I had a fascinating discussion one time with a friend who was active in the local Asian-American arts community. She told me she had a filmmaker friend who was having trouble screening an art movie he had produced about East Asian sexuality. He had been claiming establishment discrimination is working to suppress his expression of the sexuality of a key demographic.
Thinking it was an interesting topic our conversation went something like:
Me: East Asian sexuality? That's a pretty focused topic.
Her: Yeah, he had a hard time getting actors who would have sex with each other on film.
Me: So....it's a porno?
Her: No! It's an art film!
Me: But they actually had to have sex on film?
Her: Yes! Of course for authenticity! It's about the ways in which East Asians feel their sexuality is repressed compared to the West!
Me: Compared to the West?
Her: Yeah! The West is so open about sexuality, L.A. is the home of porn, Playboy is from the U.S. etc. etc.
Me: You...are aware that something like 50% of all porn on the planet comes out of just Japan. A country with half the population of the U.S. and several countries in East Asia tend to be visited by foreigners almost entirely for sex tourism? There are several studies that indicate the ready availability of cheap pornography catering to just about any proclivity imaginable has been a major contributor to the declining birthrates in the more developed East Asian economies? If anything, much of East Asia is oversexed!
Her: ???
Me: It sounds to me like your friend just wanted an excuse to make a porno, but saying it was an art film kept it from being part of the seedy underbelly of society and gave his project an air of legitimacy. He didn't, by chance ask if you were interested in acting in it were you?
Her: Yes, he did. sigh
So, I think people who are interested in the titillating parts of porn, but who are turned off by the various associations it has, will jump through all kinds of mental hoops to pretend that various attempts at it, perhaps by coming through non-traditional channels, are in fact not porn when they most certainly are.
> [S]everal countries in East Asia tend to be visited by foreigners almost entirely for sex tourism
This is a common, unfortunate misconception about SEA countries. They aren't visited "almost entirely" for sex tourism. Sex tourists form only a small minority of visitors, but loom larger in our minds when we discuss them.
Thinking it was an interesting topic our conversation went something like:
Me: East Asian sexuality? That's a pretty focused topic.
Her: Yeah, he had a hard time getting actors who would have sex with each other on film.
Me: So....it's a porno?
Her: No! It's an art film!
Me: But they actually had to have sex on film?
Her: Yes! Of course for authenticity! It's about the ways in which East Asians feel their sexuality is repressed compared to the West!
Me: Compared to the West?
Her: Yeah! The West is so open about sexuality, L.A. is the home of porn, Playboy is from the U.S. etc. etc.
Me: You...are aware that something like 50% of all porn on the planet comes out of just Japan. A country with half the population of the U.S. and several countries in East Asia tend to be visited by foreigners almost entirely for sex tourism? There are several studies that indicate the ready availability of cheap pornography catering to just about any proclivity imaginable has been a major contributor to the declining birthrates in the more developed East Asian economies? If anything, much of East Asia is oversexed!
Her: ???
Me: It sounds to me like your friend just wanted an excuse to make a porno, but saying it was an art film kept it from being part of the seedy underbelly of society and gave his project an air of legitimacy. He didn't, by chance ask if you were interested in acting in it were you?
Her: Yes, he did. sigh
So, I think people who are interested in the titillating parts of porn, but who are turned off by the various associations it has, will jump through all kinds of mental hoops to pretend that various attempts at it, perhaps by coming through non-traditional channels, are in fact not porn when they most certainly are.