Philosophy of Porn

One unintended consequence of my giving up on my original plan was coming within the ambit of thinking that reminds me of Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon. Or, my understanding of them, as thinking porn subsumes all other interests of men.

 Kathleen Lubey's The honesty of pornography makes more interesting points, albeit drawing on its history, which is different from these days of the Internet. 

All of this is to say that pornography is remarkably honest, and not simply because, as anti-pornography feminists allege, it documents patriarchy’s debasement of women. Rather, it is honest because it showcases the hard, often confusing work of reconciling private desire with public life, of admitting that sex with others can be unethical, of distinguishing between fantasy and reality. Antique pornography makes these contradictions obvious, circulating knowledge that we think, today, is at odds with eroticism. But perhaps it isn’t – perhaps there’s a utility to pornography’s mixed messages. Perhaps it was designed to confuse us, the better to underscore the clarity with which we should enter into the messy endeavour of sex with other people.

I did not know anyone when I was younger, looking at Playboy and Penthouse, who thought of the pictures as anything but a thrill of transgressing the cultural norms. Both publications lost their allure when I turned 18. What I do recall is my own interest in the writings of Xaveria Hollander, and publications like Penthouse Forum. We wanted to know how-to, not be mired in images. For us, I would say images that explained how-to were of much more interest since we had no clue what we were supposed to be doing with a female. I now live in a world supposing there is no difference between reality and fantasy. This feels very creepy, very much without evidentiary basis, but inescapable. I wonder if the Puritan mentality was like this - conflating imagination with intent; of thinking their own fears and weaknesses are the same in others - and so producing this current mentality where people are uniform in thought, and have the intent to act upon their thoughts. I cannot escape the feeling that others project their own desires and fear of those desires onto me. My own fear is that they miss those are truly dangerous.

sch 12/4/22