(no subject)
With the Sydney Sweeney pictures out, people are once again arguing that "porn brain" or "porn addiction" is the cause of men who (I agree, wrongly) criticize her looks.
This post isn't a defense of porn in general, but that kind of analysis seems clearly wrongheaded to me in regards to this narrow point.
The reality is that the hyper-optimization of looks in photos and movies is more a feature of the mainstream culture, and not the 'dark underbelly of the porn world'. Where do people constantly encounter face-filtered, edited and otherwise perfectly curated photos? It's instagram, it's smartphone photos, snapchat, movies, etc. Every day, countless ordinary women post ultra-filtered pictures to social media.
If anything, a lot of popular porn is far less curated; far more tolerant of "imperfections" in this regard. The photos of celebrities that use perfect lightning, perfect makeup, perfect angles, and photo editing, and so on, were all made popular in mainstream culture.
There is a real point to be made about how - with increasingly edited and face filtered photos - some men get a wrong idea about what normal women look like in ordinary contexts. I don't think this can fully be blamed on either sex. On the one hand, women are often the ones who share face-filtered and edited photos. But we also cannot deny that these 'perfect' photos receive a more positive response from men (and the 'imperfect' ones, a more negative response). Thus, an unfortunate incentive.
Spot on! The way both sexes scrutinize how people look in pictures online is nuts. I always think, what do the people in their real lives look like?! I do think there’s a different standard in the 2D world because of so many people using filters/certain angles.
***
I agree that insta filters and movies and TV and all of that contribute… but I have a distinct feeling the bigger contributor to posts like this is… you get paid for engagement and it’s easy to post a pic of an obviously hot woman saying they’re ugly and get a million replies.
This post isn't a defense of porn in general, but that kind of analysis seems clearly wrongheaded to me in regards to this narrow point.
The reality is that the hyper-optimization of looks in photos and movies is more a feature of the mainstream culture, and not the 'dark underbelly of the porn world'. Where do people constantly encounter face-filtered, edited and otherwise perfectly curated photos? It's instagram, it's smartphone photos, snapchat, movies, etc. Every day, countless ordinary women post ultra-filtered pictures to social media.
If anything, a lot of popular porn is far less curated; far more tolerant of "imperfections" in this regard. The photos of celebrities that use perfect lightning, perfect makeup, perfect angles, and photo editing, and so on, were all made popular in mainstream culture.
There is a real point to be made about how - with increasingly edited and face filtered photos - some men get a wrong idea about what normal women look like in ordinary contexts. I don't think this can fully be blamed on either sex. On the one hand, women are often the ones who share face-filtered and edited photos. But we also cannot deny that these 'perfect' photos receive a more positive response from men (and the 'imperfect' ones, a more negative response). Thus, an unfortunate incentive.
Spot on! The way both sexes scrutinize how people look in pictures online is nuts. I always think, what do the people in their real lives look like?! I do think there’s a different standard in the 2D world because of so many people using filters/certain angles.
***
I agree that insta filters and movies and TV and all of that contribute… but I have a distinct feeling the bigger contributor to posts like this is… you get paid for engagement and it’s easy to post a pic of an obviously hot woman saying they’re ugly and get a million replies.