Saturday, June 10, 2006
Sex and British Women - Pornography Goes Mainstream
The caption "Whatever turns you on", in The Guardian caught my attention. The fact that women have an interest in pornography is not news, and it is not only women in Britain who are exploring pornography. But the article by Anna-Marie Fitzgerald and Phoebe Frangoul contains witty comments and interesting facts. "Ever wondered what might happen if For Women magazine was edited by Courtney Love with a bevy of shaggy-haired NME-fodder for models? Well, wonder no more. Flick through the pearly pages of new German "porn for girls" magazine Glück (created by Cologne-based music industry scenesters Nicole Rüdiger and Elke Kuhlen, available via Leckerheft.de) and you get a pretty good idea."
Excerpts:
- There are no classically beautiful Adonises in these pages, just pale, skinny, sometimes hairy, indie boys. Photographed in the comfort of their own "bohemian" (read: dirty) bedsits, the Glück models pose naked, looking relaxed and natural, a million miles from the simulated "erotic" contortions of the girls in lads' mags. They gaze serenely, almost smugly, at the camera. In fact, these men seem to revel in their averageness: flaunting their flabby bodies and receding hairlines with aplomb. And the position of their hands is such that, whatever their appearance, your attention is drawn to just one thing (and it is not their come hither eyes).
- Glück is one of a clutch of alternative porn products that have sprung up, marketed to hip, urban, educated young women and supposedly offering a new take on porn, a guilt-free fix of boy-bod. There is also the US magazine Sweet Action and the SuicideBoys section of SuicideGirls website, both of which feature young, naked hipster boys. In the UK, Anna Span (apparently "Britain's first female porn director") has made films such as Hoxton Honey, in which she "decided to hang out in London's trendy Hoxton area to catch the beautiful people going at it like animals in their own stylish pads". Hmm.
- According to a Nielsen NetRatings survey for the Independent on Sunday last month, 1.4 million women in the UK downloaded pornographic images from the internet last year. Given this statistic, it is not surprising this indie niche has sprung up. It is certainly an alternative to the usual Playgirl/Cosmo beefcake, and, of course, to the über-creepy old-school porn stars - Ron Jeremy and his moustachioed ilk. But it raises the question: is this what young, educated women want to get off on?
As the ad for Virginia Slims cigarettes said: 'You've come a long way, baby'. A long way since Helen Gurley Brown's sensational Sex and the Single Girl appeared in print in 1962. Women have certainly become more aggressive in pursuit of sex. The covers of women's magazines at checkout counters of grocery stores in the United States leave no doubt that sex sells and publishers are making the most of it. Does aggressive pursuit result in success and satisfaction? I wonder.
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Sex is one of the nine reasons for reincarnation -
the other eight are unimportant.
---Henry Miller
Charities Suffering
*****
As a volunteer in a local food kitchen I find it baffling that over the years contributions in cash and kind have decreased as level of affluence in the Silicon Valley has gone up by leaps and bounds. According to the Post, charities in Maryland and Virginia are feeling the crunch but for a different reason. ".........the soaring prices that have made housing affordability a growing concern throughout the region have claimed another casualty: generosity."
Sex-Pornography-Women-Britain-Guardian-Glück-Musafir's Musings
