I only go to AHA if I’m interviewing for a job or if I’m on a hiring committee. And sadly, my department isn’t going to be hiring anybody for several years.

I think the “some people will look at porn wherever it is feasible and don’t feel it is a private activity” is probably right – not all of those people are trying to make you look a their porn, they just seem to somehow think it’s invisible.

It seems to me that there is a difference between commenting along the lines of “Based on my feminism and intellectual position, I don’t see a means for porn to ever be reconciled with the exploitation and subjugation it involves” (more along the lines the later clarifications) verses “I am totally and morally certain that I am right about porn and those who disagree with me really shouldn’t be allowed to comment on this blog because they clearly aren’t feminist.”

As HistoriAnn points out, she and I do have slightly different takes on these issues. It doesn’t mean we can’t talk about it politely or openly.

What is *really* bizarre to me is that my grandfather’s generation grew up on a kind of proto-porn that sexualized the Nazis whom they’d defeated in the 50s. I imagine that was likely based in part on such fantasies of sex slaves.

And what I hear when you say something is my “problem”, for sure. But a certain obliviousness to the dynamic being created by one’s affirmation of pROn certainly affects the conversations that can be had.

Well put. I think at some level I knew the disclaimer might get me into trouble, though my intent wasn’t to start it either. For some, just those 4 letters (whether porn or pr0n) create an offensive visual image and I understand that (the latter calls to mind its own set of disturbing Internet memes to the degree that words sometimes have pictorial associations in memory).

Europe is so different in many ways from us and the standards of what might be seen in public are a big contrast. I like European and Australian sexual values more than U.S. values.

It also occurred to me earlier that the original “axis of evil” back in the day are the three most perverted cultures I know of today (as judged by the porn the produce and consume). For a long time I’d considered it mainly a tie between Japan and Germany. As I was thinking about this blog and the larger issues of cultural values, the relationship of those two countries suddenly dawned on me. Then I looked at the third Axis power and immediately realized they probably take spot #3 on that list (not, honestly, that I’ve taken any time to survey the world of porn – some of it I’ve seen only because women called my attention to it).

So how’s this for analysis to make up for nearly 300 words? I think all three of those countries were essentially autocracies that employed prostitutes (and if memory serves correctly porn too) to service/encourage the men fighting their wars of aggression. Is it any wonder today that the most aggressive military cultures still have the most offensive porn (by some standards anyway)? And I’d probably put the U.S. at #4 on that list, BTW, but I’d have to watch some Italian porn to really test this theory (and don’t plan to).