Did my friends and I get more radical or did feminism move away from mus? I'm glad to have your company, Scribe. That feminists are defending the ads, and calling me censorious for daring to criticize them to boot, is very depressing.

This wasn't the most disturbing blog ad I saw last week. The most disturbing blog ad I saw was the rick santorum hyper-linked photo that lead to the anti-choice Democrat Bob Casey Jr.s Donation page.

Anti-choice democrat. That should be an oxymoron, but isn't anymore.

As far as your reaction to the ad goes, I experienced similar feelings when andrea dworkin died and I began reading some of the feminist blogpostings on her passing. Same thing as you mention, younger feminists defending porn and calling dworkin censorious. I realized clearly that things had changed (I don't think porn has changed) and opinions about porn can be completely different with younger women. There might be something to the phrase "porn generation".

As far as my personal reaction to the ad, I did notice it the first time I ran across it. Usually I ignore advertising fairly effectively. They wasted their advertising dollar on me, though and in fact it has quite the opposite effect from what they intend. I'll go out of my way to not to watch their show.

The ads bring up the whole pie thing for me, and i find them distasteful. I have the same reaction when i see similar chrome profiles on the mud flaps of 18-wheelers.

My feelings about sex work are so conflicted. I was forced to view and participate in it as a child, so i naturally assume that other women who participate in it were also sexualized in similar ways, and feel the way i did about it. I realize that's not true of all women sex workers, but it is true about some of them.

but i recognize that other women do choose sex work as a career, not out of exploitation or to support addictions but out of a clear and deliberate decision that sex work fills their employment needs.

and yeah, i worry about the pressure on sex workers to continually push the envelope in terms what they are willing to do. but i also think some women are also driven to those acts by their own craving for celebrity.

what i notice with me is that many of my attitudes about sex work are hetero-centric and focus on the women who participate. i never hear anyone, including myself, ask why a guy would want to fuck 200 women. of course, most of the hetero scripts are designed to denigrate and humiliate women, so i suppose that's why i'm concerned about women's participation.

still, i have to admit that my reactions to gay and lesbian porn are very different. and by lesbian porn i mean porn produced by lesbians for lesbians. not that male version of lesbian sex. in lesbian porn i tend to worry far less about coersion and exploitation, and instinctively assume participation is more voluntary. is that true? i don't know. but it does reveal that my own abuse history, and my work with others survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence (some of whom were sex workers), have informed my perception of women's participation in hetero sex work.

i have a similar perception of by queer women for queer women porn involving less exploitation and coercion. i guess i have this idea that this porn is non-traditional and therefore more progressive. the only filming i have had close knowledge of was in a friend's jello filled bathtub --i think it was green (the jello); it was super amateur though and sorta artsy, so may not have reflected the industry very well. and the "director" was male, actually, but certainly not exploiting the two women involved.

then of course there are those negative feelings about traditional hetero porn to account for. i have no direct personal experience in the industry, but i've always disliked it after having to watch it --leaving the room meant leaving the safety of numbers-- at a party with the two men who sexually assaulted me greatly enjoying the show and me feeling more and more humiliated by the second.

as a younger feminist --22-- i can identify with fighting censorship, but that argument is flaccid for a number of reasons with regards to the objectification of women and a general lack of respect for a "target-groups" (ie. people of color/"other" ethnicities; LGBT folk; women; non-judeo-christian beliefs and religions; disAble; working-class and poor....). For those who label feminists as censorist, or affirmative action as "reverse" racism, they are likely filling their oppressive role, have a lot of internalized oppression or are allies-in-training who need to work on their education more --if they're at least trying to understand, that's where we as activists can come in and articulate our knowledge and experience in a way that transforms them into full fledged allies or free themselves from internalized oppression.

negative depictions, or in this case objectification of women, when present in popular culture are culturally oppressive, whether all women, men, genderqueers and others recognize it or not. oppressive images and language has little place in advertising, especially advertising something that has nothing to do with sex. we all know that sex sells, but this example clearly represents oppressive images in an inappropriate context.

returning to the question of coercion in lesbian porn, i don't think we can answer that question without an insider or at least a reseacher. i for one would be interested to know. i am however looking for a new job.... [haha]