Commodification of sex

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

And yet many of the same women who insist on this kind of personal credo would have men "deform their male sexuality" (setting aside for a moment €'s astute point that that assumes some sort of uniform gender sexuality) and forgo their desire for visual stimulation.

No, that's certainly not necessary. Because there ISN'T some sort of uniform gender sexuality. All that's necessary for a woman who chooses to look different than the "typical" is to find a partner who finds her more attractive than the "typical." And surely you have seen that there's not just one color, shape, or size in porn. Different things float different people's boats. (So. That's what the kids are calling it these days.)

[3894]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

while there's certainly something to be said for ones own internal model of sexuality, ultimately the goal is to appeal to someone else. Like any other aspect of ones personality you will continually be faced with the choice of sticking to your guns vs. making a compromise to please someone else.

Much of the commodification of sex in our culture caters to men. Women, especially young ones, feel pressure to conform to what the patriarchy says is sexy.

None of this means that I don't want to appeal to my husband and please him. Of course I do. Our relationship is outside the sphere of commodification, even though as a married couple we are an economic unit.

[bewitched]

Originally Posted by 3894

None of this means that I don't want to appeal to my husband and please him. Of course I do. Our relationship is outside the sphere of commodification, even though as a married couple we are an economic unit.

Not all aspects of commodification are tangible.

[3894]

Originally Posted by bewitched

Not all aspects of commodification are tangible.

Can you explain?

[€uroMeinke]

Today we visited the Norton Simon Museum of Art. Among their collection is a stone temple carving of a couple (man and woman) in a pre-coital position. (Perhaps someone who took some pics of this one can post them here). I mention this as another model, where sex is part of a religious or spiritual experience - whether or not that existed in place of commodification, I don't know, but it is another point of reference.

I suppose one element of living in a capitalist society is that ultimately everything gets assigned a dollar value, that crassness one the one hand offends us and so we object to it's use for certain things, like sex or happiness. Nonetheless, it may well be this sublimation that makes it so effective as a marketing tool.

I'm curious to see where this discussion will lead. To answer directly for myself, a tend to be a moral relativist so I see no inherent right or wrong in the situation you describe, but I think it telling none-the-less of our own values and insecurities.

[bewitched]

Originally Posted by €uroMeinke

Today we visited the Norton Simon Museum of Art. Among their collection is a stone temple carving of a couple (man and woman) in a pre-coital position.

Is this the one?

[3894]

Originally Posted by €uroMeinke

I suppose one element of living in a capitalist society is that ultimately everything gets assigned a dollar value

Well said.

[Strangler Lewis]

I certainly agree that everything doesn't have to be hearts and flowers. However, it depresses me to a degree that the cultural models for so much of our youth today are, respectively, wrestling and porn. In terms of what's degrading, foot binding and female genital mutilation, both of which are shepherded by women are degrading. As far as modern American sex goes, anything that makes you look like a f****** idiot for jumping through that hoop is degrading. That goes for any situation in life. Like Potter Stewart, I know it when I see it. And, of course, we will disagree.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

There are plenty of people that do supposedly degrading things for money, many of which have nothing to do with sex. Working a low-paid office job where you take irrational orders all day from a jerk of a boss with no hope of advancement is just as self-destructive as working as a prostitute because you're completely desperate for cash, IMHO. All of the various underlings of working society are comparable.

If my child came home and said they got a good job in any industry, and I could tell it was a good position with good people, where they feel good about themselves doing something they enjoy, and they seemed happy and healthy in mind and body, then I'd be all for it. I'd say that's hard to come by in any world of work.

[Strangler Lewis]

Bad jobs and bad treatment are bad. However, you can't seriously tell me that when you see an unhappy office worker, you feel as bad for him/her as for some tackily dressed hooker yelling at cars on a street corner in a bad neighborhood in the rain or for some drug addict on a web site blowing a horse.