Porn - Philosophy for Everyone: How to Think With Kink (37 page)

This is where we get into a discussion of informed consent. Anyone taking part in a BDSM film has given informed consent to what they’re doing. I hate to hear the word “torture” used to describe a BDSM film. I’ve been tortured in real life, in a real-time situation in a real foreign country. I have also been involved in some of the most intense BDSM scenes ever created. I’ve done things that no other girl has ever done, as far as pushing myself physically.

Really tortured? Do you mind saying something about that? How did that happen?

I went to work at a strip club in a foreign country as a kind of “working vacation,” and was stopped at the airport, basically because I have red hair and big boobs. I got mouthy, and was detained by security officers. I was tackled by a huge Samoan. I was made to strip down and was sexually humiliated by a group of female officers, threatened with tasers by male guards, and beaten to the point that one of my breasts and legs were bruised and swollen. So I have been really tortured.That’s why I get upset when I hear that I make “torture porn.” When you are really tortured, there’s no consent.When I make films, it’s always with informed consent and that makes all the difference. Real torture goes well beyond what we want and decide. The two contexts are not comparable. I went as far as being waterboarded under controlled conditions, because I wanted to confirm my belief that in the context of consent, even that does not count as “torture.” Is waterboarding a horrible experience? Of course. But is it torture since I went through it voluntarily? No. Informed consent changes the context, and transforms what would otherwise be torture into something else. Consent is the entire heart of the argument – I wish I could go before Congress and tell them that.

So if I were walking down the street and saw you walking, and decided, without obtaining your permission, to tackle you, that would be wrong. But if I politely asked you if you wanted to be tackled and you said “yes,” that would be okay?

Yes. But it’s not
just
consent. It has to be
informed
consent. It must involve being informed about what’s going on, understanding what’s happening to you, and being okay with it.

Do you think that there are limits to the power of consent? Are there some kinds of choices that are inherently harmful enough that we might be willing to say “Nope. Even if you consent to this, we aren’t going to allow it”? For example, let’s suppose you and I were planning to make a film in which you kill me (for real) and mutilate my corpse. It seems that few people would allow my giving informed consent to trump the value of my life. If you think there is a limit to the power of informed consent, where would you draw that line?

Yes, I think if you have people agreeing to things that they don’t understand, the shoot should be called off. For example, there are girls who sign up to appear on
The Training of O
, a heavy BDSM website. I know that several girls have had their shoots cut short because it was too emotionally/mentally taxing. I think that’s wonderful. Producers have the power to say “when” when the actress involved is too stressed to continue. That’s responsible filmmaking. Part of appearing on the site involves five days of intense “training,” and there are some girls who get to day two and are broken. They didn’t realize it’s not like other porn shoots where it lasts a few hours and is over. So there are times on set when people become distressed, and that signals the end of filming the scene. Just another day, just another dollar; not a big deal.

So what you’re saying is that in these cases there isn’t informed consent, because they don’t understand what they’re getting into.That kind of consent, you might say, isn’t genuine. But what about cases where a person really does understand yet still consents to something apparently immoral, such as your killing me on screen?

Again, setting aside the Bible and religious teachings, I think that one’s body is one’s own commodity, and that you can do whatever you like with it. I’m for selling kidneys; if you want to, then you should be able to. I believe you should be allowed to kill yourself, and I believe in physician assisted suicide. I heard of a case in Canada involving a husband and wife; the husband is terminally ill, and the wife, who is healthy, can’t imagine life without her husband and wants to opt out. If she’s giving informed consent, then why shouldn’t she be able? However, I do think that people should undergo a process of psychological evaluation before being allowed to go through with those decisions. But if they make it through that, then who are we to decide what they should or shouldn’t do with themselves? My body is my own commodity, and that need not end even at death. For example, I want to be put on display in something like the Body Worlds Exhibit – it’s my wish, rather than to be buried in some mausoleum in New Orleans. Is it a popular decision? No, but it’s mine. Can some of these decisions be creepy? Absolutely – but the fact that something is creepy doesn’t make it immoral. After all, Catholics talk about eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ – isn’t that creepy? So, I don’t think that there are limits on the power of informed consent, but I also think there are people who aren’t capable of giving informed consent.We should not let just anyone make these decisions – only those who are truly informed and okay with, or can handle, what they intend to do.

Again, it’s worth stressing that informed consent is part of the activity of BDSM filming, both professionally, on the part of companies informing performers, and individually. Each participant gives informed consent.

A classic objection to violent porn, as we discussed above, is that it shows women in submissive roles in terms of their relationships with men. They are victims of forcefully asserted male power. However, your specialization in BDSM is being domineering – you’re a dominatrix. Many of your films feature men in roles of powerlessness, being humiliated by women, being penetrated by women, and so forth. Do you think that the increased popularity of these films says anything at all about gender roles, or work to subvert traditional male hegemony, ideals of power and male dominance?

We’ve flipped the coin, haven’t we? What I do, primarily, at this stage of my career is fuck guys in the ass and beat them up. I’m a dominatrix. I’ve been getting more and more calls to work on films like this because I know how to dominate a guy, and to make him feel dominated. It is sometimes funny to be working with a big guy, like 6 feet 5 and 300 pounds, and be dominating him. I can’t help but think, “This dude could squash me.” But it’s really a mental thing.

You see sites like captivemale.com and meninpain.com out there now, and I think that this is more than creating a new market, but rather reflects an old market. I think many guys are tired of being the strong, tough guy and some just want to give up control. And it seems guys just like stuff in their butt – or the idea of it. Many guys who watch this would probably never do it, but seeing the porn gives them an outlet for those fantasies. Many men also fantasize about the woman in power – the idea or archetype of the big, strong woman who’s in control.This kind of porn is an extension of that fantasy, just as fetish porn involving stockings, shoes, or what have you, is an extension of idealizations or fantasies men have based on ideas of women.

My personal “slave,” or video slave, is your standard “tough” guy – he hunts and keeps a duck blind in his truck and feeds his family with what he kills. But I think in the moments when we shoot, he gets to say and mean and believe that he belongs to me. He fantasizes about giving up control to the strong female archetype, and realizes that fantasy in our scenes.

Our gender roles are becoming more fluid. San Francisco twenty or thirty years ago was pretty “gay.” San Francisco today is “queer.”We see a rainbow of sexualities based on a mix of gender roles – exploring roles and sexualities traditionally associated with masculinity and femininity that may differ from our biological sex. I’m not into some of that, I’ve always seen myself as a woman without having to make myself more masculine or ladylike.There are people out there, though, that don’t have access to that sort of easy definition of themselves, so they’re making their own definition of their sexuality. I think we’ll see a wider variety of sexualities, and sexual practices in the future. I think as our gender roles blur, so will the practices.

If Catharine MacKinnon or Andrea Dworkin were to confront me about what I do for a living, I would invite them to sit down and watch my porn with me. I would ask them to consider the satisfaction that I get out of making femdom porn, the satisfaction that my partner gets, the satisfaction of the viewer, and the satisfaction of those who learn about new pleasures from watching. I’m sure that all that satisfaction would outweigh the discomfort of the few people who see my porn and freak out. Or I’d say “fuck you.” I have no problem calling people out – I’m a loud voice in the industry.

Since we’ve been talking about the idea of shifting gender roles, it seems that we could address another kind of “shift.” I’d like to ask you about the intersection of porn and pop culture.Watching porn is clearly more socially acceptable and widespread than it was even ten years ago, including “boundary” porn, like BDSM. Some porn stars are now celebrities, too, and we see celebrities acting like porn stars. For example, Jenna Jameson, Ron Jeremy, and the Girls Next Door are porn people who are pop culture icons. Need we even list the celebrities who gained fame as a result of sex tapes going public? As a result, one might observe that the “perverse” shifts over time.What are your thoughts on this? Is this normalization of porn a good thing or a bad thing?

When we consider this question, we have to look at the explosion of technology. Porn has become more accessible, and it’s easier to make your own porn. We’re lazy, and we don’t want to be the person in the trench coat sneaking off to the video store. The effects of technological innovations have polarized the porn industry. One is either working toward making feature films for DVD, or Internet content. There really is no in between. One result, too, with the expansion into the Internet is that it has made the industry more responsive to the consumer’s voice. It has also weakened the production pool, since porn now isn’t just produced in Porn Valley. There are companies in south Florida, New York, and so on. So the industry has expanded, but the bubble is likely to burst and things may recede some. But things will never be the “same” as in the old raincoater days.

As we continue to grow in terms of “digital intimacy,” porn will really bleed through into our everyday lives. I think that ultimately sexuality will just become a non-issue; we won’t judge people in regards to their sexual preferences. I think we’re on the verge of an American Renaissance, when we become a more cultured society – sort of like France, without the attitude! I’d like to see us come to a point where quality of life is more important than the quality of one’s bank account. I think porn is contributing to this by presenting sex in a positive way, acknowledging that there are different sexualities, challenging gender roles and switching things up, and recognizing that there are shades of gray. Porn can play a beneficial social role.

How far are we willing to push the envelope? Are there some aspects of sexuality that we shouldn’t normalize and accept? Where would you draw that boundary?

Well, I don’t think that much of what’s now heavy BDSM will ever be “normal” in the sense that most people will engage in it, unlike something like anal and oral sex with heterosexual couples. But things like using toys in sex won’t be scary to men in ten years and that’s not a bad thing.There are things, though, that I think will never be “okay” or “normal” sexual behavior, such as sex with children, animals, or the dead. In fact, I have a problem with any depiction, including comics and digital porn, of a grown man engaging in sex with anyone who’s under the age of 18, or presented as being underage. I have a serious problem with “underage” themed videos. I think most reasonable people would agree that those are pretty hard limits with respect to normal sexual behavior, and being turned on by that is wrong. That stuff freaks me out, and if it freaks me out, one should be concerned.

Well, it looks like we’re out of time.Thanks again for taking the time to share your thoughts with me and our readers
.

You’re welcome. I love to discuss the porn industry. I hope everyone profits from sharing my thoughts and experiences.

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

ANDREW ABERDEIN, PhD, is Associate Professor of Logic and Humanities at Florida Institute of Technology. Much of his research is concerned with the interplay of formal and informal accounts of human reason. As a precocious but unworldly youth, his earliest exposure to pornography may have been reading philosophical arguments against it. He was later disappointed to discover that it wasn’t half as exciting as those arguments had led him to believe.

THEODORE BACH is a PhD candidate in philosophy at the University of Connecticut and currently teaches philosophy at Southern Connecticut State University. He also enjoys simulating life in the possible world where philosophy professionals are paid porn-mogul salaries and porn moguls wait tables to make rent.

CHRISTOPHER BARTEL, PhD, is an assistant professor of philosophy at Appalachian State University. His research interests include philosophy of music, definitions of art, and theories of perception. In his spare time he enjoys playing bass, tattoo collecting, losing at poker, and trying to explain to his wife where all the money goes.

MZ. BERLIN is a dominatrix and bondage/fetish model, pornographic actress, producer, and director. Originally hailing from Louisiana, Mz. Berlin attended Louisiana State University where she pursued degrees in psychology and communications. She specializes in femdom porn, in which she dominates men and displays the archetype of the powerful female.

MATTHEW BROPHY, PhD, teaches ethics as a visiting professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He resides with his beautiful wife and above-average child in Minneapolis. Matthew, who received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Minnesota, strives to avoid the cyber-crack that is
Second Life
and virtual-reality based video-games. As you can imagine, his wife helps.

DARCI DOLL is a PhD candidate at Michigan State University. In addition, she is an adjunct instructor for Delta College and Central Michigan University. Her philosophical interests center around contemporary ethics and Ancient Greek philosophy. Her dissertation will be on autonomy and the correlating ethical obligations.

ANNE K. GORDON, PhD, is the worst kind of academic. She studies things such as human mating, with which she has had no direct, personal experience. She has never been kissed, never been on a date, and most certainly has never watched pornography. Everything she knows about human mating comes from reading psychology journals, watching Montel, and listening to hardcore rap lyrics. Anne is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Bowling Green State University. Her research areas include lying and deception, judgment and decision making, and human mating. Her main hobby is playing with her 14 cats, and her life’s goal is to own an ant farm.

JACOB M. HELD, PhD, is assistant professor in the department of philosophy and religion at the University of Central Arkansas. He is coeditor of
James Bond and Philosophy: Questions are Forever
, as well as several essays on philosophy and popular culture. His academic interests include the philosophy of law, nineteenth-century German philosophy, and applied ethics, and his work can be found in such journals as
Idealistic Studies
,
Vera Lex
, and
Public Affairs Quarterly
. He is thankful Dave has offered him the opportunity to legitimate his inordinate porn consumption as research. Now he is not a pervert, but a dedicated scholar. Whew.

LAWRENCE HOWE, PhD, is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of West Florida. His special philosophical interests include environmental ethics, climate and philosophy, and the philosophy of Henri Bergson. He is co-founder and president of Citizens Against the Abuse of Air Conditioning (CAAAC). Among his personal interests are running, fishing, and sailing. He happily resides in Pensacola, Fla.
sans
air conditioner.

UMMNI KHAN, PhD, followed the path of many idealists: she went to law school at Osgoode Hall, focusing her studies on human rights. After dabbling in the real world of legal practice, she scuttled back to university to earn a Master’s of Law from the University of Michigan and then completed a doctorate of law from the University of Toronto, writing her dissertation on the interpenetration of legal and cultural notions of SM. Her dissertation topic was a terrific conversation starter at law school schmooze functions. That is, when it wasn’t totally awkward. She is now an Assistant Professor at Carleton University. When she is not challenging sexual totalitarianism, Ummni can be found snuggling with her sweetheart Brian or brainstorming costume ideas for the next Halloween.

SHANE W. KRAUS is currently a clinical-community doctoral student in the psychology department at Bowling Green State University. He has published two peer reviewed journal articles on pornography, one on pornography and adolescent sexuality and another on pornography use and adult sexual dysfunction. His current research focuses on understanding the influence of various legal elements and extralegal factors on jury decision making, and the treatment of addictive and compulsive behaviors (e.g., drugs and alcohol, pornography). He received his MA in forensic psychology from Castleton State College in 2007. In his spare time, which appears to be in short supply these days, he enjoys activities such as hunting, hiking, swimming, and spending time with his incredible wife.

CASEY MCKITTRICK received his PhD in English from the University of Texas at Austin in 2005. He has taught at the University of Texas, Rice University, and the University of Miami. Since 2005 he has held a tenure-track position in the department of English at Western Michigan University, where he teaches film, American literature, and studies in gender and sexuality. He is currently completing a book-length study called
Juvenile Desires: Visual Pleasure and the Mise-en-Scène of American Childhood
. He has published essays and reviews in the film journal
The Velvet Light Trap
, the anthology
Writing as Revision
, the
African American National Biography
, and
The Ethnic and Third World Review of Books
. He is thrilled to be contributing to this volume because the subject matter is close to his heart, and because he can finally surf porn websites without feeling professionally compromised.

MIMI MARINUCCI, PhD, has published on various topics at the intersection of philosophy, feminism, and popular culture. As Associate Professor of both Philosophy and Women’s & Gender Studies at Eastern Washington University, Marinucci seduces students to participate in a perverse lifestyle choice of constant question, particularly with regard to established assumptions about sex, gender, and sexuality.

JONATHAN MILES, PhD, is an instructor of applied ethics at Bowling Green State University, a confirmed role-playing and comic book geek, husband and father, and passionate free speech advocate, even going so far as to co-host and produce his own political talk show called
Political Animals
. He has also contributed to
Heroes and Philosophy
, another anthology in the Pop Culture and Philosophy series by Wiley-Blackwell. When he is not teaching or rough housing with his toddler, he can be found yelling at less intelligent political talk shows or playing various role-playing games.

DAVE MONROE is an instructor of applied ethics at St. Petersburg College and adjunct instructor of philosophy at the University of Tampa. He is also the co-founder and current president of the Lighthearted Philosophers’ Society, a group of philosophers meeting annually to seriously discuss humor and laugh at the seriousness of philosophy.
Porn – Philosophy for Everyone
is the second Philosophy for Everyone volume he’s edited; the first is
Food and Philosophy
(Wiley-Blackwell, 2008, with Fritz Allhoff). In his spare time, Dave loves spending time with (and creating culinary experiments for) his inspiring and beautiful wife, Rhonda, obsessing over the Detroit Red Wings and Tigers, laughing, and watching naked people do naughty things.

CHAD PARKHILL sometimes envies real philosophers who work on real problems, until he realizes that being a real philosopher involves writing detailed papers on problems of reference and possible world theory. Not being a real philosopher, Chad gets to write papers on things like Daft Punk’s existentialism, “girl–girl” pornography, Stephen King’s homophobia, and the perverse history of heterosexuality. He is working on a PhD at the University of Queensland; when he graduates and finds himself jobless he may well revise his position on the kinds of papers he ought to be writing.

ROGER T. PIPE is an adult movie critic and journalist. He has spent the last sixteen years reviewing over six thousand adult movies and websites for his website www.RogReviews.com and was inducted into the X-Rated Critics Organization’s Hall of Fame in 2009. When he is not steering readers away from bad porn, Roger enjoys reading anything by Stephen King, caring way too much about his devolved Boston Celtics, and spending time with his incredibly understanding wife and their two sons.

GRAM PONANTE (an anagram of “Porn Magnate”) is an editor at Hollywood-based Mavervorl Media. He self-applied the honorific “America’s Beloved Porn Journalist” in 2005 and, for lack of any competing interest, it became true. His trenchant, grave, and often flawed observations about the fascinating business of American and international pornography are consumed by thousands of readers daily on his virtual home base at GramPonante.com. Ponante lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children and, like Wittgenstein, keeps in mind that “even if in such cases I can’t be mistaken, isn’t it possible that I am drugged?”

DAVID ROSE, PhD, knows too much about French cinema, given his adolescent years and having to watch the BBC 2 film club for any hint of eroticism. Now, he need only turn on the TV after 10 p.m., but is busy working out the parental controls because his kids are getting too big. He also thinks that Google Chrome’s Incognita mode is advertised falsely and dreads the day his children work that one out. He is employed by philosophical studies at Newcastle University and every so often he writes articles on Hegel,Vico, and moral stuff.

DYLAN RYDER is a native Californian and an adult film actress who has appeared on most of the popular mainstream porn websites, including brazzers.com and bangbros.com, and has appeared in DVDs from companies such as Devil’s Films,Third Degree, and Hustler. Dylan has also worked for a non-profit organization offering substance abuse counseling to inmates in California prisons. She remains close with her family, who support her with her various endeavors, including porn.

TAIT SZABO, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin College, Washington County. In his spare time he consumes far less pornography than his involvement in this anthology may seem to indicate, preferring instead a wide variety of cinema, television shows, magazines, and other entertainment.

FIONA WOOLLARD, PhD, spends most of her time thinking about sex and death or, as she puts it on her academic homepage, has research interests in philosophy of sex and normative ethics, particularly issues surrounding killing and letting die.This makes her a hit at dinner parties. She is a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Sheffield.When not in Sheffield, she lives with her fiancé Ryan in a small village in Oxfordshire and enjoys running by the Thames.