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The Internet Is for Porn

themargins.substack.com

311–320 of 460 posts

Re: The Internet Is for Porn

#311
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that the argument is that male tech workers consume porn as much as other men and therefore solving issues of porn industry could be solving issues they have too. E.g. selfishness of tech males should lead them to care about porn. Your contra argument implicitly assumes that tech makes are special kind of males that don't use porn.

Essential issue isn't about solving their problems. Essential issue is about making them more money. Which opportunity makes them the largest amount of money, with the least amount of risk to their investment? Porn doesn't compare favorably to their other opportunities. Full Stop. If it did compare favorably, they would be putting money and resources in porn.

One of the biggest examples of this is probably Tumblr banning and removing porn and other NSFW content from their platform.

Re: The Internet Is for Porn

#312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One type of work is called "the oldest profession". Not sure how that is consolidated with a double standard view.

Also, this isn't historically true; women were and are a historically significant part of the industrial labor force, and before that did a good share of agricultural work as well. Certainly industrial labor had gender divides, but it's not a strange fluke that, say, most of the people who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire were women.

Somewhen in the last two centruries, the general population seems to have internalized the view that making money = work, keeping a house functioning = not work. It's peculiar, if you think about it, given how big a multiplier the latter is to the former. I'm guessing this is one of the early case of society falling victim to metrics - making money is easy to quantify and compare, housekeeping isn't.

Re: The Internet Is for Porn

#313
post #195

What a super fascinating demonstration this thread is of why OnlyFans could never have been a Silicon Valley company. I'm not going to risk getting pulled into any of the ten different arguments going on here, beyond stating that I consider it a very good thing to increase the agency of the most vulnerable members of this line of work. But suffice to say that with this level of vehement disagreement even on whether s…

Does selling advertisements for cars or penis pills provide societal value? I think a lot of things we do don't have societal value but we do it because there's a demand in the market for it.

Re: The Internet Is for Porn

#314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This feminist take was definitely uncalled for in this article. The author's bias about how the women, _who are actually getting monetarily compensated_, are the victims completely misses the costs to the purchasers, who are almost all men, in terms of their money and the neurologic changes that such sex work consumption has. Having the "algorithm" suggesting and enticing these men back to buy more subscriptions / pi…

Wow. Are you really saying that the men who consume porn are equally victimized as actual sex workers, because of an algorithm? In the sense that algorithms do nudge our behaviour in insidious ways, addicted consumers of porn can be seen as victims of a sort. But, to suggest that the social stigma associated with porn usage is equal, much less anywhere near approaching, or in the same order of magnitude of the social…

Username checks out.

Re: The Internet Is for Porn

#315
I like how people think the media they consume isn't porn.

It's almost the exact same experience of aspiration, hope, envy, release, etc. Even though it's all media, and yet we say the sex media is taboo, when reality is these representations of what we perceive to be powerful and desirable are all the same thing.

When I wrote for magazines, and after we got into the drinks, I'd have this same conversation with some of the more bourgeois writers and editors, who insisted they were prim and serious, but when it came down to it, they were in the porn business, just the fancy kind.

Whether you are looking at naked people, expensive clothing, cars, or even very serious and meaningful political commentary - it's all on a spectrum of sensational pornography. Even renowned fashion photographer Helmut Newton famously talked about the store Hermès as the world's most exclusive sex shop. He understood it, and he knew exactly what he was doing.

The only difference is in the aesthetics and beliefs the pornography reinforces.

Re: The Internet Is for Porn

#316
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are literal pimps doing literal pimp work: recruiting young girls, connecting them with clients, and taking a cut of the profit, while keeping control of the whole business. It is not my fault you are offended. I would have no problem if these sex workers setup their own site and did their own business directly with their clients. No pimp would be involved then. There would be no recruiting, which is also where…

You seem to have missed a staggeringly huge piece of the picture here: Clients aren't paying to actually have sex with OF creators!! I say seem to because I think you're arguing in bad faith. You've already made up your mind and continue to press on hoping you can say "pimp" enough times to draw attention away from the absence of actual prostitution.

> Clients aren't paying to actually have sex with OF creators!!

You may not be familiar enough with the Sex Worker industry as a whole, but this absolutely can and does happen.

Oftentimes, it is under a plan discussed in private over a secondary channel (Signal or Telegram or Wickr if they're real pros, Snapchat if they are less careful.) Most common scheme I've observed is either you finish the transaction on a side app or purchase a large amount of their video content and it is applied as a 'credit'.

No, this is not what the majority of OnlyFans creators do. But the legitimate sellers and rest of the market provide a smoke-screen for those who wish to do less accepted forms of Sex Work.

Re: The Internet Is for Porn

#317
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wtf How can you know with that much details what's on OnlyFans if you don't like porn and (supposedly) don't go on it ? I like porn and I had not even heard of Onlyfans before 2 months ago.

Because unfortunately it sneaks it way onto shit like HN, and then I get a bunch of pissed off people telling me stop being such a pussy about it or ‘get off the internet’ when it’s because I AM A VICTIM OF VIOLENT SEXUAL ASSAULT.

Respectfully, I think you’re being unreasonable. Your first comment made no mention of your sexual assault (and, once you’ve mentioned it, most commenters–myself included–are quite sorry that this happened to you). People aren’t telling you to “get off the internet”, they are responding to your claim that it is impossible to avoid sex on the internet. For which, quite frankly, there are many better ways to go about this than arguing with people in the comments section for an article about “The Internet is for Porn”. If your desire is that people scrub the internet clean of sex, that’s not going to happen, sorry. That being said, there are many tools available to make it so that your experience remains free of such things.

Re: The Internet Is for Porn

#318

"Everything in life is about sex, except sex. Sex is about power." I think the debate is not really about porn, but people's sense of justice, cheating, deserving things or not etc. Some feel like porn gives unearned satisfaction to young men, a virtual substitute they don't have to work for. The bitter other side will say, no shit, I won't slave away to get screwed over, it's much more straightforward business to co…

> Puritans may feel like so much sexuality and hedonism tries to cheat and get the benefits, while not suffering consequences, like pregnancy, adult responsibility of family life etc. That it hollows out the sanctity of this intimate and symbolic act.

Not a puritan, but I could never explain that viewpoint to me with anything else than envy.

Like, being careful with sex if it may lead to unwanted pregnancies makes perfect sense - but those people seem even more upset at the possibility of sex that has no risk attached to it.

Isn't improving quality of life something we are all striving for? This movement seems to go the exact opposite direction and embrace suffering instead of joy.

Re: The Internet Is for Porn

#319
post #20

I'm glad that monetized platforms like Twitch and OnlyFans exist. It's an accessible way for the younger generations to make ludicrous amounts of money for not too much up-front investment. There's definitely work and downsides involved, just not like some lesser paid, more credentialed professions. Hopefully this puts pressure on the essential jobs in society to actually raise compensation in comparison. The rest of…

By "the younger generations" you mean "the younger generations of women", since I can't imagine many men making as much money. Is this really progress towards equality, or a generation of women self-objectifying themselves.

The men are making their money on twitch/youtube

Re: The Internet Is for Porn

#320

"Everything in life is about sex, except sex. Sex is about power." I think the debate is not really about porn, but people's sense of justice, cheating, deserving things or not etc. Some feel like porn gives unearned satisfaction to young men, a virtual substitute they don't have to work for. The bitter other side will say, no shit, I won't slave away to get screwed over, it's much more straightforward business to co…

> and motivate men to work

Even this would make a moderate amount of sense if the work at least were meaningful. But it isn't - the only importance seems to be that the man in question appears to be successful in something, even if that work is actively harmful to society or the environment.

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