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Gail Dines, Rush Limbaugh, And Antiporn “Feminist” Hypocrisy (Or, Why It’s Not Just Rush Who’s Putrid)

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Oh, nice….Gail’s back on CounterPunch again, after a brief absence.

I guess we should be grateful that she’s not doing as much pontificating on the innate evils of porn, or bashing other people on the Left for not sufficiently kowtowing to her insanity.

But, that doesn’t mean that when she does attempt to latch herself to a genuine cause, Dines still isn’t capable of falling all over herself.

Her latest CP essay, attempting to ride the wave of the Sandra Fluke/Rush Limbaugh/”slutz just wanna do birth control so that taxpayers can pay for their sluttiness” controversy is a prime example of the depths of her hypocrisy and her willingness to transform anything to fit her ideological template.

I will spare all of you a reset of the whole squalid Fluke-Limbaugh saga….Wikipedia has a page dedicated to the entire mess.  Also, go over to Media Matters.

Dines’ effort is short enough that the usual fisking will do here.

Ever since Rush let out his true feelings about women as “sluts” and “prostitutes” – and  inadvertently revealed his porn use – the media and blogosphere has been alive with discussions about the Republican “war on women”. You have to hand it to these Republican fools, they do seem to be getting themselves into trouble a lot lately with their inability to mask their putrid misogyny. Yes, there is a war on women, but is it is not just the Republicans who have been waging this.

Now, far for me to defend Jabba the Fat-Ass Oxycontin Addict, but what in the hell does his private porn usage have any to do with his smearing of Sandra Fluke, Gail?? I guess that only those who use porn are the ones most likely to attack women? And what about the inconvenient fact that Limbaugh is paid by and openly supports the fundamentalist sector of the Christian Right…the ones most likely to be as zealously antiporn as she is, albeit for a different reason? Has Dines not listened to Limbaugh’s daily hosannas to Rick Santorum (R- Money Shot), whom has openly declared himself to be Chief Porn Slayer?

And how nice of Gail to imply that those of us who understand the GOP/Tea Party/Religious Right attack on reproductive freedom for women are only getting half the story. Because clearly, it’s not just right-wing Repubs who are the prime threat to women…or even the greatest threat. Even if it’s Repub legislatures and right-wing activists passing everything from “fetal personhood” laws requiring forced penetration (some would call that “rape”) of a woman with an ultrasound just to show her the “screams” of the “unborn baby” she’s about to kill just so she can live high off the taxpayer hog (or, simply survive the pregnancy). No, according to Dines, that’s only half right. Why?? Read on:

What gets less air time is the never-ending war that both Democrats and Republicans have been waging against women with policies that create an economic climate that makes women and children’s lives intolerable. Cutting education, healthcare, and welfare programs always hurts women and children the most.  And while we are at it, we may as well admit that most men aren’t having such a wonderful time either, as they struggle to survive in a society where the rich seem to have limitless greed and a blood lust for destroying the lives of those of us who don’t have a country club membership.

WOW…an actual progressive rant that actually sounds….well, progressive!! You mean, there really is a class society where not only women and children, but also even men, get hosed and exploited by the wealthy?? When did you discover that, Gail…before or after you collected your honoraria from your Australian book tour??

Of course, all this newly found economic populism is accompanied by a picture link to her book Pornland, which effectively denies everything she has typed and resets the old myth that porn alone is responsible for the ills of women and children, and that anyone on the Left who disagrees with that is essentially a “corporate capitalist”.

Yes, I am enraged when the ridiculous right come out with new and improved statements about women being wanton whores and all, but I can’t help having a grudging admiration for the Republicans because what they are doing makes good political sense. Creating media distractions is not a new strategy.  In the past, the demonization of African Americans has been an excellent way to get the white working class to vote against their class interests.  Who can forget Ronald Reagan’s  “welfare queen” speeches, or George H. W. Bush’s [Willie] Horton rampage?  Those in power will do whatever it takes to get the working class to take their eyes off the rich, and if this means holding up an entire race as the cause of America’s problems, then so be it.

Gee, Gail…you weren’t so enraged with the “ridiculous right” when you needed their media and their organizations to sell your antiporn “feminist” agenda, now weren’t you? I mean, sharing the same dais as Shelley Lubben and Pat Trueman at the Pornography Harms conference, relying on right-wing opposition to recriminalize sex work in New Hampshire and to harness Yale’s Sex Week, and supporting the same censorship laws that your predecesors Andrea Dworkin and Catherine MacKinnon pushed in Indianapolis back in the 1980′s that were passed by mostly antifeminist right-wingers…that didn’t bother you in the least??

And yes, Democrats are just as capable of using racial cues as a means of pushing conservative policies (ask Joycelyn Elders or Lani Guenier or Sister Souljah). But, do you know who else is capable of the same thing?? Try antiporn radfems skewering Left/liberal men who don’t kowtow to their sex hating ways as essential rapists and pick-up artists who only use sympathy to feminism as a “get into her panties” card. Try antiporn radfems who assault self-styled “sex-positive feminists” and sex worker rights activists who challenge the Dines/Lubben/Farley mythology of “prostituted women” as mere “cumdumpsters” and dick addicts and….surprise, surprise….”sluts”. In short, Gail, you might want to look in the mirror when you fire your guns at others.

And now it is women’s turn. With our insatiable sexual appetites, our fondness for aborting “unborn children”, and our love of reproducing outside of state sanctioned marriage, we are, it seems,  slowly but surely destroying everything that made this country great.  The social conservatives are doing their buddies, the fiscal conservatives, a great service here because the latter get to carry on stealthily dismantling this country piece by piece, while the media spend time talking about whether women are indeed sluts!

Of course, Limbaugh’s assault on Fluke wasn’t necessarily addressed towards ALL women..just those who threaten his lovely fantasy world where women are reduced to being barefoot and pregnant, living only as concubines and human incubators to service right-wing men like him when needed. (After all, why waste air fare to the Dominican Republic and risk getting caught with your Viagra vials when you can have your sex slaves…..errrrrrrrrr, domestic help available right here?)

Besides that…just how can Dines talk all that smack about how the “social conservatives” are merely diversionaries for the One Percenters, while at the same time rely on those very same “social conservatives” (especially the females therein) to battle the Great Porn Patriarchial Capitalist Conspiracy?? I guess that they will all be converting to her school of radicalfeminism soon??

My solution is that all women should admit that we are indeed wanton for having a vagina, and then insist that the media move on to discuss the way the elite, who control both the Democratic and Republican parties, are destroying this country. We should refuse to play their game by defending ourselves against stupid, adolescent slurs, and instead redefine the problem. And the problem is that women have to live in a male dominated society that systematically and willfully denies them a life of economic, political and sexual equality. Things may get a bit worse under the Republicans, but let’s not forgot that is was Bill Clinton who spearheaded the assault on welfare mothers, while of course, busy spilling his semen into the lap of a woman young enough to be his daughter.

Uh-huh. I knew all that had to lead us back to the usual male baiting. Because, of course, the fact that Bill Clinton helped the Gingrich GOP spearhead welfare “reform” is not nearly so important to Gail as the fact that he beat the impeachment rap for his little Monica Lewinsky “affair”. Because Bob Livingston and Newt Gingrich having multiple affairs involving actual penetration at the same time they were attempting to drive Bubba out of office doesn’t really matter. Oh, wait…both Livingston and Newtie were staunch antiporners, too?? Oh, never mind.

I’m surprised that Dines didn’t jump on the Hillary Clinton/PUMA bandwagon and attempt to trash President Obama as a pornographer/woman hater…but then again, with Gail, you learn to expect the unexpected.

I am so happy that Rush seems to be the straw that broke the camel’s back, but please don’t let us squander this moment by focusing just on his sex-baiting slurs. We need to think bigger and bolder than this, and push for a more politically ambitious goal of redistributing wealth and power. We should never, ever have to beg men for our rights, and the only way to put an end to this, is to dismantle the racist, sexist, capitalist structures that still dominate America.

I would be more willing to accept this as legitimate thought rather than the usual Dines nonsense if by “dismantle the racist, sexist, capitalist structures that still dominate America”, she didn’t just mean the local strip club, the local adult book store, and the ISP providing unfiltered access to legal sexual media.

The problem is, though, that the entire history of Gail Dines’ activism shows quite clearly that she doesn’t really give a great Grand Coulee Damn about actually existing structures of racism not associated with demonizing movies featuring “Big Black Cock”, or actual structures of sexism that do more than just feature women flashing cleavage and bare midriffs, or even those capitalist structures not featured at the AVN/AEE convention. She can talk a lot of junk about how she’s a pioneering Leftist fighting the system…but when you turn back the covers and sneak a peek behind the curtain, what you find is a comservative playing a “leftist” to sell a fundamentally reactionary agenda.

And yet, Gail Dines still gets bylines for CounterPunch…and Nina Hartley, a bonafide progressive who actually walks her talk….doesn’t. Pathetic.

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Why Porn Performers Deserve Their Full Humanity, Too: The Fakery Of Pornwikileaks And The Arrogance Of Mainstream "Slut Shaming"

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I have been a commentator and fan of the adult sexual media for pretty close to 10 years now.

I’ve seen porn starlets and stars come and go; some better than others, some prettier than others; some more successful than others.

Some get in it for the quick thrill of the fast money and the easy sex; then fade out never to be heard from again. A few stick around avd become professionals, even icons, whose personas and performances become frozen into the deepest fantasies of fans forever.

A few do become victims of their successes, getting caught up in the fast life of too much money too quick, and they suffer the consequences of their excesses.

Most of them, though, generally make their money, do their damage, live out their fantasies and dreams, and then decide that they’ve done enough and move on to different phases of their lives…attempting to become just regular folk living their lives.

Of course, the stigma attached to performing active sex on stage or screen or online follows them throughout the rest of their lives. It can be anything from a positive that drives their ambitions, to an albatross that feeds popular prejudice that denies them more “legitimate” employment.

In a truly progressive and sane world, their profession wouldn’t even matter…they would be judged as any other person would ask to be judged: by their deeds and actions and their ethical treatment of people.

Unfortunately, we are far removed from that world…and even in 2011 it is still considered perfectly OK to condemn a woman or a man (mostly, the former) for having a sex life not redeemed by the usual conservative stereotypes.

Such is the case with the practice of “forced outing” a performer who would rather keep her/his private life/information out of publc view.

Forced outing is an issue that has long vexed sexual communities; with the conflict between exposing the hypocrisy of those who publically condemn and seek to repress nonviolent, consensual sexual behavior or media depictions thereof while privately partaking in the same behavior they would condemn in others; and respecting the fundamental right of privacy. It can be a tool of forceful social change when done properly; but it can also be, when taken out of control, a tool of social destruction.

In the case of Pornwikileaks.com, it’s definitely the latter, in my view.

The prototype, naturally, is the highly controversial and successful Wikileaks site that has been both praised and derided for revealing corporate and governmental crimes and misdemeanors.

The Pornwilileaks version, however, has a much darker and more sinister motive….laced with liberal amounts of racism, misogyny, utter hatred of performers…and especially deep, entrenched homophobia. Their “About” page practically leaps out the page with gay hatred; stating that their primary objective is

“To get the gays out of straight porn and illegal gay pimps that have ruined porn and shut it down making condoms mandatory by the government now. The fag loving has got to stop. California is full of gay Mexicans and now they can even marry which is so wrong.”

Now, all of you know my opposition to the condom mandate as proposed by groups like the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), and backed by people such as Michael Weinstein and Shelley Lubben. My opposition is based on respect for the performers’ right of free choice and the fact that the existing system of testing and prevention mostly designed and run by AIM has done as effective a job that can be done under the circumstances.  I didn’t say that the policy was perfect, only that it was effective, and that forcing condoms down performer’s throats would be not only counterproductive, but also highly ineffective.

Yet, for all their professing of wanting to “save” porn, they really have a strange way of showing their it.

Their site claims to have the relevant information of over 14,000 performers, including their real names, current residential addresses, phone numbers, and even medical information. They boast that they would acquire and reveal information on performers’ medical condition, including highly illegally obtained information on a performer’s STI status.

The site also boasts of a section called “Category High Risk HIV”, in which they place people which they describe as “either gay or [you] fuck fags”.

And how ironic that they attempt to perceive themselves as opposing the condom mandate, when their actual acts in developing their “database” depends almost entirely on destroying the one organization standing in the way of imposing that mandate…namely, AIM.

You see, the reason Pornwikileaks has such a vast database of illegally pilfered information is because one of their agents were able to somehow break into AIM’s database of confidential medical information…thusly making that info available for public posting everywhere.

And then there is the case of a man named Donny Long, whom has been rumored to be the front man behind Pornwikileaks. Long was a former porn performer who broke from the industry about two years ago, but not before launching everything from a website to a message board casting all kinds of fury against nearly everyone. He has developed a reputation as a misantrope and a troll who basically uses every means necessary to out performers he doesn’t like, and he has often used Twitter as his chosen weapon until he got banned due to complaints of stalking from those performers targetted. The language of PW is pretty much a mirror of some of the smack that Long has spread in the past in other venues. (For the record, Long has denied that he is the creator of Pornwikileaks, though he does defend its overall mission.) Opponents and victims of Long’s wrath have formed their own website, DonnyLongIsAConvictedFelon.com, to counter his claims and correct the reacod.

Why is that interesting??  Because it wasn’t the last time that AIM had their database hacked into and information released to the public.

Remember the case of Desi and Elli Foxx?? They were the mother/daughter performer/sex worker team which filed a public lawsuit against AIM claiming that the latter didn’t do enough to protect their private info from being released to a previous forum which predicated Pornwilileaks. (Their case was settled out of court.) It was only a coincidence that the group most aggressively pushing the lawsuit just so happened to be the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, who aggessively favors the condom mandate and who would benefit the most from getting AIM out of the business of testing performers. Right…only a coincidence.

Another “coincidence” to ponder?? When gay/bi performer Cameron Reid (aka Derrick Burts) revealed himself to be “Patient Zeta”, the performer who tested positive for HIV in the scare last year, it was that very same Donny Long forum who, claiming to refute his charges that he contracted HIV on the set of a mainstream video, (allegedly) put out a YouTube video of Burts with fellow gay performer James Jameson, as proof positive that Burts contracted HIV directly from “those fags”. Jameson, for his part, flatly denies that, even going as far as stating that he is HIV-negative and has been his entire life. Interestingly enough, Burts/Reid found his way to the reach of AHF via some contracts, and now he is their biggest booster, as well as pushing the condom mandate while soundly criticizing AIM for not doing enough to help him during his time of need.

Once again, this may be pure coincidence, or it may be just a sign that Donny Long and Pornwikileaks might be in cahoots with AHF, Shelley Lubben, and certain other antiporn groups out to basically dissect the industry for its own ends..even if unwitting allies. I wouldn’t put it against the latter scenario..though it’s probably more the former.

The obvious issues arisen from this is whether or not AIM is a victim of a malicious racist hack bent on their destruction, or a serial bungler who doesn’t know how to handle sensitive information (as former porn director/agent Mike South has written in his analysis), or perhaps even a secret participant in the whole chirade to silence those like AHF who want to overthrow them and impose the condom  mandate (as some commentators over at the LukeIsBack porn gossip blog have suggested).

But, while that question fleshes itself out, there is a much  bigger issue of how those who perform in porn and sex work are seen by the world as large. Unfortunately, in some mainstream venues, the idea that porn stars and prostitutes and even women who gambol in sex for personal pleasure can be seen as fully normal and human seems to be a very foreign principle.

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Which brings me to the “slut shaming” portion of this blog entry..and the single, cold-hearted brain cell that is Chris Malyszczyk of Cnet.com, who wrote what he considered to be an analysis of the whole PornWikileaks saga.

Apparently, Christopher isn’t a fan of porn, and that’s his right and his perogatime…but what he says about porn performers being outed against their permission speaks volumes about his disrespect and utter loathing for them….even while he probably jerks off watching them.

For some reason, I am reminded of Eric Schmidt’s dictum.

You know, the one that went something like: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

It comes to mind because someone whose motivations seem slightly troubling has taken it upon himself to be the Julian Assange of porn.

For there now exists a site called PornWikiLeaks, on which, as you might be able to imagine, certain intimate details of porn stars are displayed for all to see.

The site doesn’t display diplomatic messages from one porn star to another. Instead, it attempts to offer a comprehensive revelation of who these stars really are.

Riiight. Because we all know that women who do porn are really diseased sluts and nuts who fall to their knees at the first sight of hard cock, right Christopher?? So, we have every right to know every nook and cranny of what they do, who they do, where they do it, and what disease they catch while they do it. After all, we can’t have them damn fags and them “jigaboos” out there polluting normal people with AIDS and other diseases..’ya know, Verne???

And…it’s only “slightly troubling” but otherwise totally acceptable for a rogue agent like Donny Long to basically harrass, stalk, and potentially abuse women and men who perform in porn merely because he has a racist/sexist/homophobic fetish, and because he sucked so bad as an aspiring agent?? All because…well, they’re evil slutty porn girls?? How touching.

However, many of those who earn an often meager income from their carnal knowledge don’t really want their neighbors to know what they do to pay the rent. Moreover, some have left the industry in order to become elementary school teachers or accountants.

So one can only imagine that when PornWikiLeaks reveals not merely their real name, but also address, pictures of their family, and phone numbers, they might just be a little upset.

Oh dear…maybe becuse it’s non of those neighbor’s damn business what they do?? Or, because the stigma attached to being a porn performer or an erotic actress (unless your name happens to be Kim Kardasian or Paris Hilton or Carrie Prejean) is such that even outright repudiation of your past doesn’t prevent you from total embarrassment or even removal of your job and livelihood if your past becomes revealed?? Or, maybe, Chris believes PW to be an excellent way to score a quick and easy lay, since obviously these “sluts” are incapable of being human enough to say “No”??

And besides that, there is this assumption that most normal people are entitled to the right of privacy, of not having either the government or any business entity going into their panty drawers or bedrooms or personal information without their permission and approval But, we all know that sluts, like gays, illegals, inner city Black drug addicts, and other cancers of straight White American society, aren’t worthy of having normal people’s rights, don’t we?? We don’t want Big Government in our medicine cabinets or our uteri…but them other people?? No problem.

There is also a suggestion that it is the creator’s intention to reveal the STD status of every single porn star, although this hasn’t actually happened yet.

But where did PornWikiLeaks get this information? At least some of the leaked data may have come from a database at AIM Medical Associates, a company that routinely tests porn stars for STDs.

AIM told NBC Los Angeles that it is investigating. However, PornWikiLeaks has been going since December, so the investigation might simply be related to the sudden publicity the site is enjoying.

Still, AIM believes it has been violated just as much as the U.S. government. Its spokeswoman, Jennifer Miller, told the Beast: “I can’t stress enough, we’re victims of a crime. Just like the Pentagon and the FBI, we have been victimized and hacked. We are investigating and we will press all charges.”

Oh, but who asked them?? They’re just the enabalers of the diseased and vapid sluts who simply don’t want to be revealed to be doing their dirty deeds…and besides, who the hell are they to equate themselves to the awesome power of the Pentagon and FBI under assault by the original Wikileaks??

Now, it has been noted that PW has pilfered from a variety of sources to build their “database”, not only from AIM…even though it has been confirmed that  much of the medical info and a large portion of the other personal info is straight from AIM’s database, which is indeed shared with porn studios as a means of screening out those who might by HIV+ or otherwise affected with STI’s. However, it is also a fact that by law AIM is forced to immediately turn in any information about someone testing positive for HIV to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Services…which just so happens to be one of the agencies most motiviated to oust AIM and impose their condom mandate, along with the AHF and the state offices of Cal-OSHA. Not to mention the aformentioned suit by Mimi and Desi Foxx against AIM for not protecting their medical records from being revealed; and a later suit filed by AHF and LACDPH calling for AIM to release to them records about performers possibly linked to the HIV porn scare of 2009. Maybe AIM does have serious issues with handling personal data…but that doesn’t excuse stealing their data and outing performers against their will.

It should also be noted that the 2257 laws imposed by the Federal government also require porn individuals and production companies to maintain detailed information about every performer for immediate release to government officials (the latter motivated by the myth of “underage children” getting into the industry following the Traci Lords debacle during the late 1980′s; reinforced by the latest scandal in Colombia concerning current superstar Lupe Fuentes). Given the ease to which such information can be accessed and even traded, maybe it would make it quite a bit easier for any hacker to get sensitive information and use it to his own profit against the performer’s interests??

But, again, that’s a concern for normal people who are assumed to be fully human, not porn girls, sex workers, or other dirty sluts.  At least, not to Chris Malyszczyk.

The porn industry is undergoing considerable changes, especially with the huge proliferation of free online porn. Will the existence of PornWikiLeaks make some think twice about their chosen means of making money?

Or is the expectation now entirely reasonable that anything you do, anywhere, at any time could–at any moment–be revealed online for all the world to see, know, and, of course, judge?

In other words….does the Bill of Rights apply to everyone….or are porn performers exempeted merely because of their chosen profession??

In response to such claptrap, an actual sex worker who was outed by PornWikileaks named Maggie Mayhem was moved to post at her blog a thorough ass-kicking rebuke of Chris Malyszczyk and his slut shaming. The entire piece is worthy of a read, but I will give some snippage.

Let’s clear a couple of things up, hater. First and foremost this information was obtained from private medical records. It isn’t a coincidence that one of the major ways that we protect our health and the health of our partners was sabotaged. It’s a clear message: you are not allowed to have both a non-traditional sex life and good health at the same time. This was an act of terrorism. According to your words, hater, we should just sit back and accept this as proper order of the world. We should just accept that mainstream medical care excludes us and degrades us and that if we develop a community model of care that people will do everything they can to shut it down. I guess we should have thought about that when we tried to pay our rent, have a relationship, be part of a family, or go on living our lives like anyone else. We should have just known that someone would eventually think that they were saving California from “Mexicans and gays trying to get married,” by illegally accessing our medical records and posting them on the internet with our real names and an incitement for harassment against us.

Whether or not our industry is conventional has nothing to do with what happened. For example, I think that it is unethical to set up sweatshops in developing nations to exploit the local labor force. If I hacked into the HMO database for a major corporation with factories in developing nations and published the names and private information of thousands upon thousands of low level employees who worked for that corporation at any point in time on the internet alongside calls for harassment against them I would be immediately denounced as a deranged criminal who must be stopped immediately and that would be absolutely, 100% accurate. No one w0uld be debating whether or not those employees should be ashamed of working in retail. No one would suggest that the reason why they dropped their surname or opted for nickname on their employee badge was because they were trying to hide from their occupation. No one would speak as though they should have known that sooner or later someone would inevitably hack into their medical records and post their badge name next to their full legal name alongside libelous language and calls for harassment against them. We would solely focus on the actions of the deranged criminal and discuss ways that we can prevent that kind of illegal and dangerous behavior from happening again.

Like most haters, you’re getting defensive about the fact that people are calling you out for victim blaming. The opening and closing of an essay is prime real estate in a piece of a writing. It’s what people notice first and what they walk away with at the end.  This essay contained 538 words. The opening and closing  (103 words) constitute just under 1/5 (just about 20%) of the total essay length and both are dedicated to questioning whether or not porn performers should feel shame about what they do for a living rather than what actually happened or any form of compelling analysis. The reason that people are receiving this as victim blaming is because you opened your essay by saying, “For some reason, I am reminded of Eric Schmidt’s dictum. You know, the one that went something like: ‘If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.’” It communicates quite a bit about your priorities that you opened and closed your writing with a sentiment of judgement and shame.

Amen and a-women on that, Maggie.

Sad to say, many performers whom I follow and respect — and some I even worship — have  found themselves on that list of outed performers. In fact, anyone whom has used AIM’s services — whether they be in porn or not — have probably had their privacy breached by this hacking, and they are suspect to being violated at any tiime. (Mike South has posted at his blog some means to which performers who think they ave been violaated can act to get their names removed, or to get PW shut down, and porn legal scholar Michael Fattarousi has also acted to bring legal means against Long to end the harrassment and stalking. Efforts by Long to intimidate and expose performers on Twitter have mostly failed in the wake of strong response by the performers themselves.) The resulting tragedy and its impact on AIM and on the current regime of HIV testing remains to be resolved; whether it turns out to be the concluding act in the AHF/CalOSHA/LACDHS takeover of porn testing and the condom mandate is still well up in the air.

However the results go, though, it still reinforces what to me has been one of my fundamental objectives that has driven my support for and respect of women who take the risks and enjoy the benefits of performing in adult explicit sexual entertainment: that they are treated as nothing less than full human beings, worthy of respect, free will, and accountability for their actions.

No woman — not even Shelley Lubben or Michelle Bachmann,– or no man — not even Glenn Beck or Rush Liimbaugh, however I may loathe their political and social views — deserves to be treated as any less than fully human. Maybe some day, we will apply that standard to porn/sexwork.  Some day.

[See also Violet Blue's rundown of the whole controversy at her Tiny Nibbles blog here. and also FurryGirl (of Feminisnt) with her perspective on how to protect your privacy from the 2257 laws here. Danny Wylde of Trev West Coast Fiction also has a nice smackdown of Donny Long over at his blog as well.]

[Maymay over at Maybe Maimed, But Never Harmed has a marvelous post now up on why PornWikileaks simply can't wear Wikileaks' jock strap. Check it out here.]

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"The Devil And Shelley Lubben" — Reloaded (Now With 50% More Punch!!! And….Censor Proof!!!)

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Seems like Michael Whiteacre and Lydia Lee have created a Frankenstein.

Their video project “The Devil And Shelley Lubben” has become so popular and have gotten such rave reviews (and such ire from Lubben’s peeps that the second chapter got pulled from YouTube) that they’ve decided to add just a little more to the punch.

Today, Lydia (aka Julie Meadows) announced at her blog that she and Michael have released an extended version of Episode 2, which tacks on in addition to the fine testimonies of people like Kayden Kross, Melissa Monet, and Nina Hartley, some perspective from Raven Touchstone, who was an industry scriptwriter during the time Lubben did porn.

Also….Julie has announced that all of the episodes are now embedded over at their main site, TheDevilAndShelleyLubben.com, with the embed codes available there to all to mirror over to their own blogs or sites.

Which, of course, I will do right now in solidarity with them.

 

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Oh, Please, Adam and NPNH…Get A Freakin' Clue!!!

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Oh, but this is sooo sweet….it seems that Adam and the folks at NoPornNorthhampton.com are having a bit of a snit….because we of The Great Pro-Porn Posse is undercutting and “censoring” them again.

Apparently, they got word of Renegade Evolution’s latest campaign to bust their favorite antiporn activist Gail Dines and her Stop Porn Culture slideshow by using the very same 2257 federal regulations that require record keeping for explicit sexual imagery. Ren is basically saying that if folks like John Stagliano has to go to jail because his videos might be accessible to “minors”; then why the hell is SPC allowed to go off scot-free and present their slideshows in open daylight to public audiences using the very same sexual content??? In venues much, much more accessible to minors, even???

Anyways…Adam and the NPNH gang let off their steam with a biting rebuttal at their site, where they attempted the same old tired smack about how the big, baaaad, evil pro-pornies are out to “suppress” their speech….and they start out by quoting an eariler “example”:

Porn defenders are usually staunch advocates of the First Amendment, but when the issue is speech they don’t like, many can’t resist groping around in the legal code to find a way to shut down analysis and criticism. We encountered this last summer, when the owner of the website Cruising for Sex wrongly claimed that copyright law prohibited us from reproducing a small portion of The Gloryhole FAQ.

The “Gloryhole FAQ”, in case you are intersted, is NPNH’s slightly biased and totally whacked and cracked attempt to explain away the practice of “gloryholes”; which are basically private areas where people (mostly gay men, but increasingly straight hetero folk, too; can engage in semi-public sex through holes punched through the walls. (Yes, Adam and NPNH is as obsessed with demonizing gay sex just as much as they are with porn…especially when it comes to playing the “anal sex causes HIV/STDs” card. They just so happened to randomly quote from the explicit (and free) Cruising for Sex website to prove how dirty and evil “gloryholes” and those who would participate in them are….copyright violations be damned.

Funny, but all the CfS webmaster did was to say that NPNH violated his copyright by using his images and words without his permission; it’s not as if he’s trying to put them out of business….no, wait…isn’t that exactly what Adam and his crew are attempting to do to adult bookstores and to porn itself??? Can you say, “Pot/kettle hypocrisy,” Clones??

They then get to the issue of “certain pro-porn activists” (Uhhhh, please, Adam, try to give Ren Ev and Ernest Greene their deserved props for their idea!!) attempting to “stifle” StopPornCulture…though they, unlike Ren Ev, manage not to even link to the SPC website or their slideshow (which has now been removed from the SPC site, interestingly enough).

Unfortunately, Adam shoots himself in the foot with the first attempted shot:

According to Wikipedia, the 2257 Regulations “require producers of sexually explicit material to obtain proof of age for every model they shoot, and retain those records”. The primary goal of the regulations is to prevent the employment of underage performers, such as Traci Lords.

First off: Wikipedia?!?!?! Damn, Adam….you could have just quoted the regulation directly from the Department of Justice; why the need for Wiki??

Secondly…you do know that it was Traci herself who fabricated her age in order to get into porn before she was legal, right???

And finally….if the goal is really to prevent underage performers, then why not use existing laws against kiddie porn and not require 35 year old performers to provide such intimate and private information to the Feds?? Or, do you think that Nina Hartley is really a 17 year old trapped inside a 46 year old body???

Oh, but it gets so much better….here’s how NPNH explains why antiporn activists like them should get free passes from having 2257′s documenting regs apply to them:

To apply 2257 to the StopPornCulture slideshow is clearly unconstitutional. Under the First Amendment, restrictions on explicit expression that is not “obscene” must be as narrowly tailored as possible to achieve the government’s objective. Not only would application of 2257 to political critiques of the adult industry be overbroad, it would undermine the purpose of the statute–prevention of child porn–because the effect would be to severely impede criticism of the primary producers of pornographic material.

Application of 2257 would also be viewpoint discrimination because the record-keeping requirements would be so burdensome to nonprofit secondary producers as to shut down all multimedia presentations from that perspective. By contrast, the adult industry can far more easily absorb this inconvenience, both because of their wealth and because they are closer to the original production.

In other words, it is totally OK for the government to target (and for groups like NoPornNorthhampton) to target and censor sexually explicit media and imagery and slander its participants as either paid rapists and molestors (or mere mindless sluts and disease carriers, and even prosecute them or regulate them to financial ruin. But, if anyone dares to call out such efforts for the censorship it is….well, they are practicing “viewpoint discrimination” against “the little guys/girls” fighting the good fight against the defiling and degradation of women and children; not to mention defending “sexual capitalism” (Sam Berg’s favorite phrase) and the profits of the evil “sex slavery” trade.

Yeah, right.

Let me see now….OK, so Ernest Greene is a producer of porn, as well as an employee (so to speak) of Larry Flynt’s HUSTLER empire (in his stead as chief editor of TABOO magazine), and he happens to be Nina’s husband and occasional producer of her videos. And Ren Ev is a part-time performer of porn by her own right. That leaves moi (who has produced exactly…well, two or three pieces or written erotica that I got exactly NOTHING for); Peter (aka Iamcuriousblue); Trinity, and Amber Rhea….none of whom, as far as I know, have earned one red cent for our opinions on porn and such.

On the other hand, you have StopPornCulture, who exists as a non-profit organization which directly solicits funds for their projects, whose speakers (Gail Dines, Bob Jensen, Rebecca Wheishaut, et. al.) demand and receive royalties and honoraria for speaking at colleges and universities; and who directly receive money from “faith-based” groups backed by the Bush Administration.

But….it’s the “pro-porners” who are attempting to “stiffle” NPHN and SPC’s speech, right???? Ahhhhhhh…yeah.

Oh, yeah…and for folks who are always complaining about personal assaults on them, they are pretty quick to go personal on their critics, are they?? Here’s how they reset their justification of smacking down Ren:

Many things make no sense in Pornoland. The latest example is the position of Renegade Evolution, a porn advocate, “a bit pathological about the rights of free speech,” who objects to our linking to her public statements without permission (even though she linked to NoPornNorthampton on July 8 with no prior notice) and our referencing her material in a critical context. A key element of what free speech is about–truth emerging from open debate–seems to have escaped her…

Ren Ev carries on her arguments here, but the bottom line is she perceives referencing her speech to criticize it to be an inappropriate use that amounts to “exploitation”. I suppose you could characterize any critical examination of anyone’s speech in this way, although I doubt this encourages the kind of open debate the founders of our country prized. Free speech is not just isolated individuals spouting off without reference to each other.

Examining pornography and pro-porn arguments is critical to understanding how porn works, why it’s harmful, its addictive qualities, and the toxic, narrow version of sexuality it sells. We appreciate that porn advocates may be upset or embarrassed by having their materials used in this way, but their interests must be balanced against the harms the sex industry imposes on third parties and its own participants. We will not cease to use the industry’s copious amounts of self-damaging evidence against it. This includes cases of commercial exploitation of other people’s likenesses without their consent, a far less defensible act than referencing material to make a political argument.

Maybe Adam forgot when writing that first paragraph about the Founding Fathers that their concept of “open debate” tended to ignore certain groups of people…such as men who didn’t have lots of property or people of color….or WOMEN.

And of course, no one is denying Adam or anyone else (even freakin’ Witchy Woo or Stormcloud, for that matter) the right to be critical or Ren Ev in their own venues….she’s a big girl and can defend herself quite adequately. But, if you are going to fire nukes at other folks, you just gotta be able to accept that they will fire back in kind…and if you hit any innocent people with your fire, then you can’t blame the other fellow for your mistakes.

But just for Adam’s amusement, allow me to requote his last paragraph, albeit adjusted a bit to reflect the actual truth of the debate:

Examining erotophobia and extremist anti-porn “feminist” arguments is critical to understanding how sex-hate and sex fascism works, why it’s harmful, its addictive qualities, and the toxic, narrow, and restrictive version of sexuality it promotes. We appreciate that anti-porn advocates may be upset or embarrassed by having their materials used in this way, but their interests must be balanced against the harms that attempting to wipe out consensual adult sexual speech and sexual expression and sexual media imposes on third parties and its own participants. We will not cease to use the antiporn “feminist” groups’ copious amounts of self-damaging evidence against them. This includes cases of commercial exploitation of other people’s likenesses without their consent, a far less defensible act than referencing material to make a political argument.

And unlike NoPornNorthhampton, we don’t charge a fat fee for our activism….and our doors will remain open, as long as you are respectful.

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