So it’s been a long and very hard summer where I’ve had to step back from this work for a while for personal reasons. Not that it hasn’t been whirring around in the back of my head all that time also. Most of the stakeholders I was in conversation with before the summer break were all out of office over the summer also so it wasn’t like there was much really happening in the last few weeks anyway.
I’ve been doing a to of reading and thinking, something I had almost forgotten that MAAI not only encourages but values greatly. It’s easy to get swept up in the tide of action and making plans but these reflective times are just as important.
I’ve put together plans for the art work I want to use in my conversations with Avril of the The Porn Conversation, the sex educator Sarah Sproule and hopefully, schedule allowing Cindy Gallop, who I really want to talk to the most. I’m just wanting on finalised dates from them to do the recordings. Cindy Gallop’s venture Make Love Not Porn is the only platform out there really trying to make substantial change to the way porn is made, viewed and consumed. She’d be really interesting to talk to.
Whilst researching her background and company I was watching an Oxford union debate she was a part of where the “new generation” of porn was debated with interesting arguments on both sides but one thing that really struck me was someone (I should remember this person’s name as she was an celebrated author on relevant topics but I can’t right now) saying that “No-one cares about Feminist porn” and as much as it saddens me to say it I think she’s right. Well, not 100% right but what she said is fairly true. There are some amazing pockets of the internet and the real world where ethical, feminist, sex positive, anti-racist, shame free, body positive porn is created and produced but it’s still essentially a niche product with a niche consumer. Those who know, know, those who don’t don’t. Those who care, care. Those who don’t, don’t. I’m not sure how effective it really is to imagine a world where we can convince people to give up their free gonzo porn or a world where much can be done on little resources to combat the global behemoth that is Mindgeek. We can slowly chip away at the hard legacy they both leave however and we can raise awareness through discourse. Another reason Make Love Not Porn’s business model is so interesting. What does leave me with hope however, is just how often I am hearing younger people talk so frankly and honestly about the effect porn has on them, their sex lives, their interactions etc. It’s great to see them so aware of the dangers of gonzo porn and so in-control and articulate about their own sexual freedoms and emancipations. Not that it’s all roses for them and I could talk for hours about the correlations between late 90’s and early naughties ‘self objectification as empowerment’ media narratives and contemporary selfie culture and rising social media tropes such as the “trad wife” or “bimbo” spurred on by the 90’s/00’s fashion revival, viewed by some as ultimate flex in choice and others as internalised misogyny. It’s very interesting, but I’m not sure how I would explore that further at this point beyond just observation and discussion.
What I have come to see on this journey is that porn means very different things to different generations and is viewed in very different cultural contexts that mean the generational gap in experience becomes a chasm when you add technology into the mix. What I am inarticulately saying is that I have been thinking about how best to attempt to address this gap. I have met with and chatted to lots of younger people in their late teens and early to mid twenties who are so native to this world, who are also conscious of its pitfalls as well as having the both the literal and metaphorical vocabularies to discuss such subjects. They could provide a bridge in someway perhaps.
This encourages me to consider trying to get younger artists involved in the exhibition as well as cooking up an idea about a kind of “ask a Gen Z-er” event where parents could come and ask questions about sex, sex education and porn and chat to Gen-Z-ers who are comfortable answering such things. A bit like a speed-dating set up but instead a cross-generational conversation. Maybe this could be event during the show somehow?
This is becoming a problem, I keep thinking of cool event ideas to go along with a show that so far hasn’t materialised. This is first call of business now I am getting back into work mode. I would like to get the interviews recorded asap also and I’ll worry about editing them at some point later. I just want them done so I can concentrate on future interventions. So back to my many notebooks and lists I go….