Comments on: Not Safe For Work http://codepoetics.com/poetix/2006/08/22/not-safe-for-work/ mocking the ways of true grown men Sat, 06 Mar 2010 04:10:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Dominic http://codepoetics.com/poetix/2006/08/22/not-safe-for-work/comment-page-1/#comment-5870 Dominic Thu, 24 Aug 2006 13:59:10 +0000 http://codepoetics.com/poetix/?p=299#comment-5870 There might very well be non-hippy fantasies of sexual freedom - not to mention practices thereof. Asexuality is of course a form of sexual freedom, and the one I'd be inclined to take as the null case for all the others: begin with the absence even of inner compulsion, and then add on rationales for sexual activity from there. The trouble is that it's so hard to think of rationales for sexual activity - mostly what we have is rationalisations for compulsions. But Reich would be of help here - or any operationalising of sexual freedom as part of a more broadly conceived project of liberty: the orgasm as functional rather than teleological... There might very well be non-hippy fantasies of sexual freedom – not to mention practices thereof.

Asexuality is of course a form of sexual freedom, and the one I’d be inclined to take as the null case for all the others: begin with the absence even of inner compulsion, and then add on rationales for sexual activity from there. The trouble is that it’s so hard to think of rationales for sexual activity – mostly what we have is rationalisations for compulsions. But Reich would be of help here – or any operationalising of sexual freedom as part of a more broadly conceived project of liberty: the orgasm as functional rather than teleological…

]]> By: Owen http://codepoetics.com/poetix/2006/08/22/not-safe-for-work/comment-page-1/#comment-5869 Owen Thu, 24 Aug 2006 13:37:03 +0000 http://codepoetics.com/poetix/?p=299#comment-5869 <em>The immediate object of Dworkin’s polemics on pornography and intercourse is, necessarily, the hippy glorification of free love and of pornography as the articulation of a wholly novel erotic freedom. In the hippy fantasy of sexual freedom, pornography stands for frankness versus hypocrisy, explicitness versus repression; the pornographer appears as swashbuckling auteur and champion of free speech</em> There is much truth in this, and this is what i wanted to extract Makavejev from to an extent (from stuff like <em>screw</em> and <em>hustler</em> which plays off its swashbuckling libertarianism) <em>however</em> the 'fantasy of sexual freedom' I do think is worth salvaging from this kind of nonsense- as the reverse is still utterly pervasive and ideological- see for example the grotesquely smug defence of coupledom by Christina Odone in the Observer last Sunday- 'instead of 'just say no', we should say- '<em>just with you</em>'... The immediate object of Dworkin’s polemics on pornography and intercourse is, necessarily, the hippy glorification of free love and of pornography as the articulation of a wholly novel erotic freedom. In the hippy fantasy of sexual freedom, pornography stands for frankness versus hypocrisy, explicitness versus repression; the pornographer appears as swashbuckling auteur and champion of free speech

There is much truth in this, and this is what i wanted to extract Makavejev from to an extent (from stuff like screw and hustler which plays off its swashbuckling libertarianism) however the ‘fantasy of sexual freedom’ I do think is worth salvaging from this kind of nonsense- as the reverse is still utterly pervasive and ideological- see for example the grotesquely smug defence of coupledom by Christina Odone in the Observer last Sunday- ‘instead of ‘just say no’, we should say- ‘just with you‘…

]]> By: bat020 http://codepoetics.com/poetix/2006/08/22/not-safe-for-work/comment-page-1/#comment-5834 bat020 Thu, 24 Aug 2006 10:45:01 +0000 http://codepoetics.com/poetix/?p=299#comment-5834 "a deep and macabre pessimism of the intellect" spot on “a deep and macabre pessimism of the intellect”

spot on

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