Profiles in missing the point

It was probably a mistake to invite 18-year-old AVN Best New Starlet nominee Sasha Grey to speak as Porn’s emissary at a UCLA class.

Though articulate and precociously filthy, Grey clings to an idealism that everyone in the adult business jettisons as impractical within a year, if they possessed it at all.

It would have been better to have had a performer and/or director who has been in the industry for five years or more, who had watched several generations of newbies pass out of the business, and who knew the practical realities of surviving. Company owners and distributors should not be asked, because it is in their interest to lie.

Because now those poor UCLA students, many of whom are older than Grey, have an imperfect idea of what porn is.

When I moved to Los Angeles, my first job was for a reality TV production company. I distinctly remember telling someone that I’d like to create a world in which these places weren’t run by pre-literate douchebags, and my friend just rolled his eyes. How naive I was! When I first worked at AVN I wrote something about bridging the gap between porn and “mainstream” entertainment. What an idiot.

Grey was selected by UCLA World Arts and Cultures department professor John Bishop, who teaches courses in Video Production and Ethnographic Film. His teaching assistant secured Grey, providing new context to the title TA.

Bishop said he chose Grey partially because of her interest in filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. AVN’s Peter Warren quoted Bishop as saying, “There are only six people in the world who like Godard, so I knew you must be OK.”

The selection of this quote is instructive. It shows that Porn is distrustful of outside attention even as it begs for it, and that that distrust is well-founded as evidenced by Bishop’s academic condescension.

(In the AVN article, Warren subtly casts aspersions on Bishop, calling him a “self-proclaimed” ethnographic filmmaker, when in fact Bishop is an ethnographic filmmaker.)

Warren similarly condescends, describing some of the questions Grey fielded as “civilian” ones. It shows a contempt for consumers.

Grey did describe porn directors as “glorified cameramen”, which is also naive. I am acquainted with a lot of porn directors who don’t even know how to turn on a camera.

Though Grey’s vagina, unless it was involved with a creampie, has been blissfully free of sperm throughout her porn career, its owner nevertheless called porn’s version of intercourse “the most honest depiction of lovemaking in film today … almost like documentary.”

If that is true, I feel like I am living a less than real existence. From now on, I resolve to only engage in sexual intercourse once I have stripped down to my sneakers and she to her high heels and we do it piledriver style on a couch and then I pull out and come in her eye. I will also make sure to have Robby D.’s hand coming in and out of the frame.

Warren and Grey are made for each other, as is apparent in his final paragraph.

Grey’s visit to the class not only served as a crossover event of a heretofore uncharted nature (for a still-fresh porn starlet, anyway) — into the halls of academia — but significantly galvanized adult’s status as a valid form of art.

(I don’t know about you, but I was significantly galvanized just reading that.)

In other Missing the Point news, Robert Jenson, a Journalism professor at the University of Texas, Austin, calls for an “open discussion of mass-marketed pornography” about 30 years too late and disregarding the fact that the Internet is already an open discussion.

While we’re at it, let’s have a frank dialogue about VHS vs. Beta. Seriously, no one has the intellectual vigor to tackle this issue, and we need to turn to our nation’s publish or perish class to sort it out for us.

(Sasha Grey photo courtesy Spiegler Girls)

Previously: Gang Bang double feature; Something is about to happen to Sasha Grey
See also: Sasha Grey Speaks to UCLA Production Class, A Call for an Open Discussion of Mass-Marketed Pornography

About Gram the Man 4399 Articles
Gram Ponante is America's Beloved Porn Journalist

2 Comments

  1. It’s one big circle jerk –

    – The professor, masturbating his ego by maintaining his thesis of pornography as anthropological record and dropping Jean-Luc Godard references — because it’s really not about whacking off.

    – Sasha Grey, indulging in intellectual masturbation by speaking to a class as to why she does porn… and it’s not for the money, it’s about being a performance artist and dropping Jean-Luc Godard references.

    – Peter Warren for stroking this story from a limp, what-it-should-have-been “Sasha Grey talks porn to UCLA class”, to an overly-turgid “Sasha Grey wants to direct porn, make movies, Jean-Luc Godard, shoot a documentary, is a performance artist, Jean-Luc Godard, come up with the Grand Unification Theory and crossed over into uncharted waters and, oh yeah, she talked to a UCLA class, Jean-Luc Godard.”

  2. Ok this is going to seem completely off subject but it is related.

    First off I think your observations are completely fair & rational.

    Second I think Sasha Grey is the epitome of a charlatan.

    If you really want to be shallow ( & I don't ), of all the attractive girls in the world she has more opportunity than most & not only that genuinely gifted ones, ones that are even dare I say MORE attractive?? & ones that don't even need to be attractive- I think this is just the most pathetic thing –
    I've thought about, this attention harlot & fraud. So sad what a bad sign what a waste..
    & this fanni tutti flake friend of hers, I love her music, but sasha quoting her that anyone can do whatever they want is really so fantastically anti- social it borders on psychotic.

    I am not anti -porn, but the industry is completely corrupt.
    Any one KNOWS it is.. and all we have to do is talk about it, all of it, sex the industry all of it and learn something and we finally are its getting interesting!!

    Recently Grey did a cheesy unoriginal photo shoot, with a t -shirt up her ass & also she is struggling to define herself as an artist, in which case I am sorry she is an idiot.

    Sitting for fashion illustrators & dirty old men, does not make you an artist.

    What is modern sex then?

    The ability to use ones freedom of speech to explore every possible reality, outcome & complexity about sex and sexuality, sex media and all causes, effects and impacts?

    I obviously did not invent the wheel here-, a great deal is changing with the arrival of films like Taken & Trade, books, articles publications, destricted and alternatives in production by freelance individuals.. UClA- etc.. etc…

    So obviously our understanding of the scope of sexuality & what it means & the types of media we produce & their impacts, is evolving & opening up greatly.

    I think we are surprised that it's that simple- blowing the lid off of talking about sex & questioning the media & commodity that porn is- ..

    & I agree that prof was laying it on odd with describing her as accurately representing sex, if that were so all people of earth would be guzzling cum all day *& smiling as they take objects down their throats until they choke & I personally find that beyond possible..

    Here is a REALLY important point.

    Unfortunately because grey chose to be in the industry, she did, sign away a lot of her rights and cannot discuss all of this. If she does and does it rationally with some maturity and without being obnoxious or rude such as when she called a prostitute on a tv show fat & insulted her, I won't be the only one to be surprised. I doubt she will ever be able to talk about all of these complicities until she gets her freedom of speech back by leaving the industry.

    Why do we care? It's new and interesting, just like that electric car someone is driving & we are sick of being ignorant consumers who make people work 18 hour days to make our underwear. We are tired of being boring & destructive, it's very bush era..

    Soon anyone driving a gas car will look like an asshole- this is happening with so much, simply because our alternatives & choices actually really are much broader & potentially fulfilling than ever before, we are getting smarter..

    Even amsterdam shut down part of it's redlight district recently because the insanity of all the corruption and irresponsibility got to be too much.

    Vice does some terrific pop/exposes on dire issues in the environment and N korea, why not- this issue of the relationship porn has with the sex trade industry & communications about the reality of porn?? What is the taboo? Unchartered territory?

    Sasha the smashing pimpkins ( HA HA intentional yes pumpkins ) favorite muse for the nostalgic pre feminism zeigeist's so called 'sexual awareness' is dangerous, outdated, limited and ordinary..
    & she does not even realize it!

    & the incredible thing is this is not even a feminist issue we are talking about here, perhaps intrinsically feminist- its' really a freedom of speech & media one. & basic human rights.

    There are some really heavy realities about sex in our world right now that she is powerless to discuss.

    Meanwhile we need to continue to be fair & empowered & outspoken..Enjoy it that we can be informed and speak our minds, actually change things.
    Be a bob dylan about it, ha, yeah.

    Anyone associated in all these business opps with her just want money, that is all, money and attention.
    Anyone who does business with her proves themselves to be ignorant.

    Also she might not want to bash & make fun of people who make french fries for a living, many of these people work their asses off and are smart enough to succeed without deluding themselves that it's o k to be a sex worker in a corrupt industry and that it's o k to sacrifice ones freedom of speech ( rights ) for a job like that.

    Some one like Marina Abrimovic knows what the hell she is doing.

    The differences between abrimovic and grey are so vast, & obvious..
    Even make the comparison and grey is incredibly limited and ordinary at what she does.
    It's all a bad joke, that insults the intelligence of young people & people everywhere who are capable of so much more than her.

    And yes the porn industry at present does fund the sex slave trade industry, it is not the good old days of porn buying.
    Point being a smart sexpert freelances & DOES NOT WORK FOR/support THE INDUSTRY.

    This is not an anti porn issue, it's a reality, intelligence, awareness CONSUMER MEDIA issue.
    AKA do you want the sardines with mercury in them or the sardines without mercury, we CAN choose now & we have a right to discuss these choices..
    So here is free speech ( & don't dare point the religion finger, this is fact and awareness and most likely atheism, not fruitcakeism, we will leave the christianity up to the smashing pimpkins and agnostic bush era grey ) about sex 101 in the year 2008..

    Do you know where or how your porn is made?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s6sGo7jBF0
    And the industry needs the net & net co's to sell porn on the net. That means that even the softest porn made in the US with legal participants is tied up in all the economic links & mass transactions that sell sex slave porn & child porn- that's- how all porn now funds the sex trade industry. Making money off of slaves. Thousands, 2.5 million women & children.
    * Worldwide pornography revenue in 2006 was $97.06 billion. Of that, approximately $13 billion was in the United States (Internet Filter Review, 2006).

    * Every second, $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography, 28,258 Internet viewers are viewing pornography, 372 Internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines, and every 39 minutes, a new pornographic video is made in the United States (Internet Filter Review, 2006).

    * The Top Ten Adult Search Requests in 2006 were for: "sex", "adult dating", "adult DVD", "porn", "sex toys", "teen sex", "free sex", "adult sex", "group sex" and "free porn" (Internet Filter Review, 2006).

    * Twelve percent of all websites are pornographic websites. There are 4.2 million pornographic websites, 420 million pornographic web pages, and 68 million daily pornographic search engine requests (or 25% of total search engine requests) (Internet Filter Review, 2006).

    * 79% of youth unwanted exposure to pornography occurs in the home (Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later, 2006).

    * Child pornography is one of the fastest growing businesses online, and the content is becoming much worse. In 2004, Internet Watch Foundation found 3,433 child abuse domains; in their 2006 annual report, they knew of 10,656 child abuse domains (Internet Watch Foundation. Annual Report, 2006).

    * Of all known child abuse domains, 54 percent are housed in the United States (Internet Watch Foundation. Annual Report, 2006).

    * The fastest growing demand in commercial websites for child abuse is for images depicting the worst type of abuse, including penetrative sexual activity involving children and adults and sadism or penetration by an animal (Internet Watch Foundation. Annual Report, 2006).

    * Gnutella has 116,000 daily "child pornography" requests (Internet Filter Review, 2006).

    * In a study of arrested child pornography possessors, 40 percent had both sexually victimized children and were in possession of child pornography. Of those arrested between 2000 and 2001, 83 percent had images involving children between the ages 6 and 12; 39 percent had images of children between ages 3 and 5; and 19% had images of infants and toddlers under age 3 (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Child Pornography Possessors Arrested in Internet-Related Crimes: Findings fro the National Juvenile Online Victimization Study. 2005).

    * According to a National Children's Homes report, the number of Internet child pornography images has increased 1500% since 1988. Approximately 20% of all Internet pornography involves children, and more than 20,000 images of child pornography are posted on the Internet every week (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Internet Sex Crimes Against Minors: The Response of Law Enforcement. Virginia: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 2003).

    * Child pornography has become a $3 billion annual industry (Top Ten Reviews, 2005).

    http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=885389

    So Grey is free to shove a tshirt up her ass for a living & we actually possess our freedom OF SPEECH.

    PRESERVE OUR FREEDOM OF SPEECH DO not support any industry which lies to you & other people whether it's mc d's or grey's crappy sweatshop labor sneaker line. YOU have a right- to be an informed & intelligent consumer.

    I think- I could be wrong, but I think Fuck for Forests is truly legit- they- are amazing, why not interview them, see if they are legit.. Especially since we've recently discovered that we really need to stop cutting old growth trees because they do provide more oxygen.
    & well, we all need air..

    great book–
    http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Sale-Prostitution-Pornography-Industry/dp/041592295X

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOr6jViUhMc
    http://www.crime-research.org/articles/Mohamed2/2
    http://www.fairfund.org/subpage.asp?P=about&S=who_we_are&T=human_trafficking

    http://www.humantrafficking.org/updates/531
    Bush is a flake & has not done that much- but these are, quoted facts from this site below:
    http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/07/20040716-11.html
    "Worldwide, at least 600,000 to 800,000 human beings are trafficked across international boarders each year. Of those, it is believed that more than 80 percent are women and girls, and that 70 percent of them were forced into sexual servitude. The United Nations believes that the trafficking of human beings is now the third largest source of money for organized crime, after arms and drugs. We've got a problem; we need to do something about it.

    The American government has a particular duty, because human trafficking is an affront to the defining promise of our country. People come to America hoping for a better life. And it is a terrible tragedy when anyone comes here, only to be forced into a sweatshop, domestic servitude, pornography or prostitution. It is estimated that between 14,500 and 17,500 victims of trafficking cross our borders every year. U.S. law enforcement has documented cases of Latvian girls trafficked into sexual slavery in Chicago, or Ukrainian girls trafficked in Los Angeles, and Maryland, or Thai, Korean, Malaysian and Vietnamese girls trafficked in Georgia, or and Mexican girls trafficked in California, New Jersey and here in Florida. Many of the victims are teenagers, some as young as 12 years old. Many victims are beaten. Some are killed. Others die spiritual and emotional deaths, convinced after years of abuse that their lives have no worth. This trade in human beings brings suffering to the innocent and shame to our country, and we will lead the fight against it."

    do your research, be empowered it's very 2008 09 GO OBAMA!

    and trying to act smart in a corrupt industry and trying to act smart when you are limited as to what you can and cannot talk about when it comes to sex, is, well, not, smart.

    We will be waiting for some freelance guy or girl to do and tell it like it is, modern eco, free style, problems and all, because honestly, a 'modern sex worker' will have enough sense to explore , face & discuss these intrinsic realities.

    When they come around the greys of the world will have to quit the industry & be as smart as them to compete, then things will change..

    Then you will really have something to write about & I am certain you will do another great job & i cannot wait to read it.

    Thanks for reading my lecture & may it serve well & may others have a great deal more to offer this new trend..

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