September 18, 2017

If the "smartest move" — in making a serious TV drama about porn — is "exploiting the contradictions," then how can you say "'The Deuce' is certainly a feminist series"?

I don't watch this show, and there's no way I will, but I do read The New Yorker, and that means I'm often challenging myself to understand TV shows (and movies) that I do not and will not watch. I'm keeping an eye on the culture from the safe distance of reading. For example, I read this about the Emmys show, which I did not watch:
“I haven’t had a TV since I moved out of my parents house at 18,” [Shailene Woodley] told E! News in the pre-show on the red carpet at the 2017 Emmy Awards Sunday, where Big Little Lies had received 16 nominations.

“All my friends who watch TV, I always ask them when they have time to. When do they have time to?” she said. “I’m a reader. I always have a book.”
That's reported at People under the headline "Shailene Woodley Slammed After Revealing She Doesn't Own a TV on Emmys Red Carpet: 'I'm a Reader.'" Slammed? Why? Actors are supposed to tout the industry? Or does claiming to be "a reader" sound snobby? Tell me what books Shailene Woodley reads and I'll have an opinion on that. It seems to me many of these TV shows and ponderous and hard work to watch, and lots of books are lightweight. My preference for reading is more about wanting control of my own time, to go fast or slow, to switch into my own thoughts, and to retrace my path and skip around.

Ah! I found an answer to the question what books does Shailene Woodley read:
[Shailene's] favorite is Henry and June by Anaïs Nin, a memoir about the author's passionate love for Henry Miller and his wife, June. "Anaïs is like the ultimate goddess," Shailene says. "I feel really connected to her femininity." Much like we feel connected to your femininity, Shai. (Did that sound creepy?)
That's Teen Vogue, which might explain the cutesy dancing around carnality. So, onto the subject of the New Yorker article: "'The Deuce' and the Birth of Porn/The show is a classic David Simon joint, in which sex workers and porn actors are treated like any other alienated workforce," by Emily Nussbaum:
“The Deuce” is certainly a feminist series—and half its directors are female—but its smartest move is to resist turning sex into a thesis, exploiting the contradictions instead. 
You're a connoisseur of contradictions, a resister of sex as a thesis, and yet you dictate to me: "'The Deuce' is certainly a feminist series." Why the certainty?! Why shut the door to the exploration of contradictions in the contention that this show — about pornography — is certainly feminist? I'm outraged by this pronouncement. I would begin with the hypothesis that a show about pornography is anti-feminist, but you want me not even to think about it.

I continue reading this article precisely because I'm so annoyed:
Often, this means visually scrambling cable clichés, starting with a rape role-play in the première that spills into genuine violence. In the aftermath, Darlene, dabbing her bruises, is nude, but she’s never the camera’s focus. Instead, our gaze keeps settling, with nosy clarity, on her bald trick’s big-bellied torso, his matted back hair, his exposed crotch, forcing us to consider that body—both pathetic and intimidating—not hers.

There’s warmth, too, particularly through [Maggie] Gyllenhaal’s mournful, electric presence, her fame itself upending the hierarchies of cable, which typically dictates that extras bare it all while the stars cover up. With the polarities reversed, and the biggest celebrity somehow exposed and not objectified, I found myself craving a sex scene between the one non-sex-worker African-American couple on the show: in this context, such a sequence became elevating, not debasing, a sign that the characters were taken seriously enough to see their private world.
What is the argument that this is even uncertainly feminist? I really have no idea. Getting the star to go nude is an old trick, and not one I associate with feminism. Showing an ugly man having sex with a beautiful woman is a tale as old as time. Maybe somehow the graphic depiction of rape and the bruised body of a woman is supposed to be flipped into something meaningful, but Nussbaum doesn't explain how this happens and why this isn't just another way to palm off the same misogyny that the recently departed Kate Millett wrote about in "Sexual Politics."

Is it that half of the directors of "Deuce" are women? So they hire on women to get immunity from the charge of misogyny. We're supposed to support the furthering of the careers of women and see that as feminism. Could Nussbaum please explain why the gambit of hiring women to work on projects like this is certainly feminist and not actively anti-feminist?

There's always a woman who will take the work. They can put the face of a woman on any project they want. Is it that easy to get the Certainly Feminist stamp? (If so, porn itself is certainly feminist.)

94 comments:

Mountain Maven said...

TV shows are mostly bunk, with a few good ones. However any publication with "New York" in the title is nihilist propaganda.

Nonapod said...

My preference for reading is more about wanting control of my own time, to go fast or slow, to switch into my own thoughts, and to retrace my path and skip around.

Agree. It's also why the Netflix era has been so great for me. I like to watch what I want to when I want to, fast forward through tedious parts of a show, skip entire episodes, rewatch scenes if I missed something... all as I please. Same goes for music and movies. I like to have full control of the content I consume.

Jupiter said...

"We're supposed to support the furthering of the careers of women and see that as feminism."

Not just supposed to. I understand there's a special place in Hell for women who don't.

SDaly said...

The New Yorker cannot withstand the total erosion of quality that is feminized Millenial America.

Paddy O said...

"Could Nussbaum please explain why the gambit of hiring women to work on projects like this is certainly feminist and not actively anti-feminist?"

Like the serpent in the garden...

Kate said...

Preach it, sister. I'd barely finish my "but what about -- " argument in my head when you were already writing it down.

Quayle said...

There you go again, Ann.

Exploiting the contradictions.

Carter Wood said...

For all her reading, Woodley remains a dope.

J2 said...

The exact same tactic was used in the reviews of "Elle", the truly horrendous movie starring Isabelle Huppert. Insisting it's feminist so they can give it positive reviews.

Birkel said...

Paying a person money for sex is illegal.
Paying a person money to record sex acts is protected speech.
That is a contradiction worth exploring.

Scalia suggested contradictions that would be explored in his Lawrence v Texas dissent.
David Chase knows Scalia's opinion was wrongthink.

Rob said...

I guess the prohibition on fat-shaming and appearance-shaming applies only to women. It's okay to denigrate big-bellied, ugly men. The New Yorker never disappoints.

D 2 said...

"....When do They have time to...."

Listening to Artist X muse about the time spending habits of Others which X - marvel of marvels - doesnt engage in themselves, well, that never gets old. Especially in the realm of entertainment. (Or is it Art?)

When do Other People have Time to read, watch TV, watch street theatre, go to a movie, go dancing, walk in the park, walk the dog, play cards, play football, have a drink, have a nap, have sex, shop for the best deal, make signs for the rally, smoke in the alley, attend church, post on a blog, fish, bird-watch, bake cookies, etc

Unless you're selling me, or I'm selling you, why dontcha You be you and I be me, and God bless us, everyone!

JAORE said...

I'm not sure reading the New Yorker gives a full view of the original works you are avoiding....

But I appreciate your efforts anyway.

D 2 said...

Sharp eye, Rob. Good point. Thats a five yard penalty for sure

Ignorance is Bliss said...

D said...

When do Other People have Time to... have sex...

Right Now. Doesn't matter when you ask the question, the answer is always the same.

rhhardin said...

Feminism has ruined the feminine sense of what's erotic.

Ficta said...

I've only watched the first seasons of The Wire and Treme (they were great), but what struck me in both of them was Simon's commitment to making the stories as "true to life" as possible and letting the characters and events speak for themselves; to the extent that many conservatives saw The Wire as a powerful depiction of the cycles of dependency and dysfunction inherent in the Democratic Party's approach to municipal government (something that it's fairly clear from his public statements that David Simon did not intend).

I suspect it's entirely possible that whether or not one sees The Deuce as feminist depends on whether or not one is a feminist.

tcrosse said...

Here in Sin City we don't have time for Virtue Signalling.

Sexy Fat Guy

rhhardin said...

Old Imus interview with Larry Flynt, who was saying that nine out of ten porn flicks sold in the world are his

Imus: Men only watch about seven minutes of porn films.

Flynt: So I've heard.

rhhardin said...

Trying to think of good-hearted prostitute films I've seen; I know there are one or two but can't recall them. I recall them being not bad though I haven't rewatched them either.

Pretty Woman of course.

Ann Althouse said...

"Agree. It's also why the Netflix era has been so great for me. I like to watch what I want to when I want to, fast forward through tedious parts of a show, skip entire episodes, rewatch scenes if I missed something... all as I please. Same goes for music and movies. I like to have full control of the content I consume."

Well, I certainly control TV watching that way. I was an early adopted of Tivo and have a DVR to be able to save and pause and all that. But you are still controlled in your time in that the pacing is determined by the editing of the show. Fast forwarding isn't much like reading quickly and slow motion isn't like reading slowly. You are bound by their idea of timing. But, sure, you can control TV in some ways that you can't control movies when you see them in the theater. But the control that you have when reading is all done automatically and fluidly with your mind.

rhhardin said...

Nately's whore in Catch-22 (the book not the film) was uninterested in his adoration.

William said...

I've never read anything by Anais Nin, but it's my understanding that she told quite a lot of whoppers about her personal history in her books. There's quite a lot of sex in those books, and that was their selling point. I prefer to consume porn via the Internet, but I make no moral judgments on those whose predilections lead them to different venues. . If Shailene prefers her porn via the printed word rather than the internet, that's her business. We must learn to be more tolerant of those whose sexual preferences are different than our own.

n.n said...

It's about women exploiting their naturally endowed physical feminine gender in pursuit of wealth, pleasure, leisure, and social progress. The ugly porn star is a snub of the ordinary man, who enjoys a lower status than even the ugly porn celebrity.

The 1 in 5 rape activism is similarly feminist, or rather female chauvinist, which conjures statistics in order to denigrate males, females, deprive the former of due process, and the latter of self-empowerment.

rhhardin said...

The second oldest profession is mother.

rhhardin said...

Thurber has a chapter on how to tell love from lust in _Is Sex Necessary?_

"I am in love, all right, but just the same I don't like the way I looked at Miriam last night. Or, Mirabel is a tidy litle wench, and in that case why do I waste time composing a quatrain for her, to be sent with a crushed spray of lilac? Why don't I just go right over?"

rhhardin said...

Pretty Woman isn't really about a prostitute.

rhhardin said...

It's almost as if it's instruction about how to get the right guy.

Which porn lacks, and lots of other films with naked actresses have.

If you want to start a distinction.

rhhardin said...

Women watch porn to the end.

Roughcoat said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rhhardin said...

How to negotiate with the TV repairman.

D 2 said...

C'mon rhhardin, you're not even looking over at your infinite stack of DVDs. Or are you limiting parameters as to it being solely focused on the prostitute's transformation?

Leaving Los Vegas (Shue)
True Romance (Arquette)
Trading Places (Curtis)

I dont even watch many movies. Where oh where do other people find the time?....

D 2 said...

Why thank you for the offer Ignorance, but I dont know you.

Anonymous said...

The "Hooker With a Heart of Gold"
tale has been around a long time.

Beach Brutus said...

Stagecoach (Claire Trevor)

rhhardin said...

@D hmm I have but have not yet watched Leaving Las Vagas; I bailed out early from Trading Places so didn't get to the prostitute part if there was one; and I've watched but don't remember True Romance.

rhhardin said...

Hooker with a heart of gold has been around for a long time because it's not about prostitutes, is my theory.

MacMacConnell said...

Are any projects Maggie Gyllenhaal didn't get naked in?

Sebastian said...

"I would begin with the hypothesis that a show about pornography is anti-feminist" They are exploiting that obvious contradiction (in the Samuel Johnson sense).

William said...

Does anyone want to see a nude scene featuring Maggie Glyenhall? Mainstream television is an obsolete way of looking at naked women. The current generation of porn stars are better looking than all but the most beautiful actresses.......I saw the BBC series on Queen Victoria. Perhaps in keeping with the spirit of its heroine, it was about the least prurient romantic drama I can ever recall watching. They take considerable pains to recreate the costumes, customs, and hairdos of the era. There's one scene where Victoria is taking a bath. She is surrounded by her court attendants, and she wears some kind of bathing outfit while in the bathtub. I'm not sure, but I think standards of modesty were such that this is a faithful recreation of how it was done. Funny that modesty was such that the Queen would clothe herself while taking a bath and yet would invite witness to watch her bathing. In the series, they didn't even show pokies through her outfit although I'm sure it would have enhanced the verisimilitude of the scene, but I guess that wouldn't be true to the spirit of Victoria.

rehajm said...

Trying to think of good-hearted prostitute films I've seen

Trading Places. Dr. Detriot...

William said...

Pokies are in some ways sexier than nudity. I think pokies played an important part in the continuing success of Friends.

rehajm said...

The Escort. Now on Netflix.

Sebastian said...

Talking about shows you haven't seen is not like talking about books you haven't read. Discuss.

tim in vermont said...

Best little whorehouse in Texas

holdfast said...

I have only seen the first episode. The acting was pretty good, and the sets and costuming were fun, but let's just say that so far the b00bies and sechs have not been overly titillating. This is from LOOONG before silicone, waxing and air-brushing ruled in pr0n, IYKWIMAITTYD.

tim in vermont said...

By making it about porn, they can drive up their female viewership by showing large penises.

Women are not more complicated than men, they seem like it when we try to believe they are better than us.

johns said...

My wife wanted to watch A Handmaid's Tale with me after being told by her liberal friends that it was so terrific. My wife is a Democrat but not into the screeching that is happening online. We were both really shocked by watching Season 1/episode 1. She was shocked at the violence and didn't immediately connect it with the idea that this is what Donald Trump wants to do to women. I was even more shocked that anyone takes this seriously. It is boring if seen as a horror show, and as a political message show it beggars belief. I know that people on the left take it seriously, so what am I to think about their mental state? Murder, torture, female slavery and rape? I have always thought that I could talk to liberal friends about ideas, but now I am just speechless. Am I missing something? Some actual substance to this idiocy?

Robert Cook said...

"For all her reading, Woodley remains a dope."

Why is she a dope? For copping a plea deal, or for protesting in the first place?

Mark Jones said...

From what I've read of this show, the producer's goal is to make a show about porn, involving naked people (including presumably attractive women) but to make sure nobody can possibly find it arousing.

I don't expect it to last long.

walter said...

"I'm keeping an eye on the culture from the safe distance of reading."
Safe Space
Picturing young Ann's first encounter with the Playboy in the living room.

walter said...

Mark Jones,
That DOES seem feminist.
Related: http://www.thecreamcitycabaret.com/meet-our-performers.html

Robert Cook said...

I miss the days when NYC was like that depicted in THE DEUCE.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Duece, at onetime perhaps still is, was a nickname Philly cops gave to blacks. I asked why and was told Caucasions are noted as a category 1 and Blacks are category 2 on their police reports. I don't know if this is true but it is what I was told by a police sergeant.

walter said...

For the woke, exposed female breasts are not nudity.

traditionalguy said...

Anais Nin was an extreme sex addict. That is not normal. It maybe feminist, but it was also a bondage that she needed a deliverance from but she wanted to keep it.

DKWalser said...

Pornography made by the correct people is feminist. Pornography made by the wrong people is misogynist. What matters is not the content of the porn itself but who the makers are. Porn made by, say, Nancy Pelosi, empowers women -- freeing them from the strictures of patriarchal moral codes. The exact same porn, if made by any Republican, is an abuse of women.

This applies to other works, too. The Declaration of Independence should be repudiated because its primary author owned slaves. Had the same document been written by a person of color or by a women, it would be worthy of praise. These are the new rules. Art cannot be appreciated for its own intrinsic worth. Art is simply a reflection of its creator and it is the creator, not the art, that we must judge.

This is far different than what I was taught as an English major. We were told that a piece of literature should be judged on its own -- wholly divorced from its author. It didn't matter what Shakespeare or Milton intended. What mattered was what they wrote without regard to their intent. In today's world, what matters is who the author is and what the author did or thought -- not when composing the piece in question, but at anytime during the author's life. Find a flaw in the author's life and we can safely dismiss his or her work.

It's a different, but not better, world.

buwaya said...

This is a common way to to sell erotica, package it as something arty and serious.

The other marketing gimmick is to take something arty and serious and add erotica to increase its appeal. One or the other has been typical HBO policy. My favorite show of the time, "Rome" had quite a bit, and of course "Game of Thrones" and "Westworld", etc. Interestingly much less so now in "GoT"; probably because they don't think they need to anymore to grab an audience.

"Rome" was much better with this, maybe because Polly Walker (Atia) was more appealing than anyone in "Game of Thrones".

"Silicon Valley" in comparison has none of this at all. It doesn't need it.

Laslo Spatula said...

Actresses like to play prostitutes because -- deep down -- all women dream of being paid for sex.

One way or another.

I am Laslo.

Amy said...

TL:DR But I really do hate when people act all superior about how they don't watch tv, and 'always have a book.' Immediate pretention-alert.

Quaestor said...

The show is a classic David Simon joint, in which sex workers and porn actors are treated like any other alienated workforce.

If feminism is a subset of Marxism then The Duece is feminist. However, there are at least a few self-proclaimed feminists who would reject the Marxist interpretation — Camile Paglia and perhaps Althouse. This is the nub of my rejection of feminism — it's too slippery to be an ideology. Feminism is like a circus tent without walls, the camels come and go willy-nilly without even the pretext of shoving their noses in first.

Emily Nussbaum doesn't evidently notice a distinction. "Sex workers," even her basic terminology is Marxist. "Half its directors are female—but its smartest move is to resist turning sex into a thesis, exploiting the contradictions instead." Gotcha. Feminism is just Marxist dogma espoused by a woman.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Anytime women "enthusiastically" participate in anything in the porn universe, I remember this passage from Gone Girl:


“Men always say that as the defining compliment, don’t they? She’s a cool girl. Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex, and jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth like she’s hosting the world’s biggest culinary gang bang while somehow maintaining a size 2, because Cool Girls are above all hot. Hot and understanding. Cool Girls never get angry; they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want. Go ahead, shit on me, I don’t mind, I’m the Cool Girl.

Men actually think this girl exists. Maybe they’re fooled because so many women are willing to pretend to be this girl. For a long time Cool Girl offended me. I used to see men – friends, coworkers, strangers – giddy over these awful pretender women, and I’d want to sit these men down and calmly say: You are not dating a woman, you are dating a woman who has watched too many movies written by socially awkward men who’d like to believe that this kind of woman exists and might kiss them. I’d want to grab the poor guy by his lapels or messenger bag and say: The bitch doesn’t really love chili dogs that much – no one loves chili dogs that much! And the Cool Girls are even more pathetic: They’re not even pretending to be the woman they want to be, they’re pretending to be the woman a man wants them to be. Oh, and if you’re not a Cool Girl, I beg you not to believe that your man doesn’t want the Cool Girl. It may be a slightly different version – maybe he’s a vegetarian, so Cool Girl loves seitan and is great with dogs; or maybe he’s a hipster artist, so Cool Girl is a tattooed, bespectacled nerd who loves comics. There are variations to the window dressing, but believe me, he wants Cool Girl, who is basically the girl who likes every fucking thing he likes and doesn’t ever complain. (How do you know you’re not Cool Girl? Because he says things like: “I like strong women.” If he says that to you, he will at some point fuck someone else. Because “I like strong women” is code for “I hate strong women.”)”

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Anytime women insist that porn is empowering and feminist = instant "Cool Girl" label in my mind.

Cool Girls are just sad, because they don't have the courage to be who they actually are inside, but rather want attention from middling- to poor-quality men. Fuck that noise.

Scott M said...

I know this is off-topic, but it has to do with her quote. Why do people still insist on using "African-American" and in the same body of work still use "black" or "blacks"? Just finished listening to a Martin Sheen-narrated audiobook about the homefront during WWII and even in the chapters dealing with racism, he bounces back and forth.

buwaya said...

Some 19th century examples of erotica disguised as something "serious" -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adah_Isaacs_Menken
Where the attractive Miss Menken, playing a youth, was tied pseudo naked (wearing a body suit) to a horse onstage.

It was very popular.

And of course, all the odalisques and harem slavegirls in 19th century art, or indeed all those nudes in classical allegory of the 17th-18th centuries. There were piles of these things, often technically excellent.

http://scottwpalmer.com/nineteenth-century/files/2014/01/1024px-Jean_Auguste_Dominique_Ingres_La_Grande_Odalisque_1814.jpg

walter said...

Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex, and jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth like she’s hosting the world’s biggest culinary gang bang while somehow maintaining a size 2, because Cool Girls are above all hot. Hot and understanding.
<
Men actually think this girl exists.
--
Almost pants. Let me FIFY: Some women think men think this girl exists.
That passage is quite the stereotyping of men...but as a guy, I can laugh about it. That Japanaese gal who wins the hot dog eating contests must be kinky.

rhhardin said...

There's an Audrey Hepburn nude pic in bed pic that's actually George Peppard nude, but is as effective as your standard breast scene today.

Assuming the URL works. If not google audrey hepburn tiffanys bed peppard and go to google images.

Quaestor said...

I think television began to unravel when the Betamax/VHS format war was settled in victory for JVC. From there it was a short leap to the video rental store bonanza, thus planting the expectation of pause/rewind watch what you want when you want. Nothing has really changed since then except the degree of convenience. Before you had to get decently attired and drive to the Blockbuster (or whatever) during business hours (though many stores were 24/7) and get your choice, assuming it hasn't been rented already. Now you don't even have to get dressed. All this has conspired to make entertainment less entertaining. We no longer participate, we just choose.

There was a time when a television presentation was an event. The experience had a real existence in time and space. It was here, your living room, and now, a specific day at a specific time. If you missed it for any reason tough luck. You may see it later in reruns, or maybe not. I fondly remember my local station had a Sunday afternoon movie presentation between the end of football and the start of baseball. It was called Science Fiction Theater, I can't say whether it was entirely local or something they got via syndication, I just know that much of the classic canon of 1950's sci-fi was shown week by week during the pro sports hiatus — It Came from Outer Space, Them!, The Quatermass Xperiment, Quatermass II, and the sublime Forbidden Planet — whoever booked those films had admirable taste and a real love of the genre. Without deliberately setting aside the time and foregoing all distractions I would have had no opportunity to see these wonderful old movies until they appeared in corrupted form on VHS (a few got onto Laserdisc, but who but the children of wealth had access to that technology?). Now I own near-perfect digital copies of all these and several hundred more on a media server. I can plop down and watch them for free anytime I wish on a 48" 4K screen, or any portion of them in any order I fancy... Big Whoop. The magic has gone.

In order to keep us coming back for more droning commercial interruptions, the ENTERTAINMENT MONSTER tempts us with trash. It's porn about porn, but the propaganda organs tell us we're better people, repentant Trump voters, for having watched the porn about porn. And when the next election comes around we'll vote for the high-minded whoremongers, instead of the orange-tinted phony fascists, because porn about porn is good for the soul.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Almost pants. Let me FIFY: Some women think men think this girl exists.
That passage is quite the stereotyping of men...but as a guy, I can laugh about it.


Yes, to be fair, that was written from the point of view of a character who loathes men. So there's that.

But I think there is some truth it nonetheless, and there are many women who try really hard to be Cool Girl, for example by working on a "serious drama" about a repulsive business that turns on recasting and act of love, joy and beauty into something disgusting and pitiful.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

*recasting an act of

Quaestor said...

I miss the days when NYC was like that depicted in THE DEUCE.

see: Jobbernowl (n)

walter said...

Have you watched the show, pants?

pious agnostic said...

I've never seen the show, or even heard of it.

But Ann's take-down leaves me craving more than a sex scene.

Ralph L said...

Female strippers say that it makes them feel powerful having men look at them with lust. In reality, most of them were molested or abused when young, and many are drug/alcohol addicts, same as prostitutes.

Perhaps the author has the same mentality for the same reason.

walter said...

pious agnostic said...Ann's take-down leaves me craving more than a sex scene.
--
Ah ha! Perhaps the hot dog gang bang is up yer alley..

Ralph L said...

For normal people, bruises take some time to develop, and women aren't hemophiliacs.

I bought the first season of the Tudors, and all the nudity (that I recall) is in the first episode. Of course, actual Tudors didn't get naked for sex. Aside from the cold, they probably stank too much.

Ralph L said...

rhhardin, would you have had the same reaction if Peppard had significant chest hair?
I think not.

wildswan said...

Is sex-as-seen-on-TV porn or is it boring? Rape yadda, yadda, yadda, prostitute yeah, yeah, nasty fat man why am I watching a nasty fat man, anal yadda, yadda, oxygen trick, yadda yadda, boooorinnnnng. Are we there yet? It's bound to happen; it's the nature of fashion to wheel around on itself. I feel as if it's moments away. I hope it comes before Stephen Colbert exposes himself on the View in a desperate attempt to raise his ratings and they retaliate by cutting "on live TV" and nailing up

Mark O said...

Ann, I read the New Yorker religiously for 40 years. I had to give it up. Almost without exception, the articles veered into anti-Trump screeds. When I started reading, the articles were literate and informative. I truly felt that I owed myself to read each one and even the poetry.

No more. It is is huge loss for me.

walter said...

I worked on a video production for a "youth at risk" series years ago. One scene was at a school and the lockers in one shot needed prop contents to look lived in Some other folks took bits and pieces from our office space to basically fill space.
I can't remember the exact scenario..but in the resulting action of the two African American/black teens, some of the locker bits fell to the floor..including a bunch of New Yorker mags..couldn't help but bust out laughing.

maskirovka77 said...

Maybe I'll be proven wrong, but I really doubt that people are that eager to see a gritty depiction of the birth of the modern sex industry around Times Square. I seem to recall that "Vinyl" (touted by critics as "great") focused on the "gritty" depiction of the music business in the early 1970s and cratered after one season.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"There's always a woman who will take the work. They can put the face of a woman on any project they want. Is it that easy to get the Certainly Feminist stamp? (If so, porn itself is certainly feminist.)"

Made me think of African-Americans and the Democrat party. Maybe on the far side of woke lies the realization that 50 years have been wasted Tommin'.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

They can put the face of a woman on any project they want. Is it that easy to get the Certainly Feminist stamp? (If so, porn itself is certainly feminist.)

Of course!
Whatever women do is empowering. Feminism is about empowerment.
If women choose to be in porn, or sleazy exploitative TV, or whatever, that's empowering.
If women choose to pretend to be offended by even hearing the word "boobs," that's also empowering.
Female empowerment is feminism, and empowerment is whatever women decided it is, at any time--even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff.
Certainly.

FullMoon said...
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rcocean said...

The latest "Mad Max" movie was incredibly smart. They had a one-armed female kick ass hero BUT ALSO 6 helpless super-models in bikinis.

So, the Director got praised for "Feminism".

rcocean said...

It's like GoT.

You can show endless half-naked whores, rapes every other week, and plenty of incest, but its all OK because you have an evil - but powerful Queen - and a girl who "dances with Dragons".

tim in vermont said...

I do like a furry muff though, why do porn stars resemble Cub Scouts and Brownies?

holdfast said...

Let us be clear: Maggie Gyllenhall is not hot. She's not fat or anything, but she's bland and boring, inside and out. She perfectly conveys the emptiness and banality of pr0n. Also, she almost ruined an otherwise decent Batman movie - I mean, Katie Holmes was already a weak choice, but Maggie Gyllenhall? Did the producer lose a bet or something? To go from Kim Bassinger, Michelle Pheiffer, Nicole Kidman and Uma Thurman to Maggie freakin' Gyllenhall? At least they redeemed themselves with Anne Hathaway and Marion Cotillard.

Chris N said...

Ms Chesty LaRue used to pack 'em in from miles around...one helluva gal. Tough as nails. Protected her girls.

Her great grandaughter's now associate professor of feminist ethics at Dodge City State.

tim in vermont said...

"professor of feminist ethics at Dodge City State."

A sad case of downward mobility.

Ralph L said...

I do like a furry muff though, why do porn stars resemble Cub Scouts and Brownies?

There used to be a commenter here named Peter iron rails/iron weights who bemoaned that several times a week. Didn't like bald eagles.

tim in vermont said...

There used to be a commenter here named Peter iron rails/iron weights who bemoaned that several times a week.

Yeah, it has been reduced to a genre thing now.

John Nowak said...

Trying to think of good-hearted prostitute films I've seen

Destroy Rides Again.

tim in vermont said...

Shaving a natural blonde muff should be a misdemeanor, at a minimum.