The American view of porn

Torbe's recent post about the porn business was very thought-provoking for me.  I did a (very) informal survey of my friends to find out what their thoughts about porn in general are these days.

Basically, it seems to me that Torbe's post and the comments made in regard to it reflect an attitude in Spain toward porn that is long gone in the US.  We no longer have a feminist anti-porn perspective here.

Oh, we are not pro-porn.  Not openly.  But it seems that porn is far more accepted here than it used to be, provided it is kept out of open view.

My American male friends do not want a woman in their lives to be in the porn industry.  But of course...they want to watch porn, and they want to be able to have sex with a porn chick if the opportunity arises.  It's a fine line that the American man seems to be walking these days.  As one friend pointed out to me today..."You can't go over the edge with it.  Otherwise, you turn into Charlie Sheen."

Point taken.  Charlie Sheen's Trapeze Act

My own experience in this regard mirrors that of what my friends have said.  For example, this weekend I have a dinner date scheduled with a respectable, powerful man in my community.  I will be wined.  I will be dined.  I will not have sex.  Oh, if I threw myself at the guy, he would do it.  But he will not impose himself upon me uninvited...basically because I am who and what I am.  He has the Madonna/Whore complex going on in a big way.  And I am the Madonna, not the Whore.

Personally, although I genuinely like the guy, I don't want to have sex with him...basically because I can't deal with the Madonna/Whore thing.  It's just too weird for my tastes.

Now last weekend, another guy wanted to come over to watch a movie, basically because he is a cheapass.  Unlike most American women, I have no problem with cheapasses...in fact, I kind of respect them for their cheap ways.  It is always good to know the value of a dollar.  Or of a Euro in Torbe's case, when he sneaks Ramona on the train in her little travel pizza bag.  :-)

I didn't feel like going out that night anyway, so I said OK.  I didn't (and still don't) want to have sex with him either, basically because I can't believe he would be any good in the sack. 

Get this...he brings over an appropriate DVD to watch that evening...but he doesn't play that one right away.  Oh no.  He pops in his Hustler porn video first instead, just to see if it turns me on.  It doesn't.

What a piece of crap that was (the Hustler porn video, I mean).  This guy was trying to push me into getting into it...which wasn't going to happen.  So just to annoy him, I started critiquing the DVD, basically using what I have picked up from reading Torbe's blog.  I made note of the stupid plot lines...the fake actors and actresses...the ugly penises...the bad boob jobs...and on and on.  The guy finally asked me how it was that I knew so much about how porn should be made.  I just said that I had an Internet friend who is a major porn director in Europe, and that compared to his stuff, this crap was atrocious.

Of course, that was an even bigger turn on to this dude (and now I will never get rid of him I suppose)...but the good part is that now he is scared to try to come on to me again for fear he will not be up to the task.  Which, given his horrible taste in porn, is undoubtedly the case.  So at least he knows he has no chance, even if he chooses to continue to dream that he does.

American men.  God only knows what we American women see in them.  :-)