February 4, 2007 | Filed under: art, loves, misadventures
Click the picture or here to play in Flash
or click here for the mpeg4 (mp4)
Right off the bat: while this video isn’t actually pornographic and merely contains a discussion about porn, it’s safe to say it isn’t kid-friendly. There is a single pornographic image in the video, and it’s got the girly bits blacked out. It’s the one you see above. That’s the only one, no extra nudie surprises within. If that one image is offensive to you, I’m sorry…and if you were hoping for more than one, I’m sorry about that, too. No dice.My fiancee has turned from creating large-scale sculptural artwork back to drawing, and his current series involves lots and lots of porn that he culls from the internet. This doesn’t bother me…well that’s not entirely true.
On an unrelated note, there’s all sorts of weirdness with the New Blogger and Feedburner. My feed is now screwy, so a mess of older videos recently got plopped into your feed readers, that’s why. There’s no fixing it that I know of, so if you’ve never seen that older stuff, enjoy!
February 4, 2007
@ 1:44 pm
That was interesting, I will wait for the before and after “art” and check back.
February 4, 2007
@ 2:17 pm
I laughed when i watched this. kind of an uncomfortable laugh because i know exactly what you mean about neither for nor against.
i am definitely “for” expressions of sexuality and issues around what happens when those expressions are mediated but i am not “for” the phony, commodified renditions that stand in for said expressions of sexuality.
then again, they exist because they “work”.
what saddens me is that generations of men (and women) raised on commodified versions of sexual identity lose so much of their own in the mimicry of it.
…or, maybe, it’s just me.
February 4, 2007
@ 8:30 pm
What a funny conversation between you two!
February 4, 2007
@ 9:11 pm
I did a drawing in the vein once, sort of. When I first joined Deviantart I noticed that a couple of the drawings I did of pretty women were getting some much more attention than others that I was more proud of and thought were much better.
So I did a little experiment, I drew from a an image of two classy ladies doing classy things (you get the picture) and in Photoshop I added a bunch of text all over the picture, sort of hidden, but most not. Let’s put it this way, it was hard to miss. Anyway the text was basically a story, a really sad and very unattractive story about how the two ended up in such a predicament and I was curious to see if anyone would read the story or just look at the nudie art.
Way too many page views and nice comments on the sexy art later I realized that the power of nudie pictures is much more powerful than art.
I’m not sure where I was going with this. Oh yeah, can’t wait to see the comparison.
February 5, 2007
@ 6:40 pm
Um, point of lap cushion, Bri?
February 5, 2007
@ 8:26 pm
the picture didn’t load so I’ll have to imagine!!1
February 5, 2007
@ 10:40 pm
Paraphrase: “How can you look at this porn and not have it feel porny.”
This video was hilarious.
Evan (http://e-vlog.blogspot.com)
February 6, 2007
@ 12:19 pm
Although nobody was likely forcing those young women into that situation in front of the lens, they may have ended up there through a lack of seeing the other opportunities they have. As a society, we are guilty of force of some degree when we do not educate our people (especially children) of the options they have and try to foster their ability to choose wisely.
That being said, bobby socks are hot.
February 6, 2007
@ 4:37 pm
Just remember that porn drove VCR sales and the internet so you can be thankful for that!
And can you wear some patent leather shoes to go with the bobby socks too!
February 6, 2007
@ 7:01 pm
ever since award season started, I just want to get Helen Mirren and Dame Judi Dench in a room and watch gay porn with them - wouldn’t that be amazing!?! -that’s my little fantasy.
-taxiplasm
February 6, 2007
@ 11:05 pm
umm….interesting……in a “porny” way….
February 7, 2007
@ 5:27 pm
I wanted to tell you thanks for posting that photo with the lightbulb!
I wondered if I could use it to show a few friends?…
February 8, 2007
@ 5:42 pm
yes
i love when conversations like this are recorded and then shared on the internet. don’t we all have them?
totally!
“wtf are you doing?” -ryanne
“what, whats the big deal?” -jay
February 9, 2007
@ 3:05 pm
too long list with holes
1) i love your videos
2) i love your fiance
3) i love you & your fiance as a couple
4) some of the people who have been in the porn industry for years seem fairly happy with it (marilyn chambers, annie sprinkle, ron jeremy, asia carrera), definitely not as unhappy as many people in many other careers (middle management, factory work … from what i hear, maybe even nursing).
5) there are abuses, always, addictions and risky behavior encouraged, a few people forced, a few with very low self-esteem preyed upon. asia carrera has said that many women who went into porn had no intention of staying, but it’s hard to break from the money. so even the less-than-extreme cases are probably somewhat unhappy.
6) that all said, porn is never going to be eradicated or “cleaned up”–it is part of the human condition. we’re all just big animals with bigger brains that let us form elaborate expressions of our basic animal instincts, or to sublimate them, or attempt to suppress them, and always try to understand them. but they never go anywhere; we’ll always be animals. and sometimes, that’s a good thing.
February 10, 2007
@ 10:04 pm
Hope you’re doing great! I was gonna post this as a comment on your last post but thought maybe it wouldn’t be the appropriate place for it. If you think it might be beneficial to the conversation there I can post it later. (This comment was first sent via email and since I have been encouraged to also post it here. Gladly I do so and hope it is a positive contribution to the conversation.)
“From what I know of you, you are open to communicating. This medium of vlogging has opened up doors of communication. Please accept the following as part of the conversation.
First I applaud you. You are courageous. This is a somewhat intimate conversation between you and your fiancée. I think you are courageous to show a moment like this. These aren’t usually public moments. Your courage makes me want to be more courageous myself.
Second I wanted to address some of the ideas in the title of this post “Porn/Art”. In short I don’t believe that porn is art. Porn is porn. And, like it or not, the image of a nude woman does something inside of a man. It is designed to do that. Try as a man might to keep porn in his mind and think of it as art, but eventually we ditch the thought of art and switch to lusty thoughts of sex. Porn can be addicting. More addicting than drugs.
I agree with the things Carl Weaver said, even the part about the socks. The thing is, if I ever marry, I hope that the only one I see in nothing but bobby socks is my wife. Even now as a single person it is a goal to keep my head as clear of those images as possible. Once I start to look at images of other women and think on them, in a sense, I am, in my mind, having a relationship with those images instead of the one I have committed my life and love to.
I know this is not a popular stance. And it is one that sometimes I must remind myself to hold. The female form is a beautiful thing and one to which I can be prone wander. But I believe with all my heart I was created in part to enjoy that form and will find even more enjoyment in it when I do it within the boundaries of a committed relationship and in that relationship alone.
Though the stance might not be popular, maybe considered prudish, I think that even if looked at from a scientific stance you will see that pornography statistically has a huge negative impact in the lives of many people.
From what I have seen and heard from you, your fiancée is a great artist. I bet he could find ways to create his art without using porn as the starting point. Sometimes the means don’t really justify the end.
Thanks again for sharing this. It is honest. And I am very thankful for the honesty. I do look forward to see the finished piece of work. But I hope that you will also consider the possibility that things could be even better without the images of other women (and/or men) competing for the love you have for one another.”
When I was writing and closing this comment up, I began to think about how it does bother you, even if just a little, that he is viewing these images. I think that is an appropriate response for you to have. We live in a strange world. As vloggers we know that for sure. I mean this post is an example; the world is able to see a conversation that otherwise they never would have ever known about. Sometimes this technology is a blessing and other times it exposes things that were not meant to be shared in public but rather enjoyed in private, intimately between two people who love each other. If for no other reason than because it makes you uncomfortable I think that your fiancée (I wish I could remember his name, lol) should refrain from having porn be a part of his “artistic” process.
I feel like I’m rambling a bit and maybe not too clear. Maybe if I could sum up what I wanna say is: naked isn’t bad. Naked becomes bad when it is outside the boundaries for which it was created. For most enjoyment of nakedness: keep it in the boundaries. Porn is outside the boundaries. And outside the boundaries could carry many negative consequences. Inside the boundaries carries some of the most extreme joys and pleasures.
Sincerely your vlogging friend,
P.S.
C.S. Lewis says something that I am reminded of:
We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
February 15, 2007
@ 4:54 am
Can’t wait for the follow-up to this post.
February 16, 2007
@ 9:38 am
I read somewhere that pornography and art are exact opposites. Pornography being something that caters to the gatekeepers of fear or desire, and art which pulls the curtain back and attempts to relieve either condition.
That being said, who doesn’t enjoy a good bukkake scene?