Occasionally, I get these really radical ideas. This particular idea came from Gail Dines' presentation on Pornography. Capital 'P' for Pervasive, Punishing, Petulant, and the big P= PATRIARCHAL.
A particular moment in the presentation stood out, among the many other amazing points, when Gail talked about what kind of woman is most prevalent in the upper echelons of the Porn Industry. That is, the white, blonde bombshell.
I am not a blonde naturally and I was much more grateful for my genetics after watching Dines presentation on the racist nature of Porn.
Putting black women together with images of the jungle, painting black women as inferior animals, along with the fact that women who are signed on and contracted within the major Porn companies are white and blonde, had me so angry I almost vomited. Not to mention the fact that whenever a company like Vivid has a contracted woman who happens to be a bit darker than white, the company quickly manufactures a bio that includes something about WHY she is a bit darker than the default blonde, blue-eyed white woman.
It struck me that if men are being socialized to lust after the blonde white women then those of us who actually give a shit about our society and our feminism could engage in a little culture jamming ourselves.
What if we had a global campaign that instructed blondes to dye their hair any other colour besides blonde? What if no pornified man could see examples of what he sees in porn on the streets he walks? We'll have one less category of comfort for the men searching for the image. The Blonde Bomb. Blonde Bombs Away. Bombing Blonde. Dyeing to Kill Porn. The Day the Blonde Bimbo Dyed.
I confess that I was incredibly happy my genetics didn't include the blonde gene. I also thought about my pubic hair and its blackness. It made me feel rebellious. Eccentric. *I* am NOT like those images. When men see me on the street, they will not see what is admired as the ultimate fucking experience, and thank the stars for that.
Doubly thank the stars for the ability to dye our hair. This is an example of a time where the fact that women CAN change is in our interest to do so.
Yes, I realize that some of you will protest with the 'why do WE women have to change?' Well, like any good culture jam, sometimes you must take the initiative, buy the black, red, or purple hair dye and go to town.
It's a minor rebellion perhaps but one worth engaging in from where I sit. I mean, hell, we burned our bras, so why the hell not?
I've got that Billy Joel song now swarming in my head. LOL. I'm thinking about a video by Nephysuk I saw today that massively misrepresented the radical feminist position on pornography and prostitution but at the same time had some good points.
Neph makes a great point about emotions because I do agree with her that in a passionate subject there are emotions and they're not necessarily detrimental in all cases. However, she states we 'live our gender' and that's an idea that most feminists find unpalatable. She says feminists see things in the world that 'aren't quite right.' The idea of strict gender roles has plagued our patriarchal society and has resulted in violence on a grand scale against people who do not 'fit' in these rigid roles.
'They have a clash of ideas' she says in regards to the feminists and the pro-sex industry folks. Absolutely. She uses the term sex positive and calls the radical feminist position by omission 'not sex-positive', which is a misnomer I'd like to see corrected. We consider ourselves feminists. Most of us are radical leaning and marxist/socialist feminists. We're not anti-sex positive.
She then gives great advice by saying we should never aim our ideas at single people. Fair and balanced. She's hit on one of the primary problems that has plagued our community from the beginning. Radical feminists have made many videos that do not address any pro-prostitution person. In fact, that was a strategy I started employing a while ago because I was tired of this entire thing. The problem is the pro-porn folks think that every video we make is somehow about them personally.
Case in point: a video I made about Social Construction just the other day. It wasn't addressed to anyone, yet FeministWhore was quick to send me a video response that was disconnected and didn't really relate to what I was saying. Plus, I had already stated publicly that I wanted NO communication with these people. So I obviously ignored the video response because I didn't want any more back and forth.
Another example is a video about stripping and strip clubs made by Terri aka iremythpurr. Immediately, this video was taken as a personal attack by Divinity. She then responded to Terri by chastising her and making a video response that didn't handle the issue but just trashed on the fact that Terri made that video and accused her of the usual party line that the 10 radical feminists on YouTube are trying to silence them. Way to blow this out of proportion. Little did they realize that Terri is a resident of the state of Oregon, which has more strip clubs per area than any other state. Terri made a video about it because it's all around her in her daily life.
Neph condemns the false flagging and purposeful attempt to take down my SaelPalani channel. The thought of women LITERALLY silencing other women is indeed absurd. I would NEVER do that to ANY pro-porn activist who is sharing their views. What needs to be understood here is that Divinity and Binhthanhvo, a notorious false flagger and channel killer, are good buddies. If you look at the video in my last post and view it in full screen, you'll see Binh trashing me right along with Divinity on her 4-part blogtv session called 'DB is Beautiful' whereby she proceeds to slander and bully me for 40 minutes. Oh, and I DO have proof that Divinity falsely flagged my video exposing her imposter account.
And that's another thing. Making an imposter account, acting like a radical feminist in order to get personal information is something Divinity did, without a shadow of a doubt. FistfulofDicks revealed his first name to Divinity's imposter account whilst the rest of us who were friends with Fistful had NO IDEA what his first name was.
I also have MORE evidence to add to the already proven case I've made regarding the fact that Divinity owned that imposter account. The first name given on that account was 'Laura'. I don't know if people realize this but Laura Agustin is a very well known pro-prostitution activist who keeps a blog that is regularly visited by Divinity and her friends.
Neph responded to a ridiculous comment by iamcuriousblue who said
Ditto to what Bob said about there being a considerable about of bad blood, and it predates what's been going down between Diana and Divinity. Her "Feminist Outlaws" group seems to be used as a place to coordinate attacks on people, such as the shitstorm that came down on Krissy's Objectification video a few weeks ago. There's also Diana's alliance with PornHarms, which is in the business of flagging "pro-porn" pages down. This crap has to stop before we can even agree to disagree.
We all know this is false. First, Divinity made the first personal attacks in videos about me, calling me an anti-feminist, telling people I am a wounded animal, and giving me her personal psychological diagnosis, complete with made-up stories about my high school life and parents.
My private feminist group does not coordinate attacks. We DO ask each other how to frame certain points and we DO discuss our personal struggles but the audacity in his comment shows his immaturity. Secondly, while I subscribe to PornHarms on YouTube and some of my videos on the porn industry have been favourited and featured by the channel, it BY NO MEANS, suggests that I, nor PornHarms, is a false flagger. That's just more deflection away from the ACTUAL issue. So now you can't subscribe to a channel you happen to agree with without being called a false flagger? I certainly beg your pardon but these baseless accusations, coming from a pro-porn supporter, are yet another reason why there is NO reasonable dialogue to be found with them on YouTube.
At least when I make an accusation, I actually SHOW my evidence that supports it.
DonF72 says
Block and forget? that sounds like avoidance rather than addressing the issues they have with each other. The best way to resolve a situation is to agree to disagree and keep the FRICKING EMOTIONS out of it.
Why not block and forget? That's what I've been doing because I see no reason to waste my time, as Neph says, on this stuff. I'd rather be working on feminist videos and discussing issues with my friends, not constantly defending myself against personal attacks and drama.
Neph also seems to think that Divinity has the most to lose and is a target of bad behaviour because she supports the sex industry. Neph relates a story about phone sex operators and the tight security involved in their job at a call centre. These women don't have anything to fear from feminists. Quite rightly, as Neph says, it's men that stigmatize sex workers, abuse them and sometimes kill them. Neph says Divinity is much more at risk than I. How can that be? I've been threatened with violence right out of Divinity's mouth. I've been mercilessly attacked on YouTube, false flagged, bullied, and constantly inundated with misogynist comments from males who love the fact they can buy a woman for sex but who condemn me for being critical of the industry. Also, I WAS a sex worker. There are several factors that put ALL women at risk. To state with conviction that I am somehow at less risk is insulting to me.
The final point I want to bring up, and it's an important one, is that Neph seems to think the radical feminist position is to ban pornography. Neph, I highly suggest that you make attempts to dialogue with us and watch our videos. There is not ONE radical feminist that I know on YouTube who wants to ban porn or prostitution. While it is true that we feel there should be no inherent clause in society that says a certain amount of women should be available to be purchased for sex, we aren't out to ban it. Pornography, we claim, is violence against women and that capitalizing on the suffering of women in that business is something we'd like to see change; NOT by banning it, but by making it such that women don't have to consider ever entering that business in the first place. By having a social system in our society that values women for other reasons besides her ability to please men. By making it such that the vast majority of sex workers, who enter the business by LACK of choice, are given social services to have MORE choice.
I sincerely hope that when you read this Neph, that you come away with a better understanding of what the feminist position is on YouTube regarding the sex industry. I also hope that this childish behaviour between the groups will cease and desist. Like you say in your video Neph, there should be no reason why I should ever need to have another YouTube account due to censoring. I am content to talk about my feminist politics and ideas without directly addressing anyone on the opposite side of this debacle. It's not a dialogue. It's not a debate. It's a debacle and I, for one, am tired of it.
Ok pro-pornography camp. Are you going to tear this woman down like you're torn me down as a former prostitute? Hey SocialistReign aka ReignbowBite! Are you going to call her a 'butt hurt ex-porn star' and tell us all she's lying?
Ok, so most of you don't know the people I'm talking about so I'm going to break it down. Neesa is an ex-porn actress for Max Hardcore, who raped her and got slapped with violations of obscenity laws (nope, they couldn't get him for rape) and landed his sick ass in jail. SocialistReign aka Reignbowbite is a YouTube user who lacks any capacity to use the matter that's between her ears. She takes a hardline pro-porn stance. She tells people that sex workers and/or porn performers who leave the business and expose the reality of the horrors of that industry are just 'butt hurt'. It's funny how this woman has had no personal experience being a sex worker and yet passes judgment on former workers and does what's called 'slut shaming.'
Reignbow is part of the YouTube Pro-Industry camp. To get a feel for their tactics when feminists discuss pornography and prostitution please see this blog post from my blog 'Feminist Outlaws'. http://tinyurl.com/2uqwwwo
Summing up, Neesa has come forward in this particular video to tell us about the rampant std's in the porn industry, the lack of a clean working environment and her involvement with Shelley Lubben's Pink Cross Foundation. http://www.thepinkcross.org/
I've recently made a series of videos expressing my opinions on the industry of sex and pornography. I've done a rather decent amount of research and continue to research this subject.
It's important to note that I am a former sex worker who was once considered a 'sex-positive', which, to me, meant that I supported all forms of sex work and wanted it to be legitimate or decriminalized.
I have come to the idea that while harm reduction strategies are valid, what is more important is to address the sociological, psychological, political, and economic aspects of the industry of sex within a feminist/human rights perspective.
This means I no longer view the industry of sex as something to be given legitimacy as the ultimate solution but I'm willing to put a few Bandaids on it while the system as a whole changes to accommodate the ideas of radial/socialist and marxist feminists.
I have also discovered that there are sex-positive people, mainly on YouTube, who aren't willing to dialogue the issues and are processing criticism of the industry itself as a personal affront to their self and self worth.
Instead of joining feminists who question the industry, sex positive women break the issue into two 'camps' as you'll see in one of the videos presented here.
Here are some videos that pertain to my ever expanding views on the subject:
In the next 2 videos, Shelley Lubben of the Pink Cross Foundation interviews a porn actress who has recently left the porn industry:
There are many other interviews of ex-porn performers on YouTube, similar to the one you just heard.
The reaction to these ex-porn industry women by sex positives is nothing short of derogatory. Either they rate the video down or make a video response that disregards the interviewer.
Shelley Lubben, of the Pink Cross Foundation, is one of the leaders at the forefront, helping women and men get out of the porn industry. Shelley herself was a stripper, escort, prostitute and porn star for 8 years.
Because Shelley is Christian, sex positive women use this to try and discredit her, imply that she's lying about the statistics and information she presents to government officials, and refocus the very real trauma of women. I often wonder if sex positive women would engage in the same unctuous tactics if Shelley was Jewish or Buddhist.
Here is a video that tries to cleverly switch the focus directly onto what other Christian groups engage in. This is known as appealing to pity.
WAVE II
The response by the sex positive group on YouTube has been incredibly hostile without any in-depth examinations of their position. I've understood these basic principles coming from the sex positive camp:
the oldest profession that hasn't changed so why change anything
legalization or decriminalization will erase the stigma of the industry and its workers and make it safer for the workers
women and men should have the freedom to make choices about their own bodies
radical feminists are slut shaming current or former sex workers and therefore contributing to the stigma that society places on these workers
When confronted with well researched videos we get responses such as this montage from various sex positive people:
One of my sisters made a brilliant video which explains the sex positive position in terms of what feminism they subscribe to, if any, and why it's so important to deconstruct the industry from the radical feminist perspective.
Stay tuned for upcoming part II. I am releasing this now rather than later so that my audience can engage in the comment section.
