Craig's List personal Ads: Personals or Porn?
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Porn influences our already hyper-sexualized US popular culture in many forms and outlets; it affects us politically economically and socially. Sexualized texts have become so relevant in our society that it has become normalized and has become less taboo than ever before. Sexualized texts are prevalent in television, especially in reality TV where the focus is to capture “real” people in “real” world situations that usually entail sexual scenarios. The packaging and marketing of the next week’s previews almost always have a steamy clip of what’s to follow including a sexualized storyline or plot to draw the viewer and cause a scandal. The main themes we found in porn in the mainstream, particularly reality and reality TV were visibility of sexual icons, innuendos in print, “portholes” into mainstream television. Sexual icons meaning actors/ or characters from the porn industry have lately been used in all sorts of mainstream whether its reality TV, music videos, movies, or PETA ads. Ron Jeremy is a great example of someone from the porn industry being marketed into our mainstream media through his participation in VH1s Surreal Life and his “normalized” PETA ad. The PETA ad acts as a filter in which his persona is viewed through a different lens to make him look relatable and marketable to audience outside the adult industry. This ad also plays off the humor of his sexuality and makes it seem less abrasive and less of a threat to people who might not agree with his lifestyle.
The next thing we found was that porn from the mainstream often becomes funneled into real world scripts, an example of this are the personal ads or “casual encounters” located in front of the Craig’s List webpage. These are easily accessed to the public and at any age level. Most of the ads are disguised as personals because they are entitled “Casual Encounters” and most follow certain rules to keep posted. Looking at the personals we got a lot more than we bargained for. Often the images displayed were explicit images of the male or female genital; this goes against the bourgeois norms because it can be seen as low class and trashy. It depicts a copy cat reaction to porn they see on TV whether its porn or not and act it out through the ads on Craig list. It’s the counter culture of sex in the mainstream media, because they create characters, and scenarios while using talk that come straight from porn and utilize it as a means to act out their fantasies in a similar way that porn does.
The next theme we like to call “Portholes” into mainstream TV. This is a sense of hoping to ease from restricted channels and late night time slots into the mass world of prime time TV in order to get a glimpse into the once tabooed and the restricted world of pornographic content. Reality shows such as the Bunny Ranch on the late night HBO channel has paved its way into day time television with appearances on talk shows like Maury and Tyra Banks. This their “porthole” of opportunity to make a name for themselves on national TV and gain exposure amongst a wider audience range. Unlike some people who would be ashamed of coming out into the mass media the girls from the Bunny Ranch bask in the glory of the notoriety that comes from the lime light from their sexual lifestyles. As seen in our clip even a pregnant first time mom/bunny isn’t ashamed of her work and will willingly publicize the fact that she is pregnant and working.
The next show that we feel has been a gateway into a softer porn appeal is the Bachelor with sexualized scenes and content that is shown through the male gaze and the Vaseline lens among other pornographic production elements not limited to soft “pornesque” music and “borrowed” camera angles often seen in porn flicks. In this clip of the Bachelor Jason takes a female contestant/ Jillian into the “Fantasy Suite” for a little backyard Jacuzzi lovin’. The scene is shot much from the male gaze perspective, for instance more of the focus is placed on Jillian’s face expressions, legs and her body movement as she wraps her legs around Jason’s back to straddle him closer. The mood is definitely set by the production team and the lighting is dimmed as well, with the music strategically cued for the “special moments”. The camera has a panning effect similar to the one seen in porn, it pans in and out, focuses on the bodies, and facial expressions of pleasure. The Bachelor marketed the Jacuzzi scene as the “money shot” scene inviting viewers back with hopes of more sex to come after the commercial or future episode. Each season reality TV increases its dosage of sex and becomes more and more prevalent in the mass media.
BET’S Uncut and uncensored late night edition is a circuit of television that has created an opportunity for sexually explicit lyrics and images to be showcased in hopes of reaching the standardized sexual scripts. These music videos focus primarily on sex and the dehumanizing of women and their objectification from the male gaze. Even the edited clean version stays the same the only difference is that the clean one doesn’t say “pussy”, there is a very narrow line between uncensored and censored or cut and uncut. As Levande states, “If non- uncut videos are ads for uncut videos, then BET and MTV are possibly also ads for Adult on Demand. Arguably, music videos of today are the gateway drug into an actual purchase of the “real thing”. “On demand” porn is always on tap, and current music videos signify adult entertainment’s availability (p298).” Although this is not reality it influences real life perspectives and actions as well gender roles. For example like the video called Dream Worlds 3: Desire Sex and Power in music videos, where the men at a Puerto Rican festival act out scenes from rap music videos where the women are being objectified. The men sexual harass women and spray water/alcohol on them just like they do in the videos.
The overall effect of porn on popular culture is overwhelming, the facts speak for themselves. Whether they are implicit or explicit they are always there and striving to set the sexual script in the media outlets characterizing them as the main focus point.
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