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PORNFRIED

                                         September 9, 2005


Trying to get a grip on the
core of "Pornified" without
actually reading the damn
thing...


A few points:

The use of the word "desensitized" is
clearly misleading.  They're talking about
the way your tastes change upon experience a
wider range of porn; it does not follow that
this has anything to do with your
relationships with realy human beings, which
is what the word "desensitize" implies.

How about movie special effects?  I just saw
"Hellboy" on video the other night, and
thought it was only barely watchable,
despite the fact that it's special effects
make movies I was impressed by as a kid
(e.g. "Jason and the Argonauts") look really
childish.  Have I been "desensitized" by
computer graphics?
   
Consider the fact that upon first exposure,    
someone might think that Simon & Garfunkle    
songs are the greatest poetry in the world,    
but with wider experience you might think that
Allen Ginsberg was really edgy, and with still
wider experience you might see how Ginsberg's 
style is totally Walt Whitman and that        
philosophically Blake is so much heavier and  
before long nothing but Wallace Stevens will   
do it for you.                                
                           
We do not normallly call
this process
"desensitization".



               The notion that pornography
               "poisons" relationships by
               encouraging excessively
               tight standards of beauty:

                  What about movies,                It can also be argued
                  television, fashion               that porn is accepting
                  magazines...                      of a *wider* range
                                                    of body types than most
                     The idea that porn has         media: at the very least,
                     a *bigger* influence than      there's a niche market
                     the straight media seems       for porn about any kind
                     totally crazy.                 of human (and non-human)
                                                    body you can imagine.

                                                        In contrast, you'll
                                                        notice that while
                                                        there's a Teen
                                    An advantage        Cosmo, there is no
                                    of the              Cosmo-Heavy.
                                    transgressive
                                    dynamic:
                                    you tend to
                                    get interested
                                    in anything
                                    you're not
                                    "supposed to".

                                    That limits the
                                    tyranny of the
                                    norm.




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