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monamidnightAuthor Jeremy Wilson has been decrying selected porn on Amazon for a little while now:
How Amazon cashes in on Kindle filth
An Epidemic of Filth
This has put Amazon in a flurry of blocking and banning titles, and UK retailer WH Smith has currently replaced its entire storefront with a bizarre disclaimer about 'unacceptable' books.
Now, don't get me wrong, there are some pretty gross book titles, covers and descriptions here, and I'm guessing my definition of 'gross' might not overlap with yours, because erotica and porn is weird and different things gross different people out. But I'm guessing at least one of those titles offends you deep in your soul. (However, at least one of those titles might make you eager to look inside. It's all good.) But here's the thing that I always find frustrating in these 'oh no, written porn on the Internet' stories: none of this shit is real. It's all made up. That, for many people, is the whole appeal: It's stuff they would never want to do in real life that they find fun to explore in fiction.
But anyway. I'm picking on Jeremy Dunn - though he's certainly not the only complainer - because he also posted this defense (er, 'defence') of "Revenge Porn."
In Defence of Revenge Porn
"Images can’t be removed from the internet and trampling over freedom of expression in the attempt to do so is crazy."
Hmmm. Porn of real people, released without the real person's consent, is okay, but fake stories where no real people are involved are 'filth' that should be removed from the internet.
At a first glance, this seems to be a contradictory stance, but of course, it isn't. Why is that, you ask?
Because the primary purchaser of books - all books read for pleasure, be they Wuthering Heights, Fifty Shades of Gray or even I Banged Daddy on the Kitchen Table - are women. Women lead all book spending. Women read more.
Any woman who's read erotica, romance or straight-out pornography will know that when guys watch porn they're normal, but when girls do it, they're strange, weird, deviant. Take what Andy Millen pointed out:
Real eighteen-year-old girls in their undies who look younger? Plaster 'em on the second page. Fake nineteen-year-old girls having fun, pleasurable first time sex? Lock up your daughters. Stop the Internet, women are taking charge of their own sexual needs. This must stop.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
EDIT: Here's a little more about the misogyny behind this round of complaints and moral outrage.
How Amazon cashes in on Kindle filth
An Epidemic of Filth
This has put Amazon in a flurry of blocking and banning titles, and UK retailer WH Smith has currently replaced its entire storefront with a bizarre disclaimer about 'unacceptable' books.
Now, don't get me wrong, there are some pretty gross book titles, covers and descriptions here, and I'm guessing my definition of 'gross' might not overlap with yours, because erotica and porn is weird and different things gross different people out. But I'm guessing at least one of those titles offends you deep in your soul. (However, at least one of those titles might make you eager to look inside. It's all good.) But here's the thing that I always find frustrating in these 'oh no, written porn on the Internet' stories: none of this shit is real. It's all made up. That, for many people, is the whole appeal: It's stuff they would never want to do in real life that they find fun to explore in fiction.
But anyway. I'm picking on Jeremy Dunn - though he's certainly not the only complainer - because he also posted this defense (er, 'defence') of "Revenge Porn."
In Defence of Revenge Porn
"Images can’t be removed from the internet and trampling over freedom of expression in the attempt to do so is crazy."
Hmmm. Porn of real people, released without the real person's consent, is okay, but fake stories where no real people are involved are 'filth' that should be removed from the internet.
At a first glance, this seems to be a contradictory stance, but of course, it isn't. Why is that, you ask?
Because the primary purchaser of books - all books read for pleasure, be they Wuthering Heights, Fifty Shades of Gray or even I Banged Daddy on the Kitchen Table - are women. Women lead all book spending. Women read more.
Any woman who's read erotica, romance or straight-out pornography will know that when guys watch porn they're normal, but when girls do it, they're strange, weird, deviant. Take what Andy Millen pointed out:
Real eighteen-year-old girls in their undies who look younger? Plaster 'em on the second page. Fake nineteen-year-old girls having fun, pleasurable first time sex? Lock up your daughters. Stop the Internet, women are taking charge of their own sexual needs. This must stop.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
EDIT: Here's a little more about the misogyny behind this round of complaints and moral outrage.
