MudFlapGrrl

Sunday, May 21, 2006

pornography
• noun printed or visual material intended to stimulate sexual excitement.
— DERIVATIVES pornographer noun pornographic adjective.
— ORIGIN Greek pornographos ‘writing about prostitutes’.

21/05/06


I saw the film, 'The Notorious Bettie Page' by Mary Harron & Guinevere Turner. I thought the film was well done because it showed how the 1950's pornographic debate pertains to contemporary culture. I appreciated how the film-makers critique the issues involved in representing women's sexuality. For example, in the movie Betty's employer's a brother & sister team, who produce Porno films are arrested and taken to court. The Porn producers main argument against the court case is that pornographic images are seen regularly within pop culture, and normalized within the mainstream.
Why is it they are arrested for producing similar imagery placed within a proper pornographic context?

I am continuously disturbed by how sexually violent images of woman are normalized within our culture. Why is it that pornography laws are only applied in certain cases, but not applied to say, mainstream television?