Slaves To Porn - Relationship, Sex

Pornography is an erotic form of hatred

Gunther Schmidt As you know, the production and advertising of pornographic materials and objects is prohibited in Russia. There is also no way to "lawfully" distribute them. What is pornography, why is it illegal in many countries, can porn be considered art and why is this forbidden fruit so sweet? We will talk about this with the philosopher Igor Chubarov.

Dossier

Igor CHUBAROV is a Russian philosopher. Specialist in analytical anthropology, phenomenology, critical theory, philosophy of literature. Laureate of the Andrey Bely Prize (2014). Laureate of the Innovation Prize (NCCA) 2015 in the Theory, Criticism, Art History nomination. Doctor of philosophical science. Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Author of the book “Collective Sensuality. Theories and practices of the left avant-garde”.

OUR PSYCHOLOGY: Igor, how appropriate is it to use the words “culture” or “art” next to such a concept as pornography?

IGOR CHUBAROV: The distinction between pornography as a special genre of cinema and literature and "high art" is very arbitrary. Pornography is very interesting for great artists: how can you talk about sexuality in the most attractive and forbidden form for a person? Many people dream of getting closer to the freedom of image, freedom of expression, which is in pornography, and at the same time to overcome the limitations characteristic of this genre. Contemporary filmmakers are actively turning to pornographic elements. For example, Lars von Trier does this, especially in his recent films. Undoubtedly, he knows how to bypass and overcome legal and moral prohibitions, but in a sense, his work can be called pornographic. However, Trier does not try to achieve banal sexual effects in his films. All the difference between arthigh culture (in the broadest sense) and pornography as a mass genre in that art does not seek to provoke sexual arousal. Rather, it moves towards teaching a person to develop and cultivate their own sexuality. But people who work in this genre, that is, pornographers, achieve the effect of arousal in viewers not at all due to the fact that they depict the genitals in motion. We are often turned on by implicit, invisible violence.what the genitals represent in motion. We are often turned on by implicit, invisible violence.what the genitals represent in motion. We are often turned on by implicit, invisible violence.

NP: Could you please explain what you mean by violence? After all, as far as I know, not all pornography exhibits some kind of torture or coercion

I. Ch.: This topic is very subtle and, at first glance, not obvious. Each person has their own intimate experience of perceiving sexual images. It seems to people that they understand why, when they perceive pornography, they get, say, an erection. They think they are only excited by what they see directly on the screen (or by reading literary works). But in fact, the prohibition element plays a key role in pornography. And this prohibition is not just a legal one, spelled out in laws. I mean a ban that is largely religious, moral or cultural, which limits the very possibility of studying pornography and its wide public discussion. But on the other hand, this prohibition itself provokes desire and causes pornographic pleasure.

Pornography is a taboo topic, not because our society is too patriarchal, but because public and religious leaders see this genre as a challenge to their power. The prohibitions formally extend to pornographic images, but if you pay attention to the wording of these prohibitions, it becomes clear that they are aimed not so much at the means of sexual arousal as at their goal - human sexuality, but ultimately - sexual love itself.

But what is it about sexual arousal that is so dangerous that it should be prohibited? After all, in the end, all people "do it …" - have sex in one way or another. The problem is that it is violence, which is almost never discussed in the prohibition of pornography and, in fact, is not prohibited, that just provokes sexual arousal. The violence is hidden, it cannot be seen with the eyes. That being said, I do not mean sexual violence associated with the infliction of pain or coercion into sex - no. This is that natural violence that is associated with procreation, or rather with its ideology, with the alleged obligation of sexuality to perform only the reproductive function. This is what the legal and religious-moral prohibition hints at. At the same time, law, religion and morality are trying to interpret human sexuality as a manifestation of an exclusively animal principle. And this "animality" itself is passed off as the "evil nature" of man, a certain vice or sin inherent in him from birth.

But in reality, a person does not have sex like an animal. To prohibit this sexuality means to struggle with life itself, or rather with living people. Such violence is not spoken of, although it is on the surface. What is most often demonstrated or described in porn? Often not just sexual intercourse is depicted, but the symbolic dominance of one sex over the other. That is, it is assumed that there are some unequivocal responses to sexuality that can cause arousal. In fact, these reactions are very conditional and fundamentally replaceable. It is often thought that there is a single scenario that inevitably excites the viewer. But this is not the case. In fact, it is not even the fact that someone is dominating over someone else that excites. Arouses a subconscious feeling of violation of the prohibition. It turns out that the prohibition is involved in the production of such excitement,and the law and its representatives become the protagonists of pornography.

NP: Would you say that the industry is booming in the current context of pornography availability?

I. Ch.: Modern pornography is mainly aimed at demonstrating male sexual domination. At least visually, masculine pleasure builds the whole drama of an average porn video. A woman almost always appears in porn as a passive object. Even if the woman enjoys and dominates the masochistic scenario, her excitement is of little interest to the mass audience. And if it does, then the woman's face must have been distorted by a mixed grimace of pleasure-pain. Pornographers are well aware of this feature of perception. They focus on this scenario because it almost always works. Today, the prevailing light versions of male domination, safe, but essentially violent sex, prevail. And those who are now creatively working in the porn genre are famous actresses,talented directors are discouraged by this circumstance. The porn industry is stagnating now.

From my point of view, the availability of porn is not a guarantee of the development of this genre. Pornography does not develop as an art because it is hindered by the prohibitions that define it. Not bans on buying or selling, but moral, religious and cultural bans.

NP: Who is the modern porn consumer in our country?

I. Ch.: This is a difficult question, because it is very difficult to conduct sociological research in this area. The paradox is that everyone is a consumer of porn. It's like smoking. You either smoke actively or passively. It's the same with pornography. A person needs a "forbidden" desire. Consumers change all the time, and so do genres in porn. Interestingly, cyber and animated pornography is the most popular right now. What matters is not what we see - a robot, a girl or a cartoon. We perceive certain pornographic images, largely determined by images of violence and superiority. And who is behind them - living people or painted, does not matter. Moreover, there is much more freedom in animation for pornographic purposes.

NP: How do you personally feel about the very phenomenon of pornography?

I. Ch.: Not a single social phenomenon, especially such as porn, is one-dimensional - only bad or only good. Pornography as a whole is, on the one hand, liberating, developmental and pedagogical (a person watching porn is freed from habits and prohibitions imposed by family and school education), and on the other hand, negative (it acquires new, not always useful ideas) … I mean, the images and roles of sexuality in porn are predominantly violent. Pornography reflects what remains invisible, namely social relations between people, attitude towards another person, his body, sexuality. And today it is almost always - the attitude to a person as a slave, to a woman - as an object, as an object of application of male violence and an instrument for deriving sadistic pleasure. This, of course, rejects this in pornography.

EXPERT OPINION

SOLID "NO"

I would like to emphasize that the demonstration of sexual male domination and female passivity in pornography, about which Igor Chubarov speaks, has several negative projections on real life. In men, there is a distortion of the idea of how a woman in real life can react to sexual coercion. The standard sequence of a porn scenario “resistance from a woman, turning under the pressure of a man into sexual arousal, and then into ecstasy” does not always find a response in real life, a man ceases to adequately perceive female refusal and unwillingness to have sexual contact. In addition, social psychologists report that showing scenes in which a man suppresses a woman, while she becomes aroused, significantly increases the overall aggression of men towards women. Behavior model,where a woman is perceived as an exclusively sexual object, globally distorts the concept of love and intimacy between partners.

Olga MITINA,

candidate of psychological sciences, practicing psychologist