egafd.com

I understand. Pornography has taken the knocks for so many years for whatever society dislikes about itself. It's so easy to blame. So many people I know imagine hardcore porn as filled with unwilling Eastern Europeans being forced for very little money. And of course, those who hold the most frightening Dworkin and Mackinnon type views about pornography and censorship are so often the women who've seen no porn at all. Those people who aren't naturally exhibitionist find it difficult to understand those women (and men) who enjoy performing sexually in front of a camera.

I'm sorry to seem to be only the latest in a long list of reseachers who probably use the porn industry to sell whatever they're writing and then disparage it in their piece. I find that far more degrading in its hypocrisy than any hardcore I've seen. Thanks for your message, peter, I realise it's a tricky thing to judge.

I'm a writer myself (in my "public" life) but I'm struggling to understand what you are trying to capture in your play - it seems you are trying to do two contradictory things at once. On the one hand you say you want to focus on "the industry", particularly in the context of recent legal, political and social changes. But you also seem to be wanting to understand what drives people to express and explore their sexualities through the medium of pornography; something that to me is largely independent of socio-political changes except in so far as such changes make such activities relatively easier or harder. Personally I feel it would be hard to treat such a personal journey in an authentic way if the waters are to be muddied by also looking at "the industry" and political context.

Well, to be specific, I want to follow a personal journey that involves a character who chooses to go into pornography. I suppose my interest in understanding the industry is more about gaining as much knowledge of the world that is being entered into and the people in that world as is possible. Yes, centrally will be the question of what makes us explore our sexuality and represent it in the way that we do, but can this ever really be disconnected from the economic and political surroundings which we exist in? Perhaps it can. But I suppose I'm just aware that no amount of knowledge can be too much when researching. I probably seem a bit 'sweeping' in my outlook because I wouldn't want anyone to not contact me who might have one interesting outlook or story that would help me. I agree though that an honest account of someone's journey should not be a vehicle for some political view or message. That would be dishonest.

That makes more sense - yes they are connected of course - ultimately, but it's so easy to get into making judgements (despite best intentions) if the connections are too explicitly characterised.

Not a UK site but there are some wonderful video diaries ("confessions" and "journeys") on this site - (just a current favourite of mine - I have no other connection). These are monologues of women talking about their sexualities and why they like to "exhibit" themselves and getting off on doing so. The site creator is also a poet. There's also some interesting discussion of many of these themes from an erotic and artistic point of view on Heather Corrina's site

And yet pornography is possibly one of the oldest art forms (e.g. going back to neolithic "venuses"). Many highly civilised cultures have valued the erotic arts far more highly than we do and hopefully one day we will grow up enough to do the same.

Thanks, Pianaman. Wow, Littlemutt.com is HOT!

It sure is - Ruby especially - check out her confessions series, beats Sex Lies and Videotape hands down.

I think that hardcore porn has been misrepresented to a large extent by the media, but, equally, I don't think there's any merit in pretending that all girls working in this industry are happy or that they entered into it for the right reasons. It seems that there's broadly two kinds of girl in porn - those that do it long-term and those that do it short-term. I'm not sure that anything dealing with the long-termers would be that interesting; they seem to have integrated it into their lives; it seems very routinised. More interesting is those girls that enter it for a short period and then leave. I'm interested as to how doing a short stint in porn has affected their lives: how it impacts new relationships and how men view them for having done porn; whether they're worried their children (should they choose to have any) will react should they find out about it; how many regret it etc. etc.

Hasn't the subject already been done to death (by many other writers?) Martin Amis springs to mind...

Unless you think you're better than him, of course??

Well Lucy now you have my details you can mail me,

Phil McC