First, rates are set by a free market, so workers and bosses negotiate wages, and if all the porn stars working for a given boss agree to work at a certain rate, then that's what they get. It makes all the sense in the world that "Real porn stars [meaning traditional porn stars, since they're all real, but as I mentioned McInnes doesn't seem very bright] hate hipster porn because they see it as rich kids devaluing the sex dollar for laughs." Hell, I also pretty much see it as "rich" or middle class kids devaluing the sex dollar for laughs, and by God, I'm sure those kids feel that it beats waiting tables while they're in college. It does push down on the wages of traditional porn stars. But much like trust fund babies going to LA and wanting to act in major films and play guitar in rock bands for free, what the fuck is anyone supposed to do about it, assuming they have enough talent to be worth watching or hearing? Say "No, I insist that you take this perfectly good money from me"? Or maybe McInnes thinks passing a minimum wage for porn law is a smart idea? What a halfwit.
Also, by calling the alt porn stars rich kids he seems to be implying that the abused traditional porn stars he has in mind are all from poorer families. What, he thinks only kids in families with very little money get sexually abused?
Second, the internet makes porn distribution cheap, but free and pirated content is competing with paid content, so if wages are falling, it's not too damned surprising.
You'd have to be some kind of moron to shoot off your mouth about porn star wages without paying attention to those two points, unless you're just assuming that everyone in your audience already knows and understands these things. I'll charitably assume that's what McInnes is doing, and move on.
Third, and this is a little less obvious, I have come to believe that we do not live in a universe where the concept of "deserves" means any goddamned thing at all. The word "deserve" is no longer really one that I use. People get what they get, and although there are patterns and probabilities of cause and effect there, I believe that there is no God playing cosmic referee and ensuring that everyone gets what they deserve in the end. The world is full of bad people and good people prospering, and bad people and good people suffering, and no one can ever tell for sure whether a given person will prosper or suffer or what kind of mixture of both they'll get until it happens. That's life.
So, if McInnes likes alt-porn stars and thinks he can help them out by encouraging them to negotiate for higher salaries, great. But it sounds like he's just a sad old man who's watching his world and its porn industry change, and wishing things were the way they used to be.
And he really nails the coffin shut by declaring that "a woman unanimously seen as a slut is in for a lonely life". Not only do piles of evidence flatly contradict that nonsense, so does my own personal experience.
The long and the short of it seems to be that alternative journalism has already said all the surprising new truths undermining the 1950s conservative orthodoxy, and now those truths have ossified into a new liberal orthodoxy. Vice magazine and Taki's mag are trying desperately to find smart, irreverent, new true ideas to promote that will undermine that orthodoxy, but all they're coming up with is stupid shit like this written by morons like McInnes. To hell with those shitrag magazines, and good riddance.
and yeah, i should have stopped to think about sex before porn. like you, i fucked quite a bit just for the fun of it. i cant say any of it was purely unemotional but i certainly had no plans for a future with a lot of my sex partners. porn has changed my relationship to sex, but its hard to verbally explain how. and i dont even know thats its a negative change.
but as for sexual abuse. your right. boys arent treated the same about their virginity. but while i dont condone sexual abuse or sex with minors, throughout history sex was condoned with much younger people than today. age of consent jumped from 11-18 in the united states alone within 100 years. it might have been damaging for all those 11 year olds getting fucked in the early 1800's but im sure plenty of them went on to live fulfilling lives.
as for the concept of "deserves": it may be an arbitrary belief but i think everyone who contributes something to society should be paid a livable wage. this is obviously not the case, especially on a world wide scale. but it makes sense in capitalist economic terms that if you work for someone and they profit, you should profit too. but plenty of people do far more degrading things than porn (in my opinion) for a living and make shit money. porn's initial rates were based on supply and demand. not very many people were willing to do it initially, but there was a huge demand. now more people are willing to do it, and theres less demand because theres so much of it.
i agree that being a slut in todays society does not necessarily make you lonely. i like sluts. i know plenty of other people who like sluts. and by default, sluts will hang out with other sluts because they like to fuck each other. that doesnt sound like a lonely life. perhaps its one different than McInnes has planned for himself.
I would say "I want to live in a nation and a world where the governments and all the citizens agree in a social contract not to torture anyone," or "No one should torture anyone," rather than "No one deserves to be tortured."
In the same way, I'd avoid the word "deserve" when talking about making a living wage available to everyone willing and able to work.
But that's a pretty minor philosophical detail, not a different political position.
Also, by calling the alt porn stars rich kids he seems to be implying that the abused traditional porn stars he has in mind are all from poorer families. What, he thinks only kids in families with very little money get sexually abused?
Second, the internet makes porn distribution cheap, but free and pirated content is competing with paid content, so if wages are falling, it's not too damned surprising.
You'd have to be some kind of moron to shoot off your mouth about porn star wages without paying attention to those two points, unless you're just assuming that everyone in your audience already knows and understands these things. I'll charitably assume that's what McInnes is doing, and move on.
Third, and this is a little less obvious, I have come to believe that we do not live in a universe where the concept of "deserves" means any goddamned thing at all. The word "deserve" is no longer really one that I use. People get what they get, and although there are patterns and probabilities of cause and effect there, I believe that there is no God playing cosmic referee and ensuring that everyone gets what they deserve in the end. The world is full of bad people and good people prospering, and bad people and good people suffering, and no one can ever tell for sure whether a given person will prosper or suffer or what kind of mixture of both they'll get until it happens. That's life.
So, if McInnes likes alt-porn stars and thinks he can help them out by encouraging them to negotiate for higher salaries, great. But it sounds like he's just a sad old man who's watching his world and its porn industry change, and wishing things were the way they used to be.
And he really nails the coffin shut by declaring that "a woman unanimously seen as a slut is in for a lonely life". Not only do piles of evidence flatly contradict that nonsense, so does my own personal experience.
The long and the short of it seems to be that alternative journalism has already said all the surprising new truths undermining the 1950s conservative orthodoxy, and now those truths have ossified into a new liberal orthodoxy. Vice magazine and Taki's mag are trying desperately to find smart, irreverent, new true ideas to promote that will undermine that orthodoxy, but all they're coming up with is stupid shit like this written by morons like McInnes. To hell with those shitrag magazines, and good riddance.
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and yeah, i should have stopped to think about sex before porn. like you, i fucked quite a bit just for the fun of it. i cant say any of it was purely unemotional but i certainly had no plans for a future with a lot of my sex partners. porn has changed my relationship to sex, but its hard to verbally explain how. and i dont even know thats its a negative change.
but as for sexual abuse. your right. boys arent treated the same about their virginity. but while i dont condone sexual abuse or sex with minors, throughout history sex was condoned with much younger people than today. age of consent jumped from 11-18 in the united states alone within 100 years. it might have been damaging for all those 11 year olds getting fucked in the early 1800's but im sure plenty of them went on to live fulfilling lives.
as for the concept of "deserves": it may be an arbitrary belief but i think everyone who contributes something to society should be paid a livable wage. this is obviously not the case, especially on a world wide scale. but it makes sense in capitalist economic terms that if you work for someone and they profit, you should profit too. but plenty of people do far more degrading things than porn (in my opinion) for a living and make shit money. porn's initial rates were based on supply and demand. not very many people were willing to do it initially, but there was a huge demand. now more people are willing to do it, and theres less demand because theres so much of it.
i agree that being a slut in todays society does not necessarily make you lonely. i like sluts. i know plenty of other people who like sluts. and by default, sluts will hang out with other sluts because they like to fuck each other. that doesnt sound like a lonely life. perhaps its one different than McInnes has planned for himself.
Reply
I would say "I want to live in a nation and a world where the governments and all the citizens agree in a social contract not to torture anyone," or "No one should torture anyone," rather than "No one deserves to be tortured."
In the same way, I'd avoid the word "deserve" when talking about making a living wage available to everyone willing and able to work.
But that's a pretty minor philosophical detail, not a different political position.
Reply
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