No, this is not an attempt to generate more hits! (well, maybe just a little.) The financial crisis/credit crunch has had an impact on every sector of the world economy; large companies are failing by the score, and governments, keen to preserve jobs and stimulate their respective economies are injecting cash into failing enterprises. While the impending bankruptcy of General Motors is the hot topic at the moment, spare a though for one of the worlds largest industries- pornography. Here’s a link to an article from the U.K’s Guardian Newspaper, which discusses Larry Flint’s appeal to the U.S. government for a $5 billion dollar stimulus package.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jan/08/larry-flynt-porn-industry-bailout
Pornography is a massive industry, I’ve seen figures for world-wide annual revenue ranging from US $ 100 billion to $150 billion (its accounting practices are pretty murky). That’s roughly the GDP of New Zealand! Now, I don’t really want to get into a debate about pornography and social harm in the popular sense, but I would like to look at it from the perspective of commodity fetishism/reification.
To say that person’s involved in the pornography industry are reified/objectified is not particularly new, or necessarily even a criticism. People instrumentalise/objectify/reifiy each other in far less controversial contexts; Hegel’s definition of civil society springs to mind. What I’m interested in is the the reification of sexual relationships, and the effect this has on broader social interaction.
Pornography seems to have many similarities to the Lukácian ’spectacle’ of capitalist labour relations. The sexual act is commodified, certainly, but the more interesting point, I think, is the passivity of those who purchase the sexual act in its commodified form. What effect does this passivity have? Again the empirical data is a little unclear. I’ve noticed quite a few articles lately in the popular press talking about pornography’s role in reducing sex drive and so damaging relationships. On the other had, one quite often sees articles discussing the role of pornography in stimulating libido to an unacceptable extent i.e. rape and sexual assault- most recently in the context of the Northern Territory intervention. Neither outcome is particularly good. But the question still remains, how/why does the passivity of the spectacle result in negative outcomes? Is it the lack of ‘visceral’ experience in obtaining sexual gratification? The ease of access to sexual experience? Or even the lack of ‘mytification’ (in the Marxist sense.) I’d be interested in hearing people’s responses.
