Over this past week, our class studied and discussed the pornography industry from three different angles: production, content, and audience. We began the week by watching a really disturbing documentary called The Price of Pleasure (2008). The documentary discussed a number of different topics underneath the topics of porn. To begin it discussed how men are not only the predominant consumers, but also the producers and directors of the industry. Another strong issue discussed was the objectification and portrayals of women in pornographic films. Then it discussed the violence depicted in pornographic films against women. Porn has been around longer than many of us have been alive, but the industry has grown so much over the years that some of it crosses moral and unethical boundaries. It used to be something people consumed in their privacy, but since the internet and it becoming viral, porn is everywhere. The documentary mentioned the porn industry being a $9 billion industry today, which continues to still expand its profits. Porn is said to exist for pure fantasy, but the problem is when some of those fantasies are extremely demeaning and/or violent towards others. Then this topic becomes even more problematic when certain guys or people isolate themselves into these fantasy worlds, when it then becomes difficult for them to separate fantasy from their actual reality. This then can be dangerous, because then someone could actually be hurt. There were many disturbing issues raised in this documentary, but I must say the violence shown was a little hard to bear to watch. Specifically, there was a scene in the documentary that showed S&M porn scenes. These weren't the typical violent domanatrix style porn, but more so mirrored a scene from the horror movie, Saw. The girl shown in the scene was tied up to a torture contraption with her neck, hands, and feet all tied together. The guy in the documentary addressed that this style of porn could be the future of the industry. I thought about this comment the rest of the day because I could not imagine how that "being porn" could possibly be some sadistic, perverted, crazy person's fantasy! The scene mirrored a horror killing scene so perfectly, the only thing missing was the blood. It is just disturbing to think that someone could claim the edge of murder as their fantasy. In my opinion, that person could have some screws loose, and might need a psych evaluation to reassure they are mentally stable.
After viewing the documentary, later that day I watched a documentary on the History Channel about Hugh Hefner, the infamous founder of Playboy magazine. I though it was interesting his intentions of starting the magazine. He addressed equality, and freedom of sexual expression. In the clip below he also claims his preferences of eroticism over pornography. All about Hugh! (view from 1:15)
The next clip is merely about the rise of Playboy and its founding purpose! Awesome clip, please watch! ALL ABOUT PLAYBOY
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