File spoon-archives/marxism-feminism.archive/marxism-feminism_1997/marxism-feminism.9712, message 58


Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 21:05:01 -0600
From: THAT <THAT-AT-unforgettable.com>
Subject: Re: M-FEM: High-Tech Repressive Desublimation?


So the medium of pornography has become more sophisticated? So what? As
long as the status quo continues (for-profit driven society), who are we to
argue against it? Of course, that said, child porn should be offlimits, for
obvious reasons (children do not make those decisions to market sex acts,
the adults do).

As for Gore's shmoozing with the bible thumpers, are we surprised?  The
Religious Right has made significant leaps in their grassmovement, and
power is in the numbers, and the lefty numbers, as splintered as the lefty
progressive groups are, simply lack.

I've read finger-pointing posts ad nauseum.... I'd like to read more
creative and strategic suggestions as to how the lefty progressives can
join forces with other progressives, without stepping on any delicate toes,
if you will.... you know how identity politics can become don't you? ...
sigh.... I sure as hell do.

No apologies,

THAT
"These steps promote a family friendly Internet by giving parents the
tools they need to provide their children with a safe educational and
entertaining experience online," Gore said in a statement delivered at
the Internet Online Summit "Focus on Children."

Gore and
At 07:09 PM 12/12/97, you wrote:
>Marcuse wrote that technical progress makes possible the integration of
>sex and commodity production...early Gang of Four - the neo-Marxist funk
>band (labeled as such by Greil Marcus), not Mao's widow and three other
>Chinese officials accused of counter-revolutionary activities following
>Mao's death - identified sex with economic exchange but retained a
>sense of physical touch...however alienating, there seemed the
>possibility of interpersonal connection - people engaged in mutually
>desired acts - if the social relations could be de-mystified...but in
>the era of X-rated tele-fetishism, driven, in part, by what Mark Dery
>describes as "body horror, an all-consuming obsession with entertainment
>media, and the disillusion of traditional notions of community"
>(*Escape Velocity*/1995, p. 222), sexual relations have become even
>more reified...Michael
>
>Forwarded message:
>Copyright =A9 1997 Reuters
>TORONTO (December 7, 1997).

>This wasn't Comdex. This was AdultDex 97, the three-year old show that
>celebrates all that is nude and (perhaps) exciting in the world of
>pornography. A show that juggles the silicon along with the silicone.
>
>It was the third annual show for Adultdex, which came into being after
>the makers of porn software -- the booming underside of the computer
>industry -- were asked to leave Comdex.
>
>One can understand why Comdex officials got a little nervous about
>housing that side of the industry in the same show. Conventioneers to
>Adultdex were treated to a strip show, a bevy of barely dressed models
>who mixed freely with the crowds, and numerous displays of the most
>graphic movies and CD-ROM productions.
>
>But if you looked past all the bare flesh, one could see that some of
>the brightest minds of the computer industry were at work on the darker
>side of cyberspace.
>
>Pornography has gone high-tech and interactive. Now you can get programs
>where you type or use your mouse to get the actors on the screen to move
>to favorite positions or acts, and this can be done with live models
>over the Web or through static CD-ROM titles.
>
>It has been a rule of thumb, though hard to verify, that the sex pages
>on the Internet are the ones making the real money outside of the large
>conventional sites. And it was clear from the crowds of straying Comdex
>types, that sex is, as always, a big draw.
>
>"They are aware I'm out there," said Mimi Miyagi, a porn star who has
>given up the movie business to focus entirely on her Web site. Mimi, who
>spent the show signing autographs and posing for pictures with
>conventioneers, said her site is getting 250,000 hits a day.
>
>This flood of high-tech porn, however, is a cause of great concern to
>lawmakers all over the world, including in the United States, where
>attempts continue apace to outlaw or somehow mitigate the industry's
>exposure to children.
>
>"It's very important that the Internet become a family-friendly place,"
>Disney Online President Jake Winebaum told a news conference last week
>as online companies and the U.S. government launched new efforts to
>battle porn.
>
>Vice President Al Gore unveiled new initiatives to educate parents and
>children on the dangers of pornography on the Internet and promised the
>government would issue a parental guide to the Internet. He said the
>National Center for Missing and Exploited Children would set up an
>emergency hotline where parents could report suspicious or illegal
>Internet activity.
>
>"These steps promote a family friendly Internet by giving parents the
>tools they need to provide their children with a safe educational and
>entertaining experience online," Gore said in a statement delivered at
>the Internet Online Summit "Focus on Children."

>
>
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http://www.geocities.com/wellesley/2122
> 


   

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