MORE SENSELESS ACTS OF BLOGGERY

Odds are by now you’ve come across the book 50 Shades Of Grey in yr local bookstore – or, failing that, you’ve come across some TV news stories or Facebook posts or something about the book. In which case you probably know three things about it:

(1) It’s got lotsa BDSM sex in it

(2) It’s poorly written

(3) It’s insanely popular, despite (1).

Much has been written about it primarily because of points (1) and (3), and most of it because an awful lot of people can’t get their heads around the idea that women not only like porn (OMG!), but BDSM porn (ZOMFG!).

Also, because of its apparent popularity with a particular female demo, they’re calling it “mommy porn” (which is both sensationalistic and a bit creepy-sounding).

I’m writing about it partly because it’s been popping up on bookshelves in Asia (I can personally confirm that the whole series is available in major bookstores in Hong Kong, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur) and partly because of all the dithering it’s inspired.

Newsweek did a cover story on it (with a poorly conceived feminism spin)! 

Libraries are refusing to carry it!

Actual BDSM practitioners are concerned over inaccuracies!

Gilbert Gottfried is reading it out loud on the Internet!

The library angle is the most interesting to me – it’s not often you see libraries refusing to stock certain books before uppity parents and Christian groups get a chance to demand they remove them. Of course, the difference is that librarians aren’t obliged to carry something just because there’s demand for it. Also, anti-censorship people can point to Lolita and Lady Chatterly’s Lover all they want – comparing E.L. James to Nabokov or Lawrence is like comparing Dan Brown to Grahame Greene.

However, it’s a fair bet that some libraries are probably more worried about the sexy bits than the writing quality. Which raises the broader question of where does one draw the line between erotica and porn, whether there should be a line at all, and whether libraries should have a section for it.

Personally, I think they should. I think erotica is as valid a genre and a cultural signpost as techno-thrillers and urban fantasy. And as Annie Sprinkles once said (I think – or possibly it was Suzie Bright), the difference between “erotica” and “porn” is the difference between whether you order wine or beer with your meal in a fancy restaurant.

So why not carry 50SoG? Some have argued that “if it gets more people to go to the library and/or read books, do it”. To which I would add: If gets more people to read erotica/porn, go for it.

DISCLAIMER: I haven’t read 50SoG, no. And I don’t plan to. From what I’ve read, it sounds like an overhyped romance novel with a BDSM angle.

More to the point, my experience with erotica is that even when it’s by someone who knows how to write, it falls short of my expectations in terms of both sexiness and narrative.

Which is why I started writing my own, of course.

Everything went grey,

This is dF

I get email.

Sometimes it has things like this attached to it.



Which is nice.

One thing I like about this – apart from the Leia’s Metal Bikini angle – is that it’s an interesting image regardless of the context. The narrative construct of Return of The Jedi is what contextualizes it, but imagine what someone who has never seen RotJ would make of what is, outside of the Star Wars continuum, basically a statue of a scantily clad female slave strangling a giant moon-faced slug with the chains that bind her to it.

Post-feminist statement? Asphyxiatic tentacle bondage pr0n? A metaphor of US political discourse?

Yes, these are the things I think about at two in the morning after a few whiskeys.

Break the chain,

This is dF

Yr keen observation of the day [from Violet Blue]:


Seems obvious when you put it that way. Consensual torture for sexual gratification = evil. Non-consensual torture of real prisoners held indefinitely without trial = moral and justified as long as the American govt does it.

Values!

Because as Dick Cheney will tell you, there’s no point being a sadist if the subject is having a good time.

Just ask Orin Scrivello, DDS.



Open wide,

This is dF

I’ve never had any real ambition to live in Los Angeles.

Until I saw that Meltdown Comics is throwing a party for Secret Identity (the book featuring Joe Shuster's BDSM comics years) – with Suicide Girls models acting out scenes from the book.

( Click here for eye-catching naughty flyer! )

Oh my.

Join me in LA,

This is dF

ITEM [via Violet Blue]: SF Weekly journalist Matt Smith brags about his role in having fetish porn site Kink.com kicked out of a California state funded, nonprofit job enhancement training program – simply because he’s positive that all of the people you see in BDSM/fetish porn are either Evil or the victims of Evil, and that yr taxes shouldn't pay for Evil.

Not that he ever actually asked anyone who works at or for Kink.com (all of whom are also taxpayers). Cos, you know, they’d just lie about it and stuff.

So, as a public service, Team Def provides balance to the Force in 3, 2, 1 ...



PS: Smith has apparently been getting a lot of negative coverage and commentary for his hack job. He’s been responding with the lame My First Amendment Rights Are Bigger Than Yr First Amendment Rights defense – i..e. “My First Amendment right to say what I want means yr not allowed to criticize me for it”.

Sounds like someone needs to cut back on the caffeine, etc etc.

DISCLAIMER: Okay, I admit all this is an excuse to post that picture. But I happened to see this story on Tiny Nibbles and thought it was worth passing on, as people like Matt Smith annoy the almighty f*** out of me.

Take five,

This is dF

Good morning InterSluts!

This is yr Monday morning wake-up call.

And it is Teh Blasphemiez.



Photo by Terry O'Neill, who felt that "the Sixties were a decade that "crucified" the ideal of womanhood because it valued women only for their sexuality."

So he made Raquel Welch into Sexy Jesus In Bondage as a publicity still for this movie.



In retrospect, of course, this would make great Creationist propaganda if they changed the title to Two Thousand Years BC and if Raquel put on a toga or something. If schools have to teach Creationism, I think they should be required to show this film.

The way we were,

This is dF

For those of you wondering, “Where is dEFROG’s April Fool’s post?”, the answer is: I don’t have one.

At least, I don’t think I do.

To explain: we don’t have AFD here in Hong Kong, or really anywhere outside of the US and the UK. And while I appreciate a practical joke as much as the next person, the fact is most AFD hoax stories aren’t funny, and have lost their impact ever since The Onion went online. I mean, what’s the point?

(Although The Telegraph’s story about how govt scientists have discovered how to convert swimming fish into electricity is pretty good.)

The other problem is that in the 21st Century, where real life is getting weirder every day, it’s getting harder to know when a story is a prank or not.

Here, I’ll show you.

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING STORIES IS FAKE?

1. From New Scientist: Two studies of hormonal changes associated with BDSM play find that spanking, bondage and flogging helps bring consenting couples closer together.

2. From Reuters: Reigning Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza visits Guantanamo Bay and blogs: "It was a loooot of fun!”

3. From Car And Driver: President Obama bans Chevrolet and Dodge from sponsoring NASCAR events as part of his auto industry bailout plan.

( Answers behind the jump! )

Honorable mention to the Conficker virus, which was real, but the way the non-tech media cheerfully milked the story for all it was worth as the new Y2K that will destroy the motherf***ing Internet and take yr bank account with it, it might as well have been a hoax. Threat Level’s hilarious coverage of the Interweb Conficker meltdown speaks volumes.

Won’t get fooled again,

This is dF

ITEM [via Def Agent lorilori ]: As the economy tanks, many women who lost their office jobs are doing freelance dominatrix work to supplement their incomes.



The “gig economy”, it’s called.

Interesting stuff, though probably a limited trend, and really, it’s only an excuse for me to post an Eric Stanton picture.

Good gig,

This is dF

ITEM [via io9]: Coming this April: Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-Creator Joe Shuster.



Published by ComicArts, the new graphic novel imprint from publisher Harry N. Abrams, it covers Shuster's relatively unknown 1950s sideline at illustrator for S&M magazine Nights of Horror.

A lot of the art is strikingly good.

( And probably NSFW. Beware. )

To hear executive editor Charles Kochman tell it, it sounds like a fascinating story, as Nights of Horror was banned by the US govt in the 50s when comics were being blamed for America’s ongoing moral death spiral, but no one realized that one of the artists was the guy who created a character that was the embodiment of Truth, Justice and The American Way™.

In retrospect, it’s hard to see how they could have missed it, since Shuster apparently didn’t stray too far from his basic Clark/Lois character design.

( Exhibit A! )

To say nothing of the dead giveaways that appeared in the actual Superman comics.

Looking forward to the next installment featuring William Moulton Marston (creator of Wonder Woman, who also enjoyed herself some rope-play). Surely he did a little something on the side as well.

Man of steel,

This is dF

This will teach me to visit Undead Film Critic right before bedtime.

( The safe word is ... Lego! )

Incidentally, now is as good a time as any to mention that I have a birthday coming up next month.

Not that you have to get me anything. I’m just saying.

That's it, I'm turning off the Internet now.

Plastic fantastic,

This is dF