The New York Times on Monday discovered the problem with pornography: Not enough context. That’s apparently why the esteemed paper asked the actress of films like Bad Girls 7 to discuss the possibility of “good porn.” Yes, this was in the coveted Times-op-ed position.
After explaining her background in porn, Stoya (no last name) explained the importance of “context”: “Context reminds people of all the things they don’t see in the final product. It underscores that pornography is a performance, that just as in ballet or professional wrestling, we are putting on a show.”
She added:
Shine Louise Houston, whose production company is dedicated to queer pornography, has live-streamed behind the scenes from the set, enabling viewers to see what making pornography is really like. I have always tried to provide at least minimum context for my explicit work, through blog posts and in promotional copy.
Apparently, the real purpose of watching porn is to learn more about the “murky intersection of capitalism, publicity and sexuality.”
When viewers have access to context, they can see us discussing our boundaries, talking about getting screened for sexually transmittable infections and chatting about how we choose partners. Occasionally, they can even see us laying bare how we navigate the murky intersection of capitalism, publicity and sexuality.
This being The New York Times, we can’t avoid a call for gun control, even in an analysis of “good porn.”
But we’re in a moment when the industry is once again under scrutiny. Pornography, we’re told, is warping the way young people, especially young men, think about sex, in ways that can be dangerous. (The Florida Legislature even implied last month that I and my kind are more worrisome than AR-15s when it voted to declare pornography a public health hazard, even as it declined to consider a ban on sales of assault weapons.)
Remember, the Times is the same paper that mocked the new Death Wish remake as something designed for conservative “imbeciles” who support the NRA. Maybe Death Wish just needed more “context.”
