Deliainthemaking - (belatedly) Of course I don't think that what Max Hardcore did was right. I wrote that had he treated someone I loved in that manner I would have had a strong impulse to kill him (I think most people would interpret this as disapproval!). The man is clearly some kind of disturbed and manipulative psychopath. I commented that the story was about love - through and through. That includes striving for love, failures of love, the perversion, distortion and disfigurement of love.
There seem to be some rather stupid people who post on this forum who are as incapable of departing from a rather sordid and uninteresting script as the average producer of very bad porn films. Any utterance which whiffs of a departure from their orthodoxy causes them to get into an awful flap which requires that whatever is said is somehow 'fitted' into that orthodoxy - hence the foolish accusations and hysterical over-interpretations. In the same way that bad porn appeals to a debased and narrow sexuality, their script appeals to an equally debased and narrow intellectuality.
I don't know much about the ins and outs of the porn industry. Like all 'media' businesses (I use this term neutrally), I gather it's fragmenting and segmenting. I was searching last night on google for 'women in porn' and found an article in the Guardian about women producers, porn for women, feminist porn and the rise in 'amateur' porn undermining revenues.
Whatever segment of the 'industry', I would advise extreme caution to anyone considering entering it. Fundamentally, it's about the commodification of sex. Felicity went to LA in order to sell her sexuality. That is an inherently dangerous, debasing and foolish thing to do. In almost any circumstance it risks the entry into an unpleasant Faustian pact. In her circumstances it was a particularly nasty bargain. However, despite all the fear, warnings and shedding of illusions, etc, she continued. She was hoping to make money and seemed to imply that one of her motives was to provide for her daughter. However, it was also clear that she was working through some complex feeling concerning her father (this, too, concerns love).
Her daughter drew a picture of her as Red Riding Hood, including navel piercing. That was also about love. I wrote that the daughter was trying to give her mother a lesson in love. I can see that Felicity is a victim. I think the greatest tragedy was her failure to understand what her daughter was saying to her. It was a sad and thought-provoking documentary.
I'm trying to bring up my own daughter to be strong, confident, assertive and self-possessed despite the best efforts of most women, including her mother, to undercut this. Most women, especially feminists, claim they want girls to be as I want my daughter to be. However, they lie. What I see is girls being taught to be compliant by their mothers, by other women and by other girls who have also been taught by women. It's about dependancy, approval, affirmation and control. Fathers sometimes play a role, but not in my case or most cases in my experience. When they become sexual beings men can pick up where women have left off. Fewer men want this that you might think although some do. That is also a Faustian pact. The best protection for women is to be strong, confident, assertive and self-possessed. This does not equate to being compliant with dittany's notions of who they are because dittany, like Max Hardcore, has her own agenda of control. It's a different agenda, but the need for control is the same. This is a feminist issue that feminists don't like to discuss. I like to discuss it because I have a daughter, eyes and a brain in my head. Also, I'm a man so I'm not afraid of feminist fetishes and of frightening a few chickens. I allow myself to think and speak freely and will try to teach my daughter to do the same. I would not have her controlled or controlling.