[Gendergap] Hello and a (small!) manifesto

[Sarah Stierch]

Ha! Ok, shibari and rope bondage..."porn" on Wikipedia..etc.. People pay 
money for photos like this.

This form of bondage is often dominated (no pun intended) by the male 
tying up the female. It's going to be a lot tougher to get pictures of 
guys tied up than women, and I do think it's funny that we have to have 
that many photographs of the women when I can't have more than one image 
up of a contemporary work of art (there's currently a "discussion" 
taking place about allowing visual arts to have galleries for works, but 
of course, that gets shot down - they say it's "decorative"!). I think 
this shows that males do dominate Wikipedia and the contributing 
photographers of these images are men who shoot female models.

I searched for "Lesbian pornography" and got this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesbian_pornography#Lesbianism_in_contemporary_pornography

Note that notable "lesbian porn stars" have no cited sources, which is 
entertaining IMHO.

Sarah


On 2/7/2011 3:55 PM, Lena ... wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 8:37 PM, Fred Bauder<fredbaud at fairpoint.net>  wrote:
>> As to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogtie_bondage there is no question
>> that people do this, but it is hard to see an overriding public interest
>> in need for information as is present in say, anal sex.
>>
>> Bukkake is at least interesting. I guess all of this stuff can be
>> justified on that basis, seeing how the other half lives, so to speak.
> For me, the main problem with the picture is not that they're very
> explicit (because, well, it's about sex), but that there are no
> pictures of men.
>
> There are 5 photos (why do you need 5 anyway?) illustrating the
> article on bondage, all are depicting women. Since bondage is about
> being submissive, this implies women are generally or "normally" the
> ones being submissive, which is not true and not a good thing to
> suggest to your readers. Also, it clearly shows who chose the
> pictures: men*. It's the so-called "male gaze":
> http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2007/08/26/faq-what-is-the-“male-gaze”/
>
> For me, looking at the article feels like sneaking into a men's club,
> where (heterosexual) men watch pornography depicting people like me
> and show it to each other. It doesn't feel like it's also a place
> designed for the people like me, I'm only supposed to be depicted on
> the pictures, not to look at them.
> So I feel unwell looking at it, but that's not because the pictures
> are explicit. I would be fine with it if two or three pictures where
> pictures of restrained men.
>
> Similar problem with the article on bukkake. It says: "The practice
> then spread to gay pornography, in which several men ejaculate on
> another man.[5]Pornographic use of the word has been expanded by the
> lesbian bukkake genre in which several women ejaculate on another
> woman.[13]"
> So why are there only pictures of women, and why does the introduction
> to the article say "Bukkake is a sexual act in which a woman is
> ejaculated on by several men"?
> (Actually, there are also men on the pictures in this case, but the
> pictures are clipped so you only see a very, very small part of their
> bodys. It's clearly about the women.)
>
> Looking at these articles, it just doesn't feel like Wikipedia is from
> people for people, but like it's a boys for boys service. So why
> should I feel encouraged to participate? (Except by sending a photo of
> me naked...)
>
> * (this might be heteronormative, of course the pictures might also be
> nice for lesbians)
>
> Best,
> Lena
>
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>


-- 
Sarah Stierch Consulting
Historical, cultural & artistic research, advising & event planning.
------------------------------------------------------
http://www.sarahstierch.com/ <http://www.sarahstierch.com>
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