tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743841912028246535.post1561113962591309186..comments2023-10-10T06:48:40.299-03:00Comments on the feminist librarian: why I think porn can be positiveannajcookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17573723390785613915noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743841912028246535.post-5885004757470064282012-02-26T20:19:35.090-04:002012-02-26T20:19:35.090-04:00@A'Lyn Please don't apologize for sharing ...@A'Lyn Please don't apologize for sharing your thoughts -- I always enjoy them! And I too, am obviously interested in the meaning we give pleasure vs. trauma in art and culture. So ... thanks for the musings!annajcookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17573723390785613915noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8743841912028246535.post-16993241998143427272012-02-25T10:53:18.597-04:002012-02-25T10:53:18.597-04:00Awesome summary!
Fascinating point about lacking...Awesome summary! <br /><br />Fascinating point about lacking the vocabulary for pleasure...I've noticed something similar and sort of put it down to the sense people have that pleasure is "selfish", while suffering can be for some cause and therefore noble and character-building. <br /><br />Enduring suffering can make you a better person, in popular conception, but really enjoying pleasure just kind of makes you a libertine or something.<br /><br />Maybe because very few people really enjoy suffering (as distinct from specific sensations of pain that might be pleasurable), we tend to want to define a reason for suffering, assign it meaning, give it some purpose, because otherwise it just sucks! So there's got to be more to it, and maybe we focus on it in an attempt to work that out.<br /><br />On the other hand, there's less of a need to assign meaning to pleasure, because, obviously, people enjoy it and that's why it's good, and that's also why in some way it becomes kind of suspect, as if there CAN'T be any meaning or reason to it. <br /><br />People do things they enjoy "for the fun of it" and there's a sense that that somehow precludes it having any actual value...it's "only" pleasure, and being too interested in it is almost to show an unhealthy interest in yourself. <br /><br />This sort of ties in with my sense that the reason a lot of people are uncomfortable with nudity in movies, say, but fine with horrible bloody violence, is because you can commit violence "for" some noble cause (for god, country, revenge on the evil bastards who murdered your family and took your land, etc.), but nobody really has sex for a noble cause.<br /><br />Even if the pretext for violence is paper-thin, the story usually justifies it somehow as being appropriate or at least understandable, and anyway MEANING something, whereas sex, well, people do that for the fun of it, it's basically selfish (and undignified, and full of funny faces and weird noises), and therefore, ew, we can't have innocent children exposed to that! Let them enjoy some wholesome beheadings instead.<br /><br />I also get the sense that suffering is seen as sort of the natural result of thoughtfulness and awareness (and/or of moral behavior and obedience to divine command)..."ignorance is bliss," so people who are happy and think more about pleasure than about suffering are somehow simple and, maybe, just not paying attention.<br /><br />"If those happy fools only knew!"<br /><br />Gah, sorry, this got super long, but I think this idea of how we think and talk about suffering and violence vs. happiness and pleasure is fascinating!A'Llynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04295862804070846652noreply@blogger.com