Sasha Grey bores me but I do think she is smart and has that special something that people want to see in porn. She deserves the fame she is receiving. With that fame comes a lot of influence and I do think she is coached. In fact I'm sure of it and I give her credit for taking advice. She did a big movie, of course she had a bunch of older wiser people telling her how to answer difficult questions.
I hear this time and time again and from the horses mouth I want to emphasize that porn is a fantasy. We go to a set, get tons of unnecessary makeup, withstand long waits, sweat under hot lights, deal with annoying photographers and sometimes costars, to perform something that we may or may not enjoy.
Its a job. My costars have not expressed to me wanting to be violent off camera. Most just like to fuck. They want to please the woman as much as they want to be pleased. I would say about 1% of my fans have violent fantasies that they want to realize. I never encourage them.
Bravo for all you toting BDSM. I play a Dom on video sometimes and while it's not my thing off-camera, my fans love it. I tend to giggle when in a corset holding a whip.
Porn gets such a bad rap because the violence is perpetuated in the media. I say get over it. It's not all about violence. And while I do agree that porn is made for men, women also enjoy it. If that's what gets your partner off and its ok with you why not try to enjoy it too.
Do I think porn promotes violence and degrading of women? Not so much anymore. While I do think there is a fraction of people who see a violent porn and want to act on it, that fraction is much smaller than the amount of people who watch it for fantasy sake. People watch it to get off. Shit! I watch it to get off! It's fast and I don't have time.
Most sane people have bizarre sexual fantasies and don't want to tell or even act on them (for example, rape porn, drunk porn, sleeping chick porn). It's normal, very normal, even rape porn. Most important, it's private. And if you have a problem with rape porn blame the media and Hollywood for making that a popular fantasy.
I started porn when I was 32, I'm 36 now. I don't think I could have handled doing porn at 18 or 21. But if Sasha Grey can then good for her. Her opinions don't really matter to me. I've heard all the arguments and opinions I can stand.
Again, the influence it has on people? I am more disturbed by the commercials with the drunk dorks who rent puppies to get hot chick attention. It seems that the idea of lying to a girl to get her ass is still ok. But porn is not?
An aside, I'd like to outlaw the word poly-amorous.
I don't disagree with her appraisal of how the spouses of adulterous politicians deal with their husband's infidelity (often they do know). Her point is to normalize what is hidden and considered shameful. I can't disagree with that.
@LilyBonesBurana: We don't know they know. But, to me, Sasha's comments fall within a critique of marriage as an institution where both parties sign on with certain expectations, and those expectations may have little to do with a romantic love ideal. In a heteronormative, patriarchal paradigm, a man needs a wife to bear and raise his children, care for their home, and, in modern contexts, accompany him to company/campaign dinners and the like. In that same paradigm, a woman needs a man to provide her with children and feed, clothe and house the family. She needs to be part of a couple to be a functioning member of society (same vice versa for the man).
I am describing the patriarchal paradigm here, NOT how I believe things should be.
Now, the parameters of marriage contract as they are given on a wedding day (pledging fidelity, to forsake all others 'till death do us part, etc.) do not include having "someone on the side." The letter of the law doesn't allow for it, but I think in many cases the unwritten rules of a relationship do.
Sasha didn't say ALL women in these situations have a don't ask-don't tell arrangement with their husbands. The people who live their lives within this paradigm are both men and women and, depending on your views on free will and personal choice (that is, how much we as humans actually have), they to some extent or another chose it.
In the passage from the interview quoted, I see her remarks as critiquing patriarchy, not victim-blaming political wives.
@hannelore: I wasn't arguing against Gray's critique.
I was simply asking for a cite on the poster's (often they do know) portion of "I don't disagree with her appraisal of how the spouses of adulterous politicians deal with their husband's infidelity (often they do know)"
It's nice that so many women actually do get something out of porn, but don't fucking kid yourselves, ladies, porn isn't made for us. It's made using us. Any enjoyment we get out of it? Is incidental.
@lisas: You know, this is a really good point to make.
We always see women like her talking up porn...but I'd like to hear what her co-workers have to say about the empowerment they get from choking, dick-slapping, and other semi-violent acts done to her during a shoot. The enjoyment they got from peeing and jizzing on a woman's face.
Simply put...would we accept this if her male co-stars came out and said it empowered them and they felt it was sexy and ok to do this to a woman on camera?
Flip the perspective and it starts to get kind of horrifying.
@lisas: Mainstream porn anyways, there are some very nice "by lesbians for lesbians" type companies out there. The one I'm thinking of at the moment's name escapes me, but they shoot porn which uses ACTUAL COUPLES, and just let them do their thing, so they like, love each other and are sweet to each other.
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Can Jezebel PLEASE have an article or 3 on BDSM, S&M, etc...
A LOT of people on this comment thread don't realize that many HEALTHY women (and men!) get off via being submissive, enjoy being chocked, having their hair pulled, their ass slapped, being called names and belittled, and that there is nothing wrong with this type of sex when it is practiced correctly (safe, sober, sane, safe word.... I remember the bylaws having lots of S's when I learned about this type of sex).
There is some serious need of education on this topic.
Although the porn industry could do well to have a little more high profile S&M where the male is the one being submissive, because A) I'm sure there are both men and women who want to see that, and B) It will help people understand that this type of sex isn't supposed to be about abuse against women.
@Ariadne27: I like all that, too. But my problem here isn't with bdsm between couples. My problem is the idea that porn in general is okay AND that violent rape porn is okay. It's NOT. If you want to play that with your husband there is nothing gross or demeaning about it, but doing it on camera and then turning around and making it sound like everybody who doesn't like it is a prude or a hypocrite isn't acceptable.
@hollymar: I mean, people have rape fantasies too. It's something couples might engage in, with a safe word.
Porn in general though is a whole separate issue...
I think there is a healthy place for porn in people's lives. I don't tend to watch it, but I know many men and women who do.
And if you happen to be turned on by foot fetishes or orgies or rape fantasies or anything like that, why wouldn't you watch what turns you on? I wouldn't feel comfortable watching Sasha Grey's porn as described, but for people who enjoy those acts in their own sex lives (i.e. violent scenarios), it makes sense for the porn they watch to reflect those same acts. Why would they watch non-fetished porn if they themselves act out the same fetishes?
However, I completely agree with you that accusing people who have problems with or just don't enjoy porn as prudes and hypocrites is entirely unacceptable.
I want to like her, but she's had so much hipster kool-aid she has BECOME hipster kool-aid. It just makes me want to run screaming. She's smart and does porn, lots of smart people do porn. I'm confused other than the fact that she's very attractive why I should care about her, specifically, exactly.
Although I can totes understand why they wouldn't actually go looking for someone else to interview, I mean there might be feminist and some of them might be black, and I can't have a black feminist at my pool party! I mean there are going to be girls in their swim suits there.
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Her interviews always seem like she's saying, "If you're into monogamy and don't like my movies you're a boring prude!"
I get why some interviewers have made her defensive. However, insulting the many people who are actually interested in what she has to say, instead of how much can fit in her holes (that's not a judgement on her or the viewer, as I do watch porn), seems like an unwise tactic.
I thought the girlfriend experience was super boring and slow. She wasn't especially good in it either - a little wooden I thought. She does usually come off as smart, funny, and articulate in interviews. But I think she gets so much attention mostly because she doesn't really look like a porn star - she looks like a *real* girl, albeit one that is pretty enough that she could maybe have a shot at A-list mainstream Hollywood. And she's smart. She doesn't *have* to do porn, there are so many other things she could be doing (college for one). All this seems to make it more interesting for people to watch her in porn. I don't know why, but that annoys me.
@KentuckyBabe: I find her to be boring as well, and also annoying...she just sounds like she has a faux sense of maturity. I don't find her to be enlightening or particularly bright.
@KentuckyBabe: Ditto. I think she's so popular right now because she makes a great spokesperson for the "today's porn is harmless and empowering" crowd. She's not blond and implanted or teetering under a drug problem, and she's relatively intelligent and self-possessed. For everyone out there who's felt guilty for getting off to a woman being abused and degraded on film, they can think "oh wait, Sasha Grey does this and she likes it."
But I don't find her to have a lot of charisma on screen, sexual or otherwise, and some of the praise of her intellect comes across as condescending, like it's some kind of miracle that a sex worker could be articulate. If she was just a regular actress, would anyone really think she was that special?
@Pantra: Agree with all the above. I find the whole self-consciously intellectual thing annoying too - anyone can carry around a copy of Sartre. I've been doing it for months because I haven't gotten around to cleaning out my backpack.
@Pantra: yeah, she never ever makes me feel like she really likes it. its like its all one big performance and there's no genuine sexual energy. it falls flat and becomes just super annoying after a while.
"Ideally everyone should have something extra on the side" ?
Um, doesn't the idea that her morals should dictate "everyone's" behavior sort of contradict her primary point?
How about this: when you enter into a relationship with someone, make sure that their key values are at least mostly aligned with yours. Otherwise, there will be lying, fights, and general unhappiness.
Granted, this attitude isn't as "sexy" as saying everyone should be able to have affairs with impugnity and those who disagree with that dictate are backwards prudes, but it does make a lot more sense.
You'd think that Sasha Grey would see the attitudes leveled at her and those in her profession and adopt a more "live and let live" approach to judging relationships. Instead, she has the same black-and-white views as the mainstream, just in the opposite order.
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@LilyBonesBurana: I blame "The Rules of the Game." No one in that (very good) movie can stop cheating on each other. And then at the end it's the non-French girl who gets her heart broken because she was stupid enough to actually fall in love with someone instead of just sleeping around.
Edited by Lizard in the Wires - synthesizer signals suspense! at 11/27/09 1:16 AM
Lizard in the Wires - synthesizer signals suspense! was starred
Lizard in the Wires - synthesizer signals suspense! was unstarred
I'm really conflicted when it comes to this girl. She's obviously pretty thoughful and definitely not stupid, and anytime I read an interview with her she makes some good points. But the kind of porn she's involved in producing makes me very uneasy. I'm not hugely into porn, but I dip in now and again and I seem to be coming across more and more of it recently where the girl is being slapped in the face or talked to like a piece of shit, and I just don't like the thought that this kind of violent, degrading stuff will become as ubiquitious in porn as the money shot.
@BiteMeMitchell!: I am planning on doing my graduate work on pornography and the impossible body, so I've been watching a porn off and on. I'm a pretty porn-positive person, but I too have been pretty bothered and/or astonished at some of the things that have crossed over into mainstream pornography. Things like slapping a woman's face with his dick did not use to be common place, and there really is is a level of intentional degredation there that's hard to argue with and used to be in fairly niche porn.
I'm mulling over what I'd want to say about it in an academic paper, though I'm not even in grad school yet.
@BiteMeMitchell!: I agree. I don't think the existence or actions of Sasha Grey is disturbing, but what is disturbing is the mainstreaming of her and the kind of porn she does. It makes me nervous to see porn stars who do what she does win porn actress of the year awards, as she did - we can only expect to see more violent degrading shit to follow.
Let's assume for the sake of argument that she's correct and most political wives know about it and accept it as the status quo, and are "paid" for dealing with it with money or material objects or just being able to say "my husband is a powerful politician" (social status).
Hey, that sounds like a lot of battered wives. They feel like they can't get out, and their husbands beat them and then feel bad and buy them gifts. They don't want to tell anybody because a) they are well provided for, and b) it would be humiliating to admit what he's doing to them.
'Americans act so shocked when they hear about politicians, celebrities, and athletes having affairs, but I have to believe that many men who are married to women with sex appeal are aware of affairs, and accept it. Don't ask, don't tell; as long as they receive something in exchange from their wife-whether that exchange be children, money, material items, or sex.'
[I]n most of the interview she sounds very mature and articulate
I personally found her to sound pretty immature and naive. Granted, she's got some interesting ideas but they're not fully formed or rather accessible in my opinion. If anything, I feel like some of the ideas she presented were fed to her from the porn industry. She came across as very defensive (completely understandable) and young.
I don't mean to lambaste her but I don't think she's in the position to be expressing her opinions on a wide range of subjects when it seems like she has very little experience or knowledge outside of her work.
@sapphire: I don't care what your opinion is as long as it's A) researched and B) can be backed up. She's got neither of those by the looks of it. Like Confucius said, "To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge."
@bluebears: "I don't think she's in the position to be expressing her opinions on a wide range of subjects when it seems like she has very little experience or knowledge outside of her work."
This doesn't sound like me to even be critiquing someone's opinion. I hear this as questioning her right to have opinions and talk about them.
@hamburgerhotdog: Are you serious? you only respect opinions which have been researched and can be backed up?? I like the new Julian Casablancas album. Do I need to research why I like it and back it up with something? It's an opinion. Opinion is not fact, therefore it shouldn't have to be 'backed up' or researched surely??
@chancentrate: Well, when your opinion is that you think political wives are, effectively, all lying drama queens who all know that their husbands are pussy/dick-hounds, it'd probably be a great idea to have some kind of factual basis for that opinion.
And yes, I respect the opinions of people who can tell me WHY they like the new Julian Casablancas album more than people who cannot. That is why music criticism exists!
This made me sad. How could such a beautiful young woman (one almost the same age as I) have such little respect for herself by allowing her body to be treated in such horrendous ways for the sake of a porn film? She doesn't sound stupid to me; on the contrary, she sounds fairly articulate.
@Porcelina: I'm sorry, but have you seen any porn that she's done? When she's gagging, crying, getting punched, slapped, etc., I have a hard time believing that it's respectful to one's own body.
@Porcelina: So is there ANY circumstance in your mind where it might seem like a woman doesn't respect herself? Like maybe if she voluntarily allowed herself to be punched and slapped, OUTSIDE of sex, of course? Because within the context of sex, it's all good, right?
Funny how people can excuse violence just because it's related to sex acts. Actually, not so funny.
@Porcelina: Yes indeed, choose your choice, but don't expect other people not to judge it. That's why we have functioning minds that disseminate information and ponder right from wrong. That's what high minds do. Judging gives us all a sense of how we want to live our own lives. And there is nothing wrong commenting on violence, "Gee, there's a problem somewhere with this situation..."
@Porcelina: You realize where "I choose my choice!" came from, right? Charlotte on SATC yelled it at Miranda in a pathetic fit of trying to shoehorn her decision to quit her job into feminism. It's typically used by feminists in a mocking way to those who bristle at any critique of anything women choose to do. Whatever happened to "the personal is political"?
@Porcelina: Wait wait wait, this whole topic aside, I am probably wrong here but – Isn't 'Choose your choice' an expression always used in jest? Do people actually use it seriously to defend every single thing they do?
11/27/09
Sasha Grey bores me but I do think she is smart and has that special something that people want to see in porn. She deserves the fame she is receiving. With that fame comes a lot of influence and I do think she is coached. In fact I'm sure of it and I give her credit for taking advice. She did a big movie, of course she had a bunch of older wiser people telling her how to answer difficult questions.
I hear this time and time again and from the horses mouth I want to emphasize that porn is a fantasy. We go to a set, get tons of unnecessary makeup, withstand long waits, sweat under hot lights, deal with annoying photographers and sometimes costars, to perform something that we may or may not enjoy.
Its a job. My costars have not expressed to me wanting to be violent off camera. Most just like to fuck. They want to please the woman as much as they want to be pleased. I would say about 1% of my fans have violent fantasies that they want to realize. I never encourage them.
Bravo for all you toting BDSM. I play a Dom on video sometimes and while it's not my thing off-camera, my fans love it. I tend to giggle when in a corset holding a whip.
Porn gets such a bad rap because the violence is perpetuated in the media. I say get over it. It's not all about violence. And while I do agree that porn is made for men, women also enjoy it. If that's what gets your partner off and its ok with you why not try to enjoy it too.
Do I think porn promotes violence and degrading of women? Not so much anymore. While I do think there is a fraction of people who see a violent porn and want to act on it, that fraction is much smaller than the amount of people who watch it for fantasy sake. People watch it to get off. Shit! I watch it to get off! It's fast and I don't have time.
Most sane people have bizarre sexual fantasies and don't want to tell or even act on them (for example, rape porn, drunk porn, sleeping chick porn). It's normal, very normal, even rape porn. Most important, it's private. And if you have a problem with rape porn blame the media and Hollywood for making that a popular fantasy.
I started porn when I was 32, I'm 36 now. I don't think I could have handled doing porn at 18 or 21. But if Sasha Grey can then good for her. Her opinions don't really matter to me. I've heard all the arguments and opinions I can stand.
Again, the influence it has on people? I am more disturbed by the commercials with the drunk dorks who rent puppies to get hot chick attention. It seems that the idea of lying to a girl to get her ass is still ok. But porn is not?
An aside, I'd like to outlaw the word poly-amorous.
11/27/09
11/26/09
11/26/09
11/26/09
I am describing the patriarchal paradigm here, NOT how I believe things should be.
Now, the parameters of marriage contract as they are given on a wedding day (pledging fidelity, to forsake all others 'till death do us part, etc.) do not include having "someone on the side." The letter of the law doesn't allow for it, but I think in many cases the unwritten rules of a relationship do.
Sasha didn't say ALL women in these situations have a don't ask-don't tell arrangement with their husbands. The people who live their lives within this paradigm are both men and women and, depending on your views on free will and personal choice (that is, how much we as humans actually have), they to some extent or another chose it.
In the passage from the interview quoted, I see her remarks as critiquing patriarchy, not victim-blaming political wives.
11/27/09
I was simply asking for a cite on the poster's (often they do know) portion of "I don't disagree with her appraisal of how the spouses of adulterous politicians deal with their husband's infidelity (often they do know)"
11/30/09
11/26/09
11/26/09
We always see women like her talking up porn...but I'd like to hear what her co-workers have to say about the empowerment they get from choking, dick-slapping, and other semi-violent acts done to her during a shoot. The enjoyment they got from peeing and jizzing on a woman's face.
Simply put...would we accept this if her male co-stars came out and said it empowered them and they felt it was sexy and ok to do this to a woman on camera?
Flip the perspective and it starts to get kind of horrifying.
11/27/09
11/26/09
A LOT of people on this comment thread don't realize that many HEALTHY women (and men!) get off via being submissive, enjoy being chocked, having their hair pulled, their ass slapped, being called names and belittled, and that there is nothing wrong with this type of sex when it is practiced correctly (safe, sober, sane, safe word.... I remember the bylaws having lots of S's when I learned about this type of sex).
There is some serious need of education on this topic.
Although the porn industry could do well to have a little more high profile S&M where the male is the one being submissive, because A) I'm sure there are both men and women who want to see that, and B) It will help people understand that this type of sex isn't supposed to be about abuse against women.
11/26/09
11/27/09
#sex
11/28/09
Porn in general though is a whole separate issue...
I think there is a healthy place for porn in people's lives. I don't tend to watch it, but I know many men and women who do.
And if you happen to be turned on by foot fetishes or orgies or rape fantasies or anything like that, why wouldn't you watch what turns you on? I wouldn't feel comfortable watching Sasha Grey's porn as described, but for people who enjoy those acts in their own sex lives (i.e. violent scenarios), it makes sense for the porn they watch to reflect those same acts. Why would they watch non-fetished porn if they themselves act out the same fetishes?
However, I completely agree with you that accusing people who have problems with or just don't enjoy porn as prudes and hypocrites is entirely unacceptable.
11/25/09
Although I can totes understand why they wouldn't actually go looking for someone else to interview, I mean there might be feminist and some of them might be black, and I can't have a black feminist at my pool party! I mean there are going to be girls in their swim suits there.
11/25/09
I get why some interviewers have made her defensive. However, insulting the many people who are actually interested in what she has to say, instead of how much can fit in her holes (that's not a judgement on her or the viewer, as I do watch porn), seems like an unwise tactic.
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
But I don't find her to have a lot of charisma on screen, sexual or otherwise, and some of the praise of her intellect comes across as condescending, like it's some kind of miracle that a sex worker could be articulate. If she was just a regular actress, would anyone really think she was that special?
11/25/09
11/26/09
Where's the porn star equivalent of Tina Fey, dammit?
11/27/09
11/25/09
Um, doesn't the idea that her morals should dictate "everyone's" behavior sort of contradict her primary point?
How about this: when you enter into a relationship with someone, make sure that their key values are at least mostly aligned with yours. Otherwise, there will be lying, fights, and general unhappiness.
Granted, this attitude isn't as "sexy" as saying everyone should be able to have affairs with impugnity and those who disagree with that dictate are backwards prudes, but it does make a lot more sense.
You'd think that Sasha Grey would see the attitudes leveled at her and those in her profession and adopt a more "live and let live" approach to judging relationships. Instead, she has the same black-and-white views as the mainstream, just in the opposite order.
11/26/09
Don't you want to be cultured like Sasha Grey?!
11/26/09
It's we've set up France as Le Cheatopia, where hookers, mistresses, and toyboys are a regular part of the family!
11/27/09
11/27/09
But then, I blame them for everything.
11/25/09
11/25/09
I'm mulling over what I'd want to say about it in an academic paper, though I'm not even in grad school yet.
#tips
11/26/09
11/25/09
Hey, that sounds like a lot of battered wives. They feel like they can't get out, and their husbands beat them and then feel bad and buy them gifts. They don't want to tell anybody because a) they are well provided for, and b) it would be humiliating to admit what he's doing to them.
Victim blaming? Most certainly.
11/25/09
11/25/09
I personally found her to sound pretty immature and naive. Granted, she's got some interesting ideas but they're not fully formed or rather accessible in my opinion. If anything, I feel like some of the ideas she presented were fed to her from the porn industry. She came across as very defensive (completely understandable) and young.
I don't mean to lambaste her but I don't think she's in the position to be expressing her opinions on a wide range of subjects when it seems like she has very little experience or knowledge outside of her work.
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
This doesn't sound like me to even be critiquing someone's opinion. I hear this as questioning her right to have opinions and talk about them.
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/26/09
11/27/09
And yes, I respect the opinions of people who can tell me WHY they like the new Julian Casablancas album more than people who cannot. That is why music criticism exists!
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
#tips
11/25/09
Funny how people can excuse violence just because it's related to sex acts. Actually, not so funny.
11/25/09
Fuck. Whatever happened to "choose your choice"?
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/25/09