If it Quacks Like a Duck, it’s Porn!

Sometimes porn is just porn.  It’s not some new phenomenal art form.  It just is what it’s always been.

I promised myself that I wasn’t going to write about this because I didn’t want to be internet yelled at by people with whom I’d normally agree.  I’m also, so Fr. Z once observed (Oh yes, I did name drop!), not a normal “mommy blogger.”  I take pride in that and this wanders dangerously close to a “mommy blogger” topic. . That said, I’ve really just become sick of the kitschy Catholics trying to rationalize this one away.  It’s becoming akin to active same-sex attractive people trying to say sodomy isn’t sodomy because they love each other. Or, probably a better comparison, all those people who saw “50 Shades of Whatever” and tried to say it was just how the world was now.  Blech!  It does seem to be reflection of the disease where we all want our sins to be accepted by our buds. I’m not immune, but geez, this just seems to be so obvious.

Let me first put out this disclaimer.  I LOVE, I mean, LOVE TV and movies.  I don’t think anyone who knows me would consider me in the “Amish” realm of Catholicism.  I love to be up on pop culture, etc.  I listen to modern music, I try not to sport mom jeans, and I try to take “living in the world but not being of the world” to heart. So keep all the “You just don’t live in the real world!” comments to yourself.

So let’s look at this little “Please don’t tell me watching Game of Thrones might be morally wrong!” article:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/suspendedinherjar/2017/07/defense-game-thrones/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork

A Defense of Game of Thrones

July 20, 2017 by Rebecca Bratten Weiss

Admitting that I am a fan of the hugest TV hit series of the moment can get me some side-eye in Catholic circles, but it is true: I love Game of Thrones. I love the book series on which it is based, A Song of Ice and Fire, even more: a slightly more morally acceptable confession, because at least no one yells at me for watching porn.

“Game of Thrones is porn” is the mantra I keep hearing from right-wing bloggers and posters of memes. One is tempted to dismiss this charge on the grounds that everyone who repeats it does so while also stating that they haven’t watched it – since anyone wanting to do art analysis should probably start by seeing the thing before making a judgment on it. But, of course, people can decide what they want to see or avoid based on descriptions. And yes, some things we know are porn without having to see them. They are marketed as such, labeled as such. The question is, is there a grey area where a work of art or entertainment veers somewhat into the pornographic? And does Game of Thrones veer this way?

“Want some candy, little girl?” just popped into my head.  Seriously?  “You don’t HAVE to watch it, but don’t you think that you should so you can make a more ‘educated’ judgement about it?”  I really hate the way people try to attack one’s “education” as a way of shutting down debate.  She did begrudgingly admit that one can make the judgment based on the voluminous amount of ink spilled on it, though.  How kind of her.

In order to answer this we need to be a little clearer on what pornography is. The presence of nudity, and even of explicit sex, is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for a work to be sexually pornographic. The necessary condition is manipulation towards the end of sexual arousal. Towards this end, stories in works of pornography are at best tenuous frameworks designed to get as quickly as possible to the point. Porn viewers do not want to sit through fifty minutes of complex story-telling in order to get a brief flash of nudity. No one who has access to internet porn is going to waste time on Game of Thrones – unless, perhaps, their interest in the story is sufficient to lure them away from a porn addiction. In which case, that is a good thing.

At this point, Rebecca might want to read this article: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/confidential/pornhub-traffic-plummets-game-thrones-season-premiere-article-1.3335493.  Please read the full article, but here’s the short version:  Pornhub’s traffic plummets on GoT’s premier night.  Let’s see.  Why do you think that is?  Is it luring people away from addiction or just fulfilling it?  I mean it’s an addiction.  Suddenly the people that pay for porn have found a laudible sub?  Come on, people!  I somehow don’t see all the porn addicts dropping everything and going to the Vatican art collection on-line to get away from their porn addiction.  The GoT people know that porn is addictive.  What better way to keep the ratings up?  Mainstreaming porn is a total advertising win.  Only a small subset of folks is going to say you’re a porn fiend now.  Your addiction is now acceptable.

This doesn’t mean people won’t be aroused by nudity, but at a certain point the fact of possible arousal becomes negligible, because it is culturally conditioned. There was a time when seeing a woman’s calf would have sent men reeling into helpless lust. This does not mean that showing a woman’s calf is pornographic. In some cultures, it is typical for women to go topless. This is not pornographic, either.

Isn’t this kind of the problem???  We’re not “culturally conditioned.”  We are culturally desensitized.  It ain’t a woman’s calf we’re talking about here, and it’s not the works of the masters, either.  Just because the culture is desensitized doesn’t mean that it’s good.  I would think you might possibly have paused to think a little bit before writing this.

Pornography by its nature dehumanizes the body and reduces it to a sex object for gratification and use. This is different from representations of the human body which elicit heightened awareness of personhood. Such representations are not always necessarily lovely. The crucifixion, a bodily image at the heart of the Catholic imagination, is proof of this. Some Protestant Christians are horrified by our seemingly ghoulish obsession with a depiction of horrific torture, the twisted and bleeding human body which is also the body of God. But it is precisely this juxtaposition of horror and beauty which is the message of grace.

Does ANYONE have a problem with GoT being juxtaposed to the Crucifixion?!?!  She seriously jumped the shark with this one. She talks about porn dehumanizing the person.  What the heck does comparing  The Game of Thrones to the Crucifixion do to Christ’s sacrifice for us?  Something is seriously wrong when you go to such lengths to watch a TV show!

I would suggest that for the most part the representations of sex and violence in Game of Thrones are intended to elicit this heightened awareness of humanity. Yes, much of the sex is exploitative, but this is portrayed as negative, intended to awaken a sense of justice. Again, a juxtaposition of horror and beauty.

Grasping. At. Straws.  If you can’t do this without the porn thrown in, you’re not much of a screenwriter.

The few sex scenes that are tender and intimate are portrayed with a kind of veiling that respects the privacy of human love. Actor Emilia Clarke’s insistence on being clothed for her representation of Daenerys’ “seduction” of her warlord husband had the effect of increasing awareness of the surprising tenderness that bloomed within what should have been a traumatic relationship, a forced marriage for military and political ends. The contrast between truly loving relationships that endure even in the midst of the darkness and violence of a world at war – and the violent sex acts performed in the moral corruption of that world – tends to showcase what it is that is vulnerable and lovable about persons, and personal bodies.

So, as long as porn (soft porn, etc.) are portrayed as loving, it’s OK?  Again, let’s go back to the sodomy and Pornhub examples.  And then there’s the MANY classic movies that have achieved the same goal without “vivid” portrayals of what should be the marital embrace.

“I have a tender spot in my heart for cripples, bastards, and broken things,” says Tyrion, my favorite character, and this could be considered the deepest theme of the story. Bear in mind, too, that in the novels, George R. R. Martin makes it clear that “broken” can mean “morally broken.” There are “broken men” who, shattered by war, roam the country like ravening wolves, but we are reminded – by one of the few truly good characters in the story, a holy man – that they are to be pitied. So, yes, most of the people in Game of Thrones do dreadful things, even some of our favorites. That’s what brokenness means. That’s what sin means.”

Again, it’s totally ridiculous to suggest the “artistry” would be gone without this?  Methinks that people just don’t watch the classics anymore. There have been MANY movies with the classic flawed heroes that were beautiful.

This is connected with a sort of via negativa in the religious sense of the story, in which the divine is made present in moments of silence, and among the most disenfranchised – but that is a subject for a different post.

Oh, goody.  Another post.

I will close with two caveats: first, no, it is not a show for everyone. Not everyone finds catharsis in stories of darkness and violence, but some of us do. Some simply find these representations disturbing. And obviously, it is not for children….but, then, neither is wine. And just as wine could be dangerous for some, so could depictions of graphic violence be harmful both for those inclined to perpetrate such acts, and those who have been victims of them. Second, I agree with some critics that the showrunners sometimes go too far. Storytellers have to tread with care on many issues, especially in depictions of sex and violence, and not everyone always gets it right. Especially when money is at stake. Especially when rape culture is so, distrubingly, normative.

The rape culture is normative because of shows like this.  The slippery slope is real people.  Interestingly enough, I haven’t heard one critique which complains of the violence.  I’m sure there are some, but Catholics rarely balk at that.  It doesn’t have the same seductive effect on the brain.  And, as the author rightly pointed out, we have a Faith centered around a tortuous, horrifically violent act.  Mel Gibson, for all his flaws, is the master of screen violence with the purpose to move people toward the beauty of humanity.  The characters in the movies he directs are flawed, yet love and intimacy is portrayed without the pornographic portrayal.  Braveheart, The Passion, Apocolypto, Hacksaw Ridge.  Even in The Patriot, which he didn’t direct but starred in, you knew his deep love for his family and even the wife who’s dead before the movie even gets going.  No graphic sex needed to emote humanity or the flawed hero.

The books, as we always say, are better – in this regard and in others.

But fundamentally, I believe, the story unfolding in Game of Thrones is profoundly moral, and – at a time of global unrest when we look on helpless at the suffering of the most vulnerable – very timely.

Hold up.  Can you say stretching?  To compare Game of Thrones to the reality of the Christians being persecuted in Islamic countries, babies being aborted on a daily basis, the plight of the poor in Africa, etc., is completely RIDICULOUS.  I must have somehow missed the pornography in their plight.  Please.  This is just offensive.  You can’t be moral and righteous and pornographic.  You want to quibble on the porn end, go ahead.  Personally, I think you are grasping at excuses.

Just a little antidote, when this whole Game of Thrones premier hysteria came up, I snagged one of my 20-somethings and asked if they had seen it. (Can’t really police them all that much after they reach a certain age.)  The 20-something in question, who has always loved a good story, especially in the pseudo-Greek mythology of Marvel, said “No-ho-ho-ho!  I’ve heard about the graphic sex scenes and the fact that you might as well not invest time in finding a hero to root for because they will die anyway.”  Thank you for validating my existence my dear child!  Seems like the 20-somethings might be a little more honest with themselves than Ms. Weiss and the other Catholics justifying GoT.