Risquéliscious: The Irresistable Forbidden Fruit
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Sataravala 1
Risquéliscious1: The Irresistible Forbidden Fruit
Snober Sataravala
Each age is dominated by an overriding ideology, for instance the 16th C was the Age
of Discovery later followed by the Age of Reason, perhaps the 21st C will be the Age of
Sexual Materialism. What better way to illustrate this than the recent scandal that brought
into the lime light fifteen eminent members of the Indian parliament who were absorbed in
watching pornography on their cell phones, whilst the house was in session. The “Porngate
Scandal” is one of the many instances that reveal how wide spread the phenomenon is and
how much of it is swept under the carpet. However, if this be the trend, then the concern at
hand is to examine its ramifications on the world of art.
Irrespectively, the objective is to establish that despite materialism there will
always be a threshold of expectation beyond which the consumer simply will not be
pushed thus in this case preserving the sanctity of art. The point at which the consumers
simply refuse to budge and the awareness of that limit ends the exploitation. Thus the
moment of recognition, that the need or requirement does not match the exchange value or
price, would result in the transaction being interrupted. To put it in a nut shell, only if there is
a demand for a particular commodity, will it be manufactured. Its value is determined by the
labour invested in the product as well as its utility but primarily by the exchange value and
demand it has in the market.
The two objects in this case that are being manufactured are literature and
pornography and yet at times they may overlap into one product. The threshold of production
will be limited by the purchasers and their realisation of a limit which they will not be willing
1 A term coined by combining risqué with delicious
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to exceed. So the existence of porn and literature is because there are enough people who
want it.
To establish parameters within which the argument will operate, one needs to describe
what exactly is meant by pornography and literature. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
defines literature as writings that are valued as works of art, especially fiction, drama and
poetry.
Dictionary.com states that literature is a noun which can mean:
1. the profession of a writer or author or
2. Literary work or production
Definition number 1 considers the labour of the author and definition number 2 makes
literature the commodity which is produced by that labour.
However this is too reductive as the term “Literature” must be automatically subjected
to the demands of certain criteria—consciously, and more often than not, unconsciously. It
implies conforming to certain expectations and these become the “thresholds”.
A current reality show titled “Love 2 Hate U”, screened on the 1 st of December 2011
at 7 pm on Star World, a television channel, carried an interview between Chetan Bhagat and
a young college girl who justified why she hated his writing. In her opinion she felt that as a
youth icon he had a responsibility to his readers to maintain a standard in his writing whether
it be in his novels or his informal tweets on twitter. Chetan Bhagat justified that as a frail
mortal perhaps he could be stupid sometimes. However, that was a licence several readers
would not give him if he was writing, even if they were mere tweets, primarily because they
occurred in a public space and the act of that kind of writing is artificial and demands
scrutiny and adherence to form. Also, once inscribed in ink on paper or in a more
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contemporary sense on the “net”, the writing obtains a more permanent presence allowing
people to refer to it over time and hence evaluate it over time. The simple observations of
these viewers have been repeatedly theorised by various critics particularly Russian
Formalists like Victor Shlovsky (1893-1984) in his essay “Art as Technique” or Structuralists
like Jonathan Culler (1944) in “Structuralism and Literature”. Literature is artificial writing
which adheres to the rules of a literary grammar and demands literary competence.
At a grass root and purely non academic level the above example indicates that there
are certain expectations of literature and certain thresholds which consumers will not allow to
be challenged.
Literature is a joint venture between an idea and its expression. However the
partnership is not equal, as Said (1935-2003) in his book Orientalism (1978) implies,
domination and inequity of power is perennial. The idea is central and powerful enough to
propel the story forward and make it memorable, meaningful and enjoyable even if the
technique is lacking. However, side by side there is in every being a need to celebrate the
creative and beautiful and express it in a way that appeals to the senses as well as the
intellect. Perhaps this stems from the hope that humans are more than beasts driven by
uncontrolled urges, in a sense making humans “more equal” (Orwell 90) than most animals,
which in turn transforms this desire into a market demand that must be supplied. This demand
seems to be archetypal for even the cave paintings of primitive man, who was closest to his
animal origins, are about hunting and not carnal desire. Laura Mulvey (1968-1993) in her
seminal essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” (1975) states that there has always
been a tension between instinctual drives and self preservation and in the case of the cave
men of the stone age the latter seems to be the primary need. Thus in a primordial sense art is
what made man strive towards the heroic.
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However, literature does at times encompass the term “erotic” which has its
etymological origins in the Greek myth of Eros the god of love. Rosemary Tong in chapter
four of her book Feminist Thought: A Comprehensive Introduction (1998) elaborates that
according to feminist anitpornographers there are two kinds of sexually explicit descriptions.
As mentioned Erotica comes from eros and refers to love or the creative principle where the
partners are fully consenting and it celebrates an equal and emotional union. Thus erotic
writing is about sensuality and sexuality but this does leave the distinction between the erotic
and pornographic ambivalent. However, the assumption is that the erotic is more than simple
gratification of lust and often even has a spiritual, philosophical or symbolic dimension for
example in “The Song of Solomon” from the Bible (Ebscohost glossary). In fact a simple
search on “the erotic in literature” revealed a host of sites spanning Medieval British
literature to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando
suggesting the “erotic” is not something novel or a recent development. The blurring of art
and pornography could be insinuated to occur in the realm of the erotic, however, the
sexuality is a means to an end and not the end itself, as in the case of “To His Coy Mistress”
by Andrew Marvell.
The other kind is “Thanatica” or pornographic , Thanatic pornography or violent porn
from the Greek thanatos—the death or destructive principle. Thanatica is not concerned with
emotional bonding, rather it treats women as mere objects or things, thus harming the image
of women. Thanatica also depicts sexual harassment, rape and physical battering of women,
in a sense legitimizing and justifying it by implying this is what women desire (not what men
inflict on them). The makers of pornography are not interested in bringing about social
awareness.
Pornography is defined by “Dictionary.com” as a noun which consists of obscene
writings, drawings, photographs, or the like, especially those having little or no artistic merit.
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Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines it as describing or showing naked people or
sexual acts in order to cause sexual excitement and books and films that do this. This
broadens the bracket of what one would call pornography. Ebscohost an academic online
archive goes on to classify pornography further as erotica or heterosexual and exotica which
is deviant or queer. The degree of the frankness of the expression further classifies
pornography as soft core or hard core. Andrea Dworkin and Catherine MacKinnon define
pornography as:
The graphic sexually explicit subordination of women through pictures or
words that also includes women dehumanised as sexual objects, things, or
commodities; enjoying pain or humiliation or rape; being tied up, cut up,
mutilated, bruised, or physically hurt; in postures of sexual submission or
servility or display; reduced to body parts, penetrated by objects or
animals, or presented in scenarios of degradation, injury, torture, shown as
filthy or inferior; bleeding, bruised or hurt in a context that makes these
conditions sexual.
Considering the above definitions, the two terms literature and pornography appear to
mutually exclude each other, as the latter has little or no artistic merit and a derogatory
connotation whereas literature for some aspires towards the sublime and for others even if it
is naturalistic the technique is fore grounded rather than sexual acts. However both are
manufactured and satisfy a demand. For the purpose of this discussion the phrase “explicit
sex scenes” will sometimes be used as a substitute for pornography as it possesses a
neighbourly meaning without bearing the negative semantic baggage.
In a nut shell formal preoccupations reflect the material obsessions of the society
which produce it. So once again it can be legitimately assumed that literature will be
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produced only if there is a demand for it thus giving it exchange value and the corollary to
this assumption is, literature with “explicit sex scenes” in it will also only be produced if
there is a demand for it.
Both varieties require labour and have a use value.
This was first emphasized by Karl Marx. The argument being pursued in this case is
an adaptation of the chapter “The Process of Production of Capital” from Marx’s seminal text
Capital: A Critique of Political Economy Vol. 1, Book 1. Intentionally ethical, aesthetic,
feminist and queer perspectives have been circumvented however they are interesting
avenues that can be explored.
However the “prefeminist debate on pornography” (Tong 112) consists of the
traditional conservative view which considers “good sex” or “vanilla sex” to be heterosexual,
taking place only after marriage, primarily to serve the purpose of procreation. This seems
not just out dated but perhaps even redundant in the twenty first century. The next objection
some have, according to Tong, is that explicit sex scenes activate the “polymorphous
perverse” which will result in the collapse of civilised behaviour. The final objection is that
pornography is just is not artistic. The earlier argument against pornography was based on the
“harm principle” and the “offense principle”. Another later argument, more radical feminists
like MacKinnon and Dworkin pursued was based on “civil rights” and a demand for
antidiscrimination law.
To progress systematically, in accordance with Karl Marx, the aspect of labour will
be considered initially. In order to explore the aspect of labour invested in the product, one of
the differences which must be examined microscopically is the distinction between an
audiovisual, performance-based art form like cinema and drama, as opposed to a verbal art
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form like literature. The three areas of potential exploitation are—the author, the
character or performer and the reader.
In the case of literature the characters cannot be more than words on the page which
were initially born in the mind of the author but live in the imagination of the reader.
Consequently there is labour invested by both parties and the recreation in the mind of the
reader in not of a real living person and can be quite separate from what the author
envisioned. The exchange is equal and hence there is no exploitation of labour.
Erotic art is ancient whether it be the sculptures at Khajuro or Indian Kama Sutra
illustrations or Chinese and Japanese paintings. However, once again the exchange is equal,
as the artist and the viewer both derive pleasure. Exploitation of the subject is avoided as
stone and paint do not live, feel or speak.
In the case of Photography, Cinema or Theatre a third angle features which is—
human involvement. In the performance it is not the private theatre of the mind but a public
space where the pleasure derived is a voyeuristic one. This makes the exchange unequal with
the voyeur deriving pleasure at the expense of the performer. The labour invested by the
viewer is far less, as they are passive recipients who visually consume a performance, which
in this case is of a specific kind— sexual. In the case of “explicit sex scenes” there can be
little pleasure for the performers considering the number of retakes and the nature of the
performance. Once the script on the page is converted to live human action, and in the case of
drama this action remains live, whereas in the case of cinema it becomes a celluloid
translation, there is a manifold increase in the scope for exploitation. The voyeuristic nature
of the experience leads to an objectification and commodification of the actors. In addition
the wages given to actors in pornographic films especially in India are far less than those
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given to regular Hollywood or Bollywood stars whilst their stature is simultaneously
inverted. The work force has no control over the final product or its distribution.
The manufacturers or creators may object on the basis of human right # 19 that
“everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression” and “this right includes the
freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information
and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers”.
The term “expression” itself implies that there is an idea and an intention that is being
expressed. In the poem “To His Coy Mistess” by Andrew Marvell, feminists object to the
parasitic penetration of the worm into a woman’s corpse which proceeds to devour her
“quaint honour”. Indeed it is a gruesome picture, in contrast to which, sex with a man
definitely seems the more appealing alternative. However, as it has been repeatedly argued, to
read the poem as a plea for sexual gratification is to ignore the idea behind it, which is—
humans are frail and mortal and the only way to avoid those “slow chapped jaws” of time is
to explode through life like a “canon” and thus win the war against time by living each
moment intensely and passionately. There is no sublime idea behind pornography in fact it is
solely action and any form of narrative is backgrounded and purely there to foreground the
action, which is people copulating.
The right to expression can be adequately countered by human right # 23 the
Worker’s rights taken from the website “Youth For Human Rights” that states:
1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and
favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring
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for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented,
if necessary, by other means of social protection.
4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his
interests.
The right to free choice of employment is compromised in India, as it is illegal to make
pornographic films in this country. However the hypocrisy is that it is legal to watch them in
the privacy of one’s homes but they cannot be screened publicly or filmed. So, one can
legally watch Indians who go to Canada and become rich porn stars. Ironically, virtuous
India, legally will not allow the actors of X- rated films to labour on her soil. Actors, whose
labour is exploited as they are under paid and not permitted to form unions in order to protect
themselves, ultimately end up getting imprisoned and abused but it is legal to view their
movies in the privacy of the home.
“When pornography is debated, in or out of court, the issue has been whether
government should be in the business of making sure only nice things are said and seen about
sex, not whether government should remedy the exploitation of the powerless for the profit
and enjoyment of the powerful.” states Andrea Dworkin and Catherine A. MacKinnon in
their path breaking book Pornography and Civil Rights. They continue that
Pornography is central in creating and maintaining the civil inequality of the
sexes. Pornography is a systematic practice of exploitation and subordination
based on sex which differentially harms women. .
However although women are the greatest victims, men and unfortunately children
are not excluded either.
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One may argue that what is considered as pornographic and obscene by a particular
age or group of people may be aesthetic and erotic for another as in the case of the
accusations levied against James Joyce’s (1882-1941) Ulysses (1922) that were later revoked
on the premise of freedom of speech and hence the focus at present is primarily on the
exploitation of the labour force.
Another interesting angle is that unless the labour force is aware of the exploitation it
cannot be considered as exploitation. Perhaps the fact that none of the porn actors would like
their family members to shrug on their mantle and become the next generation porn stars
which is so common otherwise with other actors (one just has to think of the Bachchans and
the Kapoors) shows an awareness of the exploitation. For that matter none of us are willing to
admit we watch porn let alone suggest it as a great career option.
The Pune Times dated Monday, November 21, 2011 carried an article on Sunny
Leone a Canadian born ‘porn star’ originally known as Karen Malhotra a new entrant in the
Indian reality show “Bigg Boss”. She confessed that she never planned on becoming a “porn
star” but “the money was just too good”. Her parents respected her and her decision but never
watched her movies. She worked 60-70 hours a week which is almost double of regular
working hours. So although it was no piece of cake she does not feel exploited by the nature
of the job or the income received in exchange for the labour provided and the ideology of
capitalism has yet again worked its magic and clouded her vision.
What is interesting is the fine line between vamp and heroine is gradually blurring. In
the above example, one has the vamp becoming the heroine and in the movie “The Dirty
Picture”, Vidya Balan the heroine plays the South Indian vamp, Silk Smita; subverting and
problematizing the above situation. The movie claims to be a biography of a South Indian
actress Smita who lived life by her own term. She is depicted as a woman who revelled in her
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oomph and actually derived her identity from it. What began as a means to an end actually
became the end causing her to take her own life when she felt she could no longer titillate the
male audience. Never once is she depicted as feeling shame or exploitation. However it is an
ironical inversion of Karl Marx’s statement: “They cannot represent themselves; they must be
represented”. (The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. VII Karl Marx 1852). Silk
Smita is neither here nor available to tell her story nor would she be able to even if she was.
Before a commodity is to be invested with labour or go into production there is an
assumption that it has exchange value and there is a market for the product. However, at a
more subtle level, rather than a real market requirement, this assumption that “sex sells” is
based on the producers’ perception of the viewer. The audience is determined as wanting to
consume “explicit sex scenes” and hence these scenes are manufactured either as hard porn or
explicit sex scenes in mainstream cinema and implicit ones in advertising. How they came up
with this assumption is to be researched. So in order to collect data to explore this question a
poll was conducted where the following question was posed:
“Solitary viewing of explicit sex scenes is: O.K or not O.K.”
(http://www.facebook.com/snober.sataravala)
On the 2nd of February 2012, out of the 61 people who answered the poll only 10 felt it was
not O.K. The group of people varied from students to professional of various ages, a real
motley crew with one thing in common. They all were educated English speaking graduates
and post graduates.
Some of the lacunae in the assumptions of this poll are that it does not take into
account the viewing company. For example a son in the company of his mother might not be
comfortable watching a risqué scene which might otherwise give him ribald pleasure with his
friends. On the other hand a woman might be embarrassed by provocative scenes in a cinema
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hall and fear the groping hand of an over stimulated neighbouring viewer which she would
otherwise perhaps enjoy at home and so on.
However the purpose of the poll at a superficial level was to merely determine
whether the viewing market really desired the risquéliscious in the first place or was it
actually a figment of the producers’ imagination and also to determine if there was a
threshold of unacceptability being transgressed. The above data reflects: there is no
exploitation of the audience, as the majority did not mind viewing explicit sex scenes.
Use value or utility is concerned with the quality or substance or physical properties
of the commodity. In the case of literature this would consist of form, technique and content.
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) in Poetics begins with the premise that art is mimetic or
representation of life. One can argue that a major part of human life, which is both natural
and important, is sex. However he qualifies mimesis by bringing in the distinction that the
representation is not as it is by as it ought to be implying that it is creative and superior to
base reality thus eliminating pornography from the realm of art.
To add to this Cleanth Brooks (1906-1994) in both his famous essays “Irony as a
Principle of Structure” as well as “The Language of Paradox” emphasizes the importance of
the metaphor. Art must speak through indirection even if it risks being misunderstood.
However pornography is the breakdown of the metaphor as it is biologically explicit and
frank leaving little or no scope for imagination let alone the symbolic, spiritual or
philosophical.
To continue with the Aristotlean criteria of evaluation of form and technique the plot
must consist of a series of actions following the laws of necessity and probability or what
Barthes (1915-1980) would later interpret as the solidarity of markers. Thus everything
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incorporated within the plot must connect to something or surface elsewhere having a
particular purpose or role in driving the action forward. Unfortunately, due to the decline in
the reading population which is steadily having its place usurped by the “peanut crunching
crowd” it is necessary to also examine the audio visual performances like cinema. Very often
a sex scene or “item number” in a Hindi movie is neither necessary and definitely not
probable. It is interpolated mainly to cater to satisfying the appetite of a mass and
predominantly male and perhaps to an insignificant extent a lesbian gaze. In the movie
Chokherbali (2003) for example the emphasis on the sexual urge is far greater than in the
original novel Binodini (1902) by Tagore (1861-1941) which actually centres round the
unjust treatment of widows who are denied the right to love and life for no fault of their own.
The nature of her own feelings towards Mahendra was not clear to her.
She had not forgotten that he had spurned her hand in marriage and deprived
her of her right to love and happiness. He had rejected her priceless gift and
fallen for a silly, empty-headed girl like Asha. Did she hate him for it and
sought to avenge her wrong, or did she love him and want to offer herself in
self surrender? (Tagore 84)
In the novel, Binodini remains chaste and in her struggle rises to a heroic stature, where as in
the movie she surrenders and ends up little different from a harlot who flings herself
alternately at Mahendra and then Bihari, his friend.
Laura Mulvey refers to Scopophilia, discussed by Freud in his ‘ Three Essays on
Sexuality’, as “taking other people as objects, subjecting them to a controlling and curious
gaze” where “the woman is the image and the man is the bearer of the look”. Binodini is
interesting, as in the novel the heroine’s pleasure comes only as a voyeur, thus inverting the
roles of the observer and the observed. This aspect is entirely lost in the translation to
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celluloid which caters purely to the male gaze. The reason for this shift in emphasis could be
the producer’s concept of ‘audience demand’ or in reality there really is a clamour for adult
cinema. Either way the situation was misjudged considering the movie flopped. In a sense the
ultimate power lies with the ordinary viewer who decides “hit ya flop” and thus a threshold
has been inadvertently established.
Despite all logical arguments, the history of literature which is predominantly
patriarchal till the twentieth century, reflects a tendency to steer clear from explicit sex
scenes. Perhaps this is due to the narcissistic tendency to encourage pleasure to arise from the
artist’s skill of representation rather than sexual stimulation but then again that is the purpose
of art—appreciation of the idea and its expression, neither of which are relevant to
pornography. Controversies like fatwas, autobiographical sensational exposure of intrigues,
dangerous liaisons may help a book to sell initially, apart from technique and artistic skill, but
will they ensure a sustained readership? What is interesting is that one has never come across
a book hitting the best seller list because of “a particular sensational sex scene” as opposed to
cinema. Thus the artist’s desire is to ensure his work of art is memorable and acclaimed
because of itself, the artist’s skill, and not a sex gimmick. In the case of pornography the only
selling point is sex and consequently it satisfies a very restricted need, perhaps, this is why
there does not exist a not canon of pornographic films.
With the advent of Modernism and the influence of Freud, sexuality enters literature
in a more overt fashion, however even then the expression is still through displacement and
symbols. Strangely, it is some of the feminists who view the indirection not as an artistic
criteria but another form of subjugation. Sonya Blades discusses Helene Cixous’ ecriture
feminine and its relating of sexuality and language and goes on to apply it to the writing of
Anais Nin but her argument can be expanded to include erotic writing by women. Blades
feels that through the
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...poetic portrayal of intimacy and sexual experience, through diction,
imagery, characterization and sentence structure and plot sequence, Nin
subverts, rather than copies the male depiction of the erotic experience that
has reinforced the objectification, domination, oppressions of women’s
sexuality...
...women have been denied their bodies, taught to ignore them through false
sexual modesty
Thus legitimizing a woman’s recourse to the erotic in her writing and in fact celebrating it as
a mode of subversion. However it is still the “poetic portrayal” that she is referring to.
On the contrary pulp fiction with its unabashed rejection of elitist status, be it the
novels of James Hadley Chase or the Nick Carter series enjoys a healthy cult following who
never think to question or interpret the sexual interruptions of the racy, action packed,
episodic plots. These writers tend to having a following of readers in general rather than a
particular book that is memorable. So out of the many Nick Carter books there isn’t a
particular one that has achieved iconic status.
However according to Tong, the feminist anitpornographers feel there is a continuum
from pulp romances like Mills and Boons which indirectly celebrate male dominance and
female submission to soft-core magazines like playboy that depict “bunnies” being devoured
by male hunters to hard core porn magazines which show women being tortured. In a sense
this makes it difficult to disregard or scoff at the role pulp fiction plays and its consequence
regarding the status and treatment of women.
To return to the original question of exploitation and exploring its scope in three
different avenues: the author, the artist and the reader or viewer, in the case of literature, the
exploitation is restricted to the author and the reader. The facebook survey implied that
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perhaps the reader cannot be considered as exploited as they desire the risquéliscious and
they have human agency. The author may be forced to compromise the integrity of his art in
order to get his book published by a capitalistic mode of production that will substitute
aesthetics and values with titillation and provocation, as it is more marketable. On the other
hand, the author may intentionally choose to describe characters making love, as in the
beautiful poignant scene between the elderly couple in the novel Love in the Time of Cholera
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927-2014). After a lifetime of unrequited love the description
of the gentle union underscores the poignancy of getting something almost too late.
Interestingly, the DNA Sunday Mag. on November 13th, 2011 carried an article “Where’s the
Kama Sutra for the elderly?” The article had a healthy attitude towards a sexual need which is
part of one’s life no matter how old. Thus art mirrors life. On the other hand one sees all kind
of porn but never of the elderly for the elderly, obviously that part of market demand isn’t
very demanding. Thus literature caters to a variety of needs, of a very broad spectrum of
society, giving a little something to everyone.
Dr Johnson in his famous defence of Shakespeare talks about purpose of comic relief
to ease the tension caused by a concentrated intense viewing; perhaps another form of relief
in a plot could be sexual relief. Thus rather than a purgation of pity and fear one could have
the purgation of libido leaving the body calm all passions spent bringing about a very real
catharsis of another sort within a properly constructed plot, performing a very necessary
psychological function.
However there are two impressions, one, which is supported by Dworkin, is that
explicit sexual scenes over stimulate the viewers or readers encouraging them to commit
sexual crimes after watching an adult scene. She feels there is “direct evidence of a causal
relationship between the consumption of pornography and increases in social levels of
violence, hostility, and discrimination” (Pornography and Civil Rights). Edward Donnerstein
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counters this by claiming that it is graphic violence that triggers aggression irrespective of the
presence of sex.
On the other hand perhaps the exposure reduces the fascination for the unknown as
the viewers live vicariously through the characters. The viewers over time become
desensitized making them less obsessed and hence react less. Due to the familiarisation,
people will eat, sleep, defaecate and fornicate all in a day’s work without being enamoured
by any one of them in particular. Sadly, this approach of sexual catharsis in literature, if over
used, invokes a disturbing future where all art will in turn be reduced to the mundane, making
it mundane.
In the case of the reader there is the option of skipping unsavoury pages or the
viewers shutting their eyes in a movie. The unsavoury need not always be sexual, it could be
horrific acts of violence or simply a bad movie or book that puts one to sleep. Thus the reader
or viewer still has choice or human agency.
So are the writers, actors, readers or viewers victims?
Advanced Oxford dictionary defines a victim as a person who has been tricked, killed
or destroyed as a result of crime. In the case of literature perhaps only an author may fall prey
to a predator producer but in the case of cinema all three are compromised, most of all, the
actor.
On the other hand, if the solution was to keep the unsavoury under wraps and out of
sight, the rape of a “burkha” clad woman in an Islamic country would be unheard of.
Prohibition has had an unfortunate history of back firing on itself, for rather than exorcize a
desire, it heightens it due to the mysterious aura the tabooed item develops. Hanadi Al-
Samman in an interesting article titled “Out of the Closet: Representations of Homosexuals
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and Lesbians in Modern Arabic Literature” brings home this point. The only solution to avoid
the drabness of familiarization, and on the other hand the allure for the mysterious and
tabooed, is to defamiliarize it in art through the metaphor making it is present and yet absent.
Continuing with Aristotle’s criteria for fine arts—the plot should be an organic whole
so other than aesthetic appeal, the action whether it be sexual or otherwise must contribute to
the progression of the plot or the understanding of the motives as is the case in Love in the
Time of Cholera. No such demand is made of a pornographic movie which therefore satisfies
only a very limited requirement. The Literature Review has a “Bad Sex in Fiction” award to
mock the embarrassing description of sex in literature. This kind or self reflexiveness which
is absent in adult cinema tries to ensure that literature avoids the agenda of ‘sex for sex’s
sake’ and the standards are set a little higher. The given rationale is "to draw attention to the
crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the
modern novel, and to discourage it". Various eminent writers like Arundhati Roy and Stephen
King have also been nominated for the backhanded award.
Emotionally it goes against middle class values and modesty or should we say middle
class hypocrisy to admit that sex is not just inevitable but may even enhance literature but
intellectually we must accept that it is inescapable as long as people desire it. Ironically,
Literature with its iconic stature will not risk ‘sex for sex’s sake’ as it will impoverish the
work of art by distracting the consumer’s gaze and confounding the consumer’s expectations
even though there is no exploitation. Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) in his essay “The Work
of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” describes the aura of a work of art that
encourages a kind of reverential viewing elevating the work of art to the realm of the divine.
Technology ensures availability, subverting the exclusive and elite, thus shattering that aura.
Literature and art which was a product for the educated and privileged, the bourgeois class
now loses its cult viewing and ceases to be a tool for domination and exploitation. In
Sataravala 19
addition, mainstream cinema which appeals to the masses without the restrictions of taste,
allows it a raw licence to cater to a need at any price. This is disturbing and demands
cognizance. As for pornography there is no question of aura but it may be argued that it has
its own cult viewers. The relish of the viewer does not come from a sense of superiority
rather it is tinged with the awareness of the sordid, the inescapable uncomfortable residue of
the pornographic visual experience. This is perhaps because, when the site of the action shifts
from the page to a person’s body, it is exploitation and hence illegitimate. However, the
paradox is, over time there will be more and more explicit sex in movies despite the
exploitation whilst literature which is not guilty of taking advantage of a living person will
continue to resort to circumlocution and indirection in its treatment of sex.
Law has traditionally considered pornography to be a question of private
virtue and public morality, not personal injury and collective abuse.
states Dworkin and MacKinnon in “Pornography and Civil Rights”.
Hopefully a threshold will be reached when realisation seeps deep enough through the
human hide and the consumption of the risquéliscious in audio visual forms will cease but the
fact that hard porn has not yet entered mainstream adult cinema is a testimony to the fact that
perhaps a threshold is already subtly in place whether it be in the form of an official or
unofficial censorship which exclaims “hit ya flop”. It is the threshold of artistic expectation
or use value and not morality that preserves the sanctity of art thus making the irresistible
fruit resistible.
Sataravala 20
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