Adult Romance Genre Fiction

invisible said:
porn poses a different set of ethical dilemmas to romance genre fiction because...
Click to expand...

I understand your arguments, but isn't this discrimination, too? Guys are more turned on by visuals and girls more by feelings (or so it goes) and so is it OK to see the girls turn-on material as totally OK and not the guys turn-on material? It's not like the porn stars are forced to do it, they get paid very well and are often very vocal about loving their jobs.
 
vandyke said:
I understand your arguments, but isn't this discrimination, too? Guys are more turned on by visuals and girls more by feelings (or so it goes) and so is it OK to see the girls turn-on material as totally OK and not the guys turn-on material? It's not like the porn stars are forced to do it, they get paid very well and are often very vocal about loving their jobs.
Click to expand...

sometimes the workers are vocal, but that does not mean that the ones that are vocal are representative of the entirety of women working in the industry - they may represent only a small subsection of these women. regardless of that, the nature of the pornography industry poses inherent hazards to the workers that has no meaning in the realm of fantasy genre fiction. the arguments about the ethics of pornography have nothing to do with making moral judgments about the fact that guys and gals being turned on by different things, and everything to do with the dangers inherent to workers in the production of the materials that are being consumed. if you are truly interested in discussing the ethics of pornography production, i encourage you to start a new thread. these ethical concerns have nothing to do with romance genre fiction, because the production and consumption of romance genre fiction does no necessary harm to anyone, while the production of pornography poses inherent health and safety risks to the actors in the films, and in this economic climate the money that is paid by consumers of these films to pornography studios necessarily perpetuates those working conditions. i think that this discussion has ranged off topic and would be better served by another, separate thread.
 
I've been reading a ton of these types of novels lately, especially paranormal romance. I've become addicted. It's enriched my fantasy life. :D
 
i remember when i was a teenager i would go to literotica websites and click on the incest/taboo section. this probably isn't quite the same thing, but if you're every really bored on the internet, check it out.
 
invisible said:
porn poses a different set of ethical dilemmas to romance genre fiction because it uses real people as actors. acting in porn is not comparable to a regular "job" because the occupational hazards are so high, kind of like being a workman without being allowed to wear a hard hat. apart from that there are also a lot of issues related to women specifically who act in porn and how they are treated in the films, both as individuals, and as representations of women. im not making any judgments on pornography and its consumers - actually i think its a necessary evil, and it makes functioning properly in society a great deal easier and even just more fundamentally possible for a great many of us. but because of the ethical concerns that are necessarily involved in its production, i dont think it is a meaningful analogue to romance genre fiction. because of the way that women are routinely treated in porn, i find it easy to understand how women could feel anger about porn production and consumption.
Click to expand...


Just going to point out that not all porn is video or animated, plenty of men read erotica.
 
Barnabas said:
Just going to point out that not all porn is video or animated, plenty of men read erotica.
Click to expand...

yeah thats true. also, some women watch pornographic films. all i was really trying to say is that i think its understandable that some women feel angry about the treatment and depiction of real women in real action pornographic film, and that the nature of the medium means that these same ethical dilemmas do not apply to written fictions.
 
niffer said:
i remember when i was a teenager i would go to literotica websites and click on the incest/taboo section. this probably isn't quite the same thing, but if you're every really bored on the internet, check it out.
Click to expand...

my friend who is a research psychologist with an interest in human sexual behaviour tells me that incest fantasy is everywhere.
 
i read the last Merry Gentry book, Divine Misdemeanors. it was a bit disappointing, especially since the previous one (Swallowing Darkness) was so excellent. i skimmed very quickly through large parts of it. still, theres no limit to how much i can read of this series. looking forward to the next title mid year.
 
invisible said:
yeah thats true. also, some women watch pornographic films. all i was really trying to say is that i think its understandable that some women feel angry about the treatment and depiction of real women in real action pornographic film, and that the nature of the medium means that these same ethical dilemmas do not apply to written fictions.
Click to expand...

Those are fair points I just don't think they address the the question that was asked about whether or not there is double standard in male female pornography habits mainly in those dealing with romantic genre fiction.
 
Barnabas said:
Those are fair points I just don't think they address the the question that was asked about whether or not there is double standard in male female pornography habits mainly in those dealing with romantic genre fiction.
Click to expand...

when something is an ethical problem, a "need" to do it does not avert, or balance out, or neutralise the nature of the ethical problem. a "need" for certain viewers to consume visual pornographic material, because they are "wired" to get turned on by such materials, does not eliminate the ethical concerns involved in the production of real action porn film - those ethical concerns remain inherent to the production process and the consumption economy of real action porn.

to be perfectly honest, i think there are viable cases to be made both for and against real action porn film production and consumption, and i think that real action porn presents a range of ethical dilemmas that cannot actually be legitimately resolved. but if people want to believe that there are no ethical dilemmas involved in real action porn, all they are doing is going "LA LA LA, I CANT HEAR YOU" in order to block out the other side of the debate with which it is not convenient for them to engage, because it conflicts with their "need" to consume porn. they are kidding themselves.

the reason why there is no double standard by comparison to romantic genre fiction, is because the same ethical dilemmas by which some people judge consumers of real action porn, are not applicable to romance genre fiction. it is not a double standard, it is a completely different range of ethical standards by which viewers of real action porn material are being judged that does not even remotely apply to fantasy fiction. these standards are to do with the consequences of porn acting on real live people who participate in it, what happens to them as individual actors in particular films, what happens to them as individual workers in an industry in which they have a very limited working potential, and also the consequences on our culture and society of these portrayals of sexual interaction that are dominant in porn production, how the extremely wide distribution combined with visual presentation of actors in those films affects general culture and sexual and emotional education of young viewers, and so on. this is a significant list of ethical questions, and these ethical standards have absolutely no relation to romance genre fiction, because romance genre fiction has no involvement in economies of paid sex work of any kind at all.

can we PLEASE stop discussing this now. its so off topic its ridiculous and im over it. i just dont want to talk about this anymore. do i have to start a new thread to get away from this topic? start a new thread if you want to talk about it so much.
 
i guess i should add, that i think people who judge others for watching animated porn and want to make a public argument against it, are maybe a little bit prudish, and should mind their own business. but then, ive never been aware of anyone making that sort of public argument about any problems they have with animated porn, and i suspect that this may be something of a phantom issue conflated with the the ethical problems of real action porn in order to distract from the genuine nature of those problems.
 
i think theres a bit of a misunderstanding about what romance genre fiction actually is. although it contains depictions of sex, its not actually pornographic. pornography is material that is used as an aid to sexual release, and that the user loses interest in immediately once sexual gratification is obtained on that occasion. perhaps not even erotica is always necessarily pornography, as i have read some erotica, "The Story of O" by Pauline Reage, and "The Story of the Eye" by Georges Bataille, which is highly literary, and really doesnt fall meaningfully into a pornographic category. but surely, if readers of romance fiction were looking for sexual release, they would read actual legitimate pornographic fictions - short, disembodied situations devoid of character and disembodied from narrative - perhaps like the kind that niffer mentioned. i think that generally speaking, if readers of romance genre fiction read for a release, it is not a sexual release, but an emotional release. they read right through the sex scenes and just keep on reading without any sort of personal sexual pause at all, because the sex is not what they are reading for, its just that ideas about "good" sex legitimate what they are really reading for, ie genuine intimate relationships. i guess some of them might masturbate when they are reading, but i think that most of them are not. i read this material relatively voraciously (i have chewed through thousands of pages since starting this thread) and i never masturbate when i read it, i dont even get aroused. the reason why i read it, and why i think most of its readers consume it, is as an emotional escape from lives that they experience as too busy and too full. they want to imagine an exciting emotional connection with another personality who cares about them. its not about sex, its about people, and how they relate to each other.
 
[MENTION=1669]Framed[/MENTION] im sorry i didnt get around to reading your ideas sooner, things have been a bit hectic in my world and i was saving it up. anyway would love to read anything you post about this topic in future.
 
i like these fictions because theres always justice. the general theme seems to be that with work everything always turns out well in the end. the world is fair and good.
 
Average said:
I don't watch nothing!! The amount shit that comes on films in that arena.
Click to expand...

that amount of shit sure has a lot more meaningful content than your arrogant, irrelevant, intellectually destitute post. buzz off and go crap on some other thread.
 
[MENTION=1669]Framed[/MENTION] why did you delete that post?
 
RITA finalists have been announced for this year (a little while ago i think, because some of the titles have rapidly gone out of stock with retail distributors.)

http://www.rwa.org/2014finalists

the nominees for contemporary all sound awesome. im going to have to get an ereader.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top