Porn For Liberty!
August 10, 2004 4:25 PM   Subscribe

You wanna be free? Accept pornography. Or so says Salman Rushdie. He argues that a free and civilised society should be judged by its willingness to accept pornography. So which comes first, the liberty, or the boobies?
posted by Wulfgar! (45 comments total)


 
boobies! Wait, what was the question?
posted by mzanatta at 4:29 PM on August 10, 2004


Smut!
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 4:29 PM on August 10, 2004


These views will be well presented alongside photography of American porn stars in this book.
posted by Wulfgar! at 4:29 PM on August 10, 2004


boobies! Wait - what was the question?
posted by mzanatta at 4:29 PM on August 10, 2004


d'oh - can't seem to control myself...
posted by mzanatta at 4:30 PM on August 10, 2004


mzanatta was so excited he shot off twice! ;-)
posted by Wulfgar! at 4:31 PM on August 10, 2004


Salman Rushdie is a dirty old man, and has been for about 50 years.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 4:34 PM on August 10, 2004


Oh yeah, and, I Agree Absolutely.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 4:34 PM on August 10, 2004


Lady Liberty, show us your boobies!
posted by jonmc at 4:38 PM on August 10, 2004


Wow. Looks like the people behind this protest were on to something.
posted by Zonker at 4:39 PM on August 10, 2004


Salman Rushdie was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) on 19 June 1947.

well some of that time he would have had to have been a dirty little kid.
posted by MrLint at 4:39 PM on August 10, 2004


I always knew I liked Rushdie. Oh, and what mzanatta said.
posted by shoepal at 4:40 PM on August 10, 2004


Salman Rushdie has a really hot wife.
posted by ph00dz at 4:40 PM on August 10, 2004


That's Rushdie's wife?

*pauses to gibber and drool*

Somebody oughta put that on a plate and sop it up with a biscuit. I guess being smart does getcha the hotties after all.
posted by jonmc at 4:43 PM on August 10, 2004


Okay, to try and get some kind of post adolescent commenting going, (hehe), I offer this quote:

Gore Vidalthe, the grand old man of the American letters, writes in the foreword to xxx:30 Porn Star that America is a puritanical society which has fettered sexuality with unnecessary constraints.

“We didn’t take sex so seriously thousands of years ago because we had so many other things to worry about, such as surviving,” he said.

posted by Wulfgar! at 4:48 PM on August 10, 2004


Hey, wulfgar, I'm just gettin' all agitated in the name of liberty.

I'm all about liberation, yo. and boobies.
posted by jonmc at 4:52 PM on August 10, 2004


So which comes first, the liberty, or the boobies?

The boobies....I'll put my money on them.
posted by SpaceCadet at 4:56 PM on August 10, 2004


I'm sorry I refuse to believe that is Salman Rushdie's wife. Waitaminute. He's filthy rich, right? *googles* Yep. *pause* Alright, I believe it.
posted by keswick at 4:56 PM on August 10, 2004


Democracy, whiskey, sexy!
posted by homunculus at 4:56 PM on August 10, 2004


porn

... Such an age-old fucking question.
posted by Peter H at 4:59 PM on August 10, 2004


Not trying to moderate here, but I am curious about the logic presented. Is it:

1) If a society is free it will accept pornography (if A then B), or is it,

2) If a society accepts pornography, it will be free (If B then A), or is it

3) Acceptance of pornography is the same as a free society (B=A).

WWLFD?, (or accept as a valid premise at least)?
posted by Wulfgar! at 4:59 PM on August 10, 2004


Wulfgar, yes.
posted by Peter H at 5:03 PM on August 10, 2004


If it feels good, type it.
posted by Peter H at 5:04 PM on August 10, 2004


homonculus: I know where that's from...can you actually get Zionist porn?

Wulgar!: I dunno, all I know is that the UK, for example, certainly feels freer now than it did growing up in the 70's. I get the impression that there is more porn around these days, and also more sexually explicit topics on TV as well.

That's freer to me...
posted by dash_slot- at 5:06 PM on August 10, 2004


I think Salman is saying No 2 Wulfgar!, but perhaps not in such black and white terms.
posted by SpaceCadet at 5:06 PM on August 10, 2004




Padma Lakshmi (Fleshbot.)
posted by homunculus at 5:10 PM on August 10, 2004


homunculus, my original link to the book (XXX, 30 Porn-Star Portraits) was a fleshbot link, but I thought it a little NSFW, so I didn't post it. You are braver than I ...
posted by Wulfgar! at 5:13 PM on August 10, 2004


Padma Lakshmi (Fleshbot.)

Salman Rushdie : man of taste
posted by SpaceCadet at 5:14 PM on August 10, 2004



posted by DaShiv at 5:27 PM on August 10, 2004


Liberty'n'boobies
posted by Tenuki at 5:29 PM on August 10, 2004


Just a thought, but maybe Postroad has had it right all along. (NSFW, Yo...)
posted by Wulfgar! at 5:30 PM on August 10, 2004


Wulfgar!, is this the link? I don't worry about NSFW links as long as they're labeled as such. Salman would want it that way.
posted by homunculus at 5:30 PM on August 10, 2004


WWLFD?

Here's a recent interview with Citizen Flynt.
posted by homunculus at 5:45 PM on August 10, 2004


The problem with this thinking, though, is that your totalitarian overloards might be big porn fans. I don't think pornography was banned in Nazi germany.
posted by delmoi at 6:58 PM on August 10, 2004


Postroad's Good Shit has successfully been added to your evening surf.
posted by shoepal at 7:18 PM on August 10, 2004


Seems to me that pornography is a good way to keep the masses distracted.
posted by bingo at 7:39 PM on August 10, 2004


His essay in praise of pornography, to be published alongside images of US porno stars in a book called XXX:30 Porn Star, is bound to kick up frenzied protests, if not some thing more harmful.

Is it just me, or does the writer of this piece sound almost hopeful??

Seems to me that pornography is a good way to keep the masses distracted.

Boobs and cervixes! Time-honored technique.
posted by rushmc at 10:20 PM on August 10, 2004


I think acceptance of sexuality is a contributing sign for how free societies are today, but there's the classic 1984 / Brave New World example where sexual repression and absolute sexual commodification can each be used to remove attachments to anything but the state. The 1984 model being shakier and more prone to rebellion than the Brave New World model where reproduction, family and sex are all completelly separated. (with family eliiminated altogether). So I wouldn't say it's a universal rule.

Also decadent societies have existed throughout history with not much correlation to democracy or real freedom.
posted by Space Coyote at 3:13 AM on August 11, 2004


Make love, not war!

Free your boobies!

A truly free society does not censor Janet's boobies. Are we free yet?
posted by nofundy at 6:15 AM on August 11, 2004


I don't think pornography was banned in Nazi germany.

WTF?

According to Hitler, Jews were responsible for everything he did not like, including modern art, pornography and prostitution.

February 22 [1933]: Prostitution was banned.

You know, history is really not something you can make up off the top of your head.
posted by languagehat at 6:47 AM on August 11, 2004


Oops, sorry -- copied-and-pasted too hastily -- that second link should be
March 7: Pornography was banned.

And yeah, free societies don't practice censorship.
posted by languagehat at 6:49 AM on August 11, 2004


Colonel Vogel: Tell me about this miserable little diary of yours. The book is useless and yet you come all the way back to Berlin to get it. Why?
[He slaps Henry in the face with his glove]
Colonel Vogel: Why?
[He slaps him again]
Colonel Vogel: What are you hiding?
[He slaps him again]
Colonel Vogel: What does the diary tell you that it doesn't tell us?
[He tries to slap him again until Henry grabs ahold of his hand]
Professor Henry Jones: It tells me that goose-stepping morons like yourself should try reading books instead of burning them.

couldn't resist...
posted by shoepal at 9:18 AM on August 11, 2004


I know not what course others may take. But as for me, give me Boobies or give me death!!
posted by spirit72 at 4:21 PM on August 11, 2004


I buy that.
posted by HTuttle at 4:37 PM on August 11, 2004


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