’ve been writing atleast two entries a week, they are all 200 words or more, and I try to make them intellegent, grammatically correct, interesting and as hilarious as possible. I geuss we’ll find out when I get my first grade, if I’m doing a good job at this!

I also really try to evoke responses from anyone who reads my Blog by discussing controverial material, or by flat-out asking readers questions.

There are two things that I’m worried are hurting me though. One is that I have to always write my blogs with-in one or two days because between work and school I don’t have time to whatch the lectures and take notes until the weekend. Hopefully this wont count against me! I also haven’t written much about the readings, but that is because I find the videos are stronger idea provokers for me.

Give me an A. Please. haha Thank you.

Revising someone’s journal seems mean

Here is my revision of this post, please do not take any offense!

Once A Porn Star, Always a Porn Star 

I would like to comment on a point discussed in lecture 12. During lecture 12 we saw a few clips from the HBO special “Thinking XXX.” In one of them some of the porn stars featured said that they did not see themselves doing porn 25 years down the road. One man even mentioned that he was in school and only doing porn on the side to make some extra money.

How does one expect to make a living in the future, with respectable career choice, after being in a porn movie?

After these clips, Dr. Halavais put up a quote on the screen by porn star Will Clark, who stated “If you’re thinking ‘In five years, I may want to become president,’ well then then this is probably not something you should do.” which illustrates my point!
Let’s face it, society’s working class (especially the corporate world) will have no tolerance for former porn stars. Regardless of any personal views on porn stars, that is just the way society is. Dr. Halavais refers to this as a “stigma.” I do not understand how a person can assume that they can do porn to make some quick cash and then wipe themselves clean from it ( no pun intended ), to start a new career, and hope it won’t ever come back to bite them in the ass.

I do understand that not everyone who goes into porn has had the same background and for many, porn might have been the best choice on a short list of options at the time. However when considering any options with porn being one of them, one must realize the effect that this will have on their character.

Essentially the point here is; if you play, you pay!: once a porn star, always a porn star.

Comparing Porn to Prostitution. Who knew?

Before Lecture 11, I have never made the connection between porn and prostitution. Now after thinking about it, I totally can see how the two are related. It is true that in both cases money is used in exchange for sex. I’m not sure how I feel about prostitution. I know that it makes me terribly said to think of the women who sell their bodies as objects, because I can’t imagine these women having any self-respect, or future when this becomes their career. They also are in constant danger of sexual, physical, and mental abuse. How can wpmen let this happen to themselves.

I also can see the other side of this. Sex sells. Some women are confident enough  and love sex enough to enjoy making money off of sex, and they find themselves in classy business situations where they are not in any danger, and maybe even like what they do. I just feel like these are far and few imbetween.

It seems that the same comparison can happen about porn. Most women in porn are probably there for lack of options, or because they’ve been tricked or forced into it. There are also women who love sex, love being famous for it, make lots of money and feel fine. I still think it will be a hard life for them, but if they decide they like it, or want to, who am I or anyone else to tell them it’s not okay?

It’s hard to make judgements because there are two sides to every story…. but I guess you have to look at the majority and really see how people in these businesses are being affected.

Gay for Pay? I say NO WAY!

After watching Lecture 11 and learning more about a common porn practice called “Gay for Pay” I am shocked at how often this occurs! I think I always knew that many straight male porn stars start out in gay porn, but I never knew it was because they got payed 10 times more, and that 25% to 50% of the gay ponr stars are actually “straight.”

It’s amazing to me to see how much money ( or lack of options), can effect some of these heterosexual men. I mean MOST straight men I know are somewhat homophobic, even if they try their best not to act that way. The straight men I know who are NOT homophobic would definitely say that no amount of money is worth them having any kind of sexual intercourse with another man!!!

I think it’s interesting that “straight” men can stay erect and have sex with another man, if that is not thier sexual orientation, even if they are getting paid a ton of money. The video said that these men often whatch straigh porn, or have their girlfriends or wives come in for sexual inspiration, but it still is hard for me to imagine staying sexually aroused, when you are completely unattracted to the person who you are participating in sex acts with!

Not that there is anything wrong with this, and maybe I am being too judgemental, or totally wrong here, but I have a theory about all of this. 

I kind of think that a lot of men that are bi-sexual, bi-curious, or gay are too afraid to ever admit it or change thier lifestyle, or become stereotyped by society. Maybe this has been an outlet for some men who are attracted to other men, to be involved with out having to admit that they actually like it, or want it. I’m not saying all of these “Gay for Pay” actors fall into this category, but I bet more of these actors enjoy it, or are curious than they would like us to believe.

Does anyone agree or disagree?

Barbies are ok for fantasy fun!

I read NicoleR’s blog entry and I wanted to give my point of view from another woman’s perspective. I agree with a couple of Nicole’s ideas, but mostly I have a differnt take on things.

Nicole seems to be disturbed by seeing the 100 percent perfect computer generated women who are created on the internet for men’s sexual pleasure, she basically feels that woman have it hard enough with the stick thin models, and trying to keep up with this “perfect woman” image. I agree on half of that point. I hate that women today have to fit a mold of being this beautiful, skinny, and perfectly physically fit woman. BUT I also think that most of that problem are these women who don’t have enough self confidence to realize how wonderful and beautiful they all are even if they don’t look exactly like that media created fake chick on TV.

Ofcourse the media is going to grab your eye with the most appealing sexual and gorgeous creatures they can find ( most of the time they are some how fake, whether it’s surgery or camera/computer work), but women have to realize this. Sure those ladies are great to look at , but who says we have to look like that? There are so many wonderful things about women I know that they will never recognize because they are so set on the fact that they are not perfect, IT REALLY BOTHERS ME! Guys and Men should be allowed to look at these girls in the media and enjoy them, but not feel guilty because thier real life girls get jealous. These men love you for who you are ladies, and if they didn’t like you so much, they wouldn’t be with you!
For example, I have 7 gorgeous roomates who are all different shapes sizes colors and personalities, but they ALL are so beautiful inside, and out! And they all have had boys knocking down there doors! So how could these wonderful ladies not know how amazing they are ? I’m sure everyone battles with body image, and I’m not going to act like I’m above it, I just wish people realized more the posotive qualities that they have, and stop thinking that they are supposed to look like that perfect model in the media.

I also see the other side of this discussion, and it does get annoying that most “average” women aren’t going to get the same attention in the entertainment business, aspecially because “average” men run rampant in the biz! How many sitcoms have you seen which display a gorgeous, fit woman married to an overweight, balding man!??

Another point Nicole made was that women get upset enough when men are whatching porn behind thier backs. Maybe I’m just a little too liberal, but what is so bad about men whatching porn? We all know how important sex is in our society, and how it consumes many people’s brains (aspecially men!). So as long as he’s not looking for REAL LIFE sex in places other than with you, why can’t he enjoy some entertainment? If it’s not violent or weird or scary OR EXCESSIVE… I don’t see why it is so terrible for a man or for anyone to whatch pornographic material.

Gresham’s Law huh….

I keep pondering professor Halavais’ idea about Gresham’s Law ( ” Bad money drives good money out of circulation”) and how that relates to culture. The example he used was how Adelphia was pretty much forced to begin showing X rated movies because that is what the people want, and if Adelphia doesn’t step it up they will lose money on all of those veiwers.

What I don’t understand is why porn has to be considered “bad culture”. It baffles me to find out in this course how many gazillion people LOVE porn and spend so much money on it. I mean …. we learned that VCR’s were invented for… PORN, and internet was invented for… PORN. So if so many people are soooo into it, than why is it considered so bad and terrible. I understand sex and porn are risque, and some things should be kept private, and that is why they are so interesting, or sexy, or entertaining, but if everyone know that everyone likes it … why pretend that you don’t or that it’s “bad”.

It is kinda of crazy how the porn industry is taking over the planet though. It’s weird to think that any communications company who is not willing to show porn in one venue or another will probably go bankrupt! If there is such a high demand though, that shows that most people like it, so everyone should stop feeling so “wrong” or bad. Unless you are one of those people who has a wierd fetish like whatching a girl brush her teeth… ( haha just kidding). In my book, as long as no one is getting hurt and so many people like it…everyone should be able to just enjoy it and not be embarassed or ashamed.

Couldn’t escape porn if we wanted to!

I was reading Walfredo’s “Dick’s or Dicks?” post and it cracked me up, but it is very true! I liked his experiment abou typing the word “porn” into google and seeing how many responses he got. THE NUMBER WAS SHOCKING. it is still really crazy to me to think about how much porn there is out there. I understand it is very popular and fun, but HOLY COW haha.

One negative aspect of this wide aray of porn is situations like your mom looking up Dick’s sporting goods and finding a bunch of naked male genitals! There are also things like that which happen with young kids every day on the internet. I know that some interent providers have “parent controls”, but I think thier must be a more effective way tofilter out porn for those who do or do not wish to come across that sort of information daily!

Walfredo suggested a specific search engine for porn. I think that is a great idea! that way only people who want it can purchase it or set up some kind of user access, instead odf throwing scary naked bodies in front of children and adults that may not be prepared or wanting of this type of material!

CURB FHP (American Porn and Community Standards)

Whatching the Frontline special “American Porn” taught me a lot about the porn industry that I never knew before. First of all I just want to comment on the amount of money that is made from porn, which is insane! I mean I always knew that porn is a big part of our society, but to think that porn makes more money than pretty much any thin gelse in this country is a hard fact to swallow!… (No Pun Intended)

Personally, I think that in general porn is tolerable and in some cases even good or funny, and if people want it in this country, and it can make money and it can make consumers happy…. I don’t see why it should be such a problem.

But I do strongly believe that there should be standards enforced to make sure that people and animals are not being mentally or physically abused. 
I understand that many people have fetishes, and even if they like to whatch a certain act ro get off, it doesn’t mean that they would commit these acts themselves, but why even risk it. There is a line that should not be crossed when violence is involved.

I realize that sometimes it is hard to set standards on what “crosses a line”, but any porn that has to do with murder, rape, children, or animals is ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE AND UPSETTING. There is no reason on this planet that makes it ok to involve these things in a joyous, entertaining, sexy, or fun film about sex. These things are extremely mentally and physically damaging to the people who make them as well as the people who whatch them.

I could go on for hours about this but the subject literally pushes me to be overcome with emotion. I don’t know what goes through anyone’s head that makes them think this is OK. To think that a human being can be aroused by causing deep emotional or physical pain or even death on another human being or even a defenseless animal, is so sick and cruel it really upsets me.

Response to “14 year olds do have sex”

After reading 14 year olds do have sex I have to strongly disagree with some of the points that boogenman is making. I do see what he/she is saying about the fact that mother nature allows us to have sex at a certain age when our bodies are ready for it and that some teenagers under the ages of 18 are physically and maybe even mentally ready to embark on that sexual journey that we all know and love, but come on thier are a lot of responsibilities involved that can only be handled correctly with maturiity. Not that Im saying that every 18 year old, 30 year old or even 80 year old is mature enough to handle every aspect of sex, but when it comes to being safe and avoiding pregnancy you have to admit that younger people are a lot less responsible.

I know that many people defy this standard, and that is okay, but I definitely think that a legal age is required, atleast as a rough estimate of who can handle the responsibilities that come with sex. If you are not responsible about having sex YOUR ENTIRE LIFE will change in the matter of a few minutes. Contracting a serious sexually transmitted disease or GIVING LIFE are not exactly light hearted issues.

If you get a disease from having sex one time you will most likely be on medication, spending a ton of time and money on doctors, you might be in pain, it might hurt the chance that you will have children one day, and you will be responsible for telling every person you sleep with, and or give it to anyone you sleep with, and these issues will be with you EVERY SINGLE DAY for the rest of your life.

If you have a baby… now do I even have to get into that? Your choices are abortion, adoption, or spending the rest of your life starting TODAY supporting and caring for another human being. These are all things that will effect you EVERY SINGLE DAY for THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.

I’m not against sex, or even against people who are younger than 18 having sex, I just think that a lot of people in this country do not consider the consequences, and alot of lives are changed, upset, and even lost because of it. So if there are any laws, rules, programs, etc. that can help people to make better decisions and save thier own lives along with thier partners and children, I’m all for it.