A new web series by Canada’s TV5 addresses sex around the world – and the series about sex in America (Le sexe aux États-Unis) just got uploaded. The short (average 5 minute) episodes encompass a wide variety of topics that range from boot-blacking (fetish) to porn viewing. I’m in the two episodes I’ve linked to here – no embedding enabled, sadly. The abstinence episode (L’abstinence, vraiment!) gave me a great chance to talk about working with SFSI.org (and some of what we do) and the horrifying effect of Bush-era public school sex ed (and how long it’ll take us to get out of thie mess).
In The Effects of Porn episode, I’m up against Vivid Video’s Steve Hirsh, and strangely, a very anti-porn sounding Betty Dodson. I think those familiar with her work that are pro-women, pro-porn and pro-female-porn-viewers will be shocked to see how anti she is. They interview plenty of anti-porn Americans… And then I’m the antidote to the venom: I think you’ll like the fierce things I have to say about women watching porn, porn distribution changing female sexuality – and hell motherfucking yeah – they gave me the last word about porn.
Also in that episode – look for unintended cameos by Jiz Lee and April Flores in the B-roll!
Thank you to everyone at Canada’s TV5 for being a wonderful outlet to work with and such a fantastic documentary crew. Videos are in English with French (Canadian) subtitles. All short episodes will be online until December 31, 2011.
Congratulations, Violet! I’ve like-shared the first episode featuring your work promoting better sex ed.: important stuff you got out there.
@ Maggie: nice linking to a video featuring a more real, unedited Betty Dodson on porn in fact embracing very hardcore porn. This article by Dodson on the porn wars is also pertinent to this thread: http://dodsonandross.com/blogs/betty-dodson/2011/04/porn-wars.
And I actually find Dodson’s critique of porn in the above video extremely crucial in its focus on a growing number of women requesting cosmetic surgery of their genitalia based on what they may see in mainstream porn; a growing trend I cover here: http://www.lovesexfamily.com/2011/04/womens-genitals-infantilized.html.
@ Theresa and Epiphora: Having researched Dodson’s work for my book on New porn. By women, for women and men, I know that Dodson–as a sex-positive artist, writer, masturbation activist, and filmmaker–has indeed been aware of and supported & promoted “all the amazing pro-woman, pro-gender variances, pro-body diversity, and feminist porn that has come out over the past 5 years” – and before that.
“she seemed unaware of all the amazing pro-woman, pro-gender variances, pro-body diversity, and feminist porn that has come out over the past 5 years.” Theresa, you’re SPOT ON. That’s exactly what popped into my head when she said “male entertainment.” It’s really not helpful to anyone to continue acting like all porn is made expressly for men and by men.
Very cool! Thanks for all the great sex-positive work you do. So cool that they gave you the last word. Did you see that study recently done in Australia (yeah, i know there are tons of these studies) that continues to reaffirm the fact that watching porn is beneficial for sexuality, actually reduces sexual assault, etc?
Betty’s clip really does seem strangely edited; here’s another clip of her talking about her favorite porn from her website.
Yay Canada (in particular Quebec) for making these, and for giving you enough (web) screen time to actually get points across clearly! Makes me feel more optimistic about my increasingly Right-leaning country. :)
Very well spoken Violet!
It’s hard for me to tell from this small bit whether Betty is anti-porn or whether she is blaming porn for some behaviors and choices that women are making. (Maybe that is anti-porn?!?) I agree that it’s sad to see women or men augment themselves simply because they feel they have to versus because they want to, but I hardly blame porn for this. I imagine there is just as much physical alterations happening outside porn as inside it. (No pun intended!) If someone wants to make themselves look different than I believe that is their choice.
What I found most odd about what Betty was saying was that she seemed unaware of all the amazing pro-woman, pro-gender variances, pro-body diversity, and feminist porn that has come out over the past 5 years. (In fact I’m pretty sure that some of her friends/allies have been making it.)
Having looked at the porn video, I think that the second Betty Dodson excerpt was cut from a much longer interview, and chosen for the ‘shock value’. Especially since the earlier excerpt with her seemed to be quite porn positive–she said she got off on it, if she put herself in the mindset of the guy in what she was watching, after all!
(I happen to have a similar reaction to the idea of vaginoplasty, by the way. Why cut off something that is sensitive and can be value-added for sex?)