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-   -   "Political Influence of Adult Sites" and "Free Speech Coalition" pressure. (http://www.greenguysboard.com/board/showthread.php?t=28437)

furrygirl 2006-02-03 03:48 AM

Thanks, Toni, for stepping in on this discussion, and I'm sorry I forgot to CC you on an email I sent to a few gals about this. (Looks like you found this thread anyhow!)

One of my favorite women in the business whom I emailed didn't even want to bother posting a reply in this thread. It's a shame that there are a number of women I know of who tend to stay out of debates like this because they don't have the energy to scream to be heard over all the men who don't want to listen to them anyhow. That's not good for fostering online community, it's losing out on valuable ideas by people who have decided it's not worth bothering with even *trying* to share them. (Not that I blame anyone for not using up their time fighting with people on ye olde internet.)

For right now, I'm not going to bother with this get into heated discussion on this any more, because I don't think the majority (or vocal minority) here actually gives a toss about hearing what females and performers have to say, although they all agree that it sure would be great to have a chick as a spokesperson to make them look good.

It's obvious that I am coming from a completely different world than most of the people posting here. I genuinely love what I'm creating, I take tremendous pride in the work I do, I believe I produce porn that helps to break down negative body images and sexual stigmas to make more people feel sexy within themselves. Porn is one part of my deep commitment to creating better things in this world on a number of levels, in my own small ways. I'll continue to educate people about how wonderful and beneficial and fun *some* of the adult industry is, shatter stereotypes about who a "smut peddler" is, and make ground-breaking porn that myself and my models are extremely happy with. (And you better believe that it's far more ground-breaking and "extreme" to assert that big/hairy/menstruating women are sexy, than to choke women purple and piss on them.)

I'll just throw out one last thing. I've been repeated insulted over and over on this board about how I better recognize that some of you have been in this business since the 90s, so I need to shut up and respect my elders. I can only laugh at the irony of that statement. The sex industry was not invented in 1995 by a bunch of dudes on their computers. I have never been inspired by a "free site", but I have been moved by the words and creations of performers and producers like Nina Hartley and Annie Sprinkle, and I have a feeling they've been around a lot longer than anyone's TGP. In fact, I got interested in this business after reading about the strong, intelligent women who were prostitutes in the old west who braved all manner of harsh conditions so they could be independent and call their own shots.

I have a feeling that passionate women will continue to inspire me on a day to day basis, and I'll continue to be touched every time someone tells me that one of my sites helped motivate them to create their own wonderful porn, or when a model tells me how truly proud they are to be on one of my little sites. It's not as exciting or profitable as running a massive sponsor program selling the latest gimmick and hoping customers forget to cancel their trials, but I'm content in knowing that I'm doing good things to forward positive human sexuality via pornography every single day. THAT, by itself, is my activism, and it needn't involve trying to force and fight a bunch of men into considering that maybe female models have something to say about what it's like to be a female model.

Beaver Bob 2006-02-03 06:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by furrygirl
The sex industry was not invented in 1995 by a bunch of dudes on their computers. I have never been inspired by a "free site", but I have been moved by the words and creations of performers and producers like Nina Hartley and Annie Sprinkle, and I have a feeling they've been around a lot longer than anyone's TGP.

True, but don't assume that just because everyone here is a webmaster that they aren't in any way involved in producing content as well. We shoot everything ourselves for all of our pay sites..

Beaver Bob 2006-02-03 06:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grandmascrotum
Fund a general advertising campaign telling parents how to use filtering software - and make sure they knew it was the adult industry behind the ads.

And on top of that, you'd probably need to launch a big PR campaign making sure the media know about the advertising and report on it. It's hard to put an anti-porn spin on the idea of "Adult Industry promotes web filtering", although I'm sure they'll give it a red hot go.

Ooh, and lobby Visa to drop their "high risk" $750 extortion fee :)

Edit again: And maybe part of the ad campaign could be a website that explains filtering, explains what the industry is doing to help, links to filtering software... something the Mums and Dads can go to for information... Just another idea.

you make some great points! especially like your idea about dropping the Visa fee |thumb

this is a really cool thread.

Halfdeck 2006-02-03 07:02 AM

Furrygirl, let's not dwell on a divisive issue that puts up a fense between female performers and male webmasters or between paysite owners and free site builders. This is a time to band together and churn up ideas that will help everyone involved.

SirMoby 2006-02-03 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by furrygirl
If you guys are going to grudgingly accept and/or welcome the idea of women working on an "in defense of porn" project, you better get used to hearing our opinions on why we defend porn, otherwise this thread might as well be re-titled "Speaking out on behalf of the entire adult industry- for male webmasters only!" Males and webmasters are just one part of the industry, but I realize that any board/group would be eager to select leaders from its own pool. (Maybe if you asked 100 people who do camerawork and lighting on sets, they'd agree that a handful of them were the best ones to represent the entire industry, too.)

This is the third time I've said this: ONE OF THE MAIN ARGUMENTS AGAINST PORN IS THAT IT HURTS WOMEN. Frankly, you're not going to be able to counter that as a group of male TGP webmasters who have no experience in front of the camera saying, "Uh, no it doesn't. We don't think so. Uh, it's their choice."

Has anyone disagreed with you other then Surfin? Did anyone dismiss the idea of having a female spokes person? I posted that it was worthless to discuss "feminists" in this thread and I still don't see why it's fruitful.

This thread should be a list of constructive bullet points instead it's just another bash the FSC and argue about side issues while bypassing the actual issue at hand. The board has been chosen and Conner Young appears to be the only one with any on-line experience.

If we can't post consice recommendations without getting caught up in pissing matches then we're not going to be successful in working together. I think somewhere in your pages of posts filled with passion and angst that you might have a few good bullet points.

Care to post some bullet points so that we can clearly see your ideas? Is there really any need to get into more pissing matches?

RawAlex 2006-02-03 09:51 AM

Furrygirl, you really are off on a charge, aren't you?

Do you think that female performers have it over male performers? Do you think that tranny and gey performers have less rights than female performers? Do you think that performers per se are the only ones with a vote at the table? Do all the other people, like camera operators, still photographers, editors, producers, lighting guys, retouchers, hosting companies, DVD distributors, management types, and retail store owners don't also have some minor, tiny, insignificant little role to play in all of this?

This isn't a feminist issue, that is what the christian-conservative nutjobs would want people to think. If you fight them on that issue, then you are only proving their point for them. For every Furrygirl or Kat Vixen, they will roll out 10 girls that will claim to have be somehow abused by the system. It isn't a strong suit for the industry, and you never should fight a battle based on your enemy's strength. It is pointless.

Nobody is saying "shut up and respect your elders", but they are saying "respect your elders". If you fail to accept and understand the road that got us to this point, you will have no basis on which to change things. Your "get rid of the $750 visa fee" thing sounds nice in a vacuum, but in reality it has in my opinion done the industry a world of good, because it has kept many a scammer from coming in and getting a Visa account and fucking people over. Don't even try to say "it limits free speech", because the entry cost to put porn on the net for money is still one of the lowest entry costs for any normal business I can think of. Visa fee plus a camera, a PC, a net connection, a host, a domain... bang. You can have a personal membership website up for less than a couple of thousand dollars FROM SCRATCH.

If you don't understand how we ended up with a $750 visa fee, you can't begin to fight against it. When you understand that there is a good chance that the choices are "Visa fee or Visa stops processing adult", most people would say "that is a small price to pay to be legit".

As SirMoby said (in other words) strip down your posts and extract the ideas and bullet point them. Your turning every thread into some sort of woman power rally cry is getting old already. You are amoungst mostly like minded people here, we don't degrade women or look down on them or their contribution to the business. better to save the strident stuff for your debate on Foxnews facing Pat Buchanan.

Alex

Tom Hymes 2006-02-03 01:17 PM

* RawAlex is probably right about there being more adult webmaster members of FSC than any other group. That sounds like an opportunity to me.

* RawAlex is wrong, imho, that Tim Valenti of NakedSword.com, the one person appointed to the FSC Board, is a "video guy." I certainly don't think Tim would characterize himself that way, but whatever. I did not have anything to do with that, the Board made the decision. If one of you had run and gathered even a little bit of support, you would have been on the Board. Tim was appointed because not enough people ran!

* RawAlex is invited to run for the Board next time. He would be a great asset. If he's interested, he should contact me soon. (That's not meant to exclude others. See below.)

* The fact is, we are actively working on developing policies that speak to the most difficult issues we face, which of course are Internet issues. Wanna help?

* I am putting together an outline for a specific proposal regarding metatags right now. When it is done, I will be soliciting feedback from people who know far more about coding than I, and will certainly ask people on this board for help. I should have the outline finished in a week or so. I am on board for developing a tag that is "short, simple and clean"

* Anyone who is interested in having a voice in the policies developed by the Free Speech Coalition is encouraged to contact me. We are actively soliciting people to run for the Board next year. My contact info is below.

* Our federal lobbyists are working overtime in DC. They are fucking connected. You have no idea the feedback we are getting. They say there are open minds on the Hill. What you see on TV is mostly agitprop theater. The real work happens behind the scenes. We are there. Help us develop the right positions and policies so that when our lobbyists go into a Senator's office, your ideas come out through their mouths.

* Email or call me. If you are interested in helping us, I will ask you for a phone number. If you don't give it to me, if I can't contact you other than through email, if you remain an anonymous person, your ideas will get through, but obviously we will have hit a brick wall as far as more hands on participation.

Thanks!

Tom
tom@freespeechcoalition.com
818.304.1712 cell

RawAlex 2006-02-03 02:48 PM

Tom, I appreciate the offer, thank you. I stand corrected on Naked Sword, as I remembered it not as a website but as a video brand. Apologies to anyone affected as a result of my confusion.

I am located in Canada. Is FSC accepting board members from outside of the US, or intending perhaps to have regional groups outside of the US?

Thanks

Alex

Bill 2006-02-03 03:02 PM

Ha ha ha Tom! Extra points to you for the excellent use of bullet points! ;-}

And I also think Alex would make a good board member - we're going to have to twist his arm on this when the next round of elections come along. He's our 'professional skeptic', but his research tends to be very strong.

I'm going to quickly close with two points:

1. The issue with the FSC website is very important to us. Please discuss it with board members, your technical staff and webmaster, your information officer, or whomever else is appropriate. Find out what you need at your end to give the website the ability to take credit cards and to add some kind of interactivity like a blog or message board.

2. Think about what _you_ and the FSC need from your membership, and let us know. This might make an excellent page or pages to add to the website - a "What can you do to help?" page. (You have a 'volunteer' link on the website, for example, but it just leads to a blank email.) What can webmasters, from the mom-and-pops to the big traffic whales, do to help?

Bill 2006-02-03 03:39 PM

I'm trying to come up with a list of the suggestions made so far, I'm just going to try to number them in order received:

1. To start, I want to make one suggestion to you that I think everyone here would agree with. We'd like to see improvements to the website, to have the website modernized a bit. An online system for accepting memberships and contributions would probably be the most important thing, and something that allows quicker two way communications, like a blog.

2. We know FSC will bitch about the cost of revamping their website. So we have a fund&skills drive here at GG&J, pull together the few thou and the workers it will take to give them a CC processor and a blog. In exchange the FSC puts a banner to GG&J on their website, making GG&J the "official" cool webmaster board.

3. Set up a one-hour live chat session with the FSC where any webmaster can participate without hopping on a plane.

4. When you finally get your online payment system happening, would you consider offering an “associate membership” for non US citizens? Or perhaps accept one-off donations?

5. Fund a general advertising campaign telling parents how to use filtering software - and make sure they knew it was the adult industry behind the ads. And on top of that, you'd probably need to launch a big PR campaign making sure the media know about the advertising and report on it. It's hard to put an anti-porn spin on the idea of "Adult Industry promotes web filtering", although I'm sure they'll give it a red hot go.

6. lobby Visa to drop their "high risk" $750 extortion fee.

7. (paraphraseing what I think Alex is really saying) Make the FSC more transparent by discussing membership numbers, budget, and expenses.

And I'll add #8:

8. Hire an "online information officer" whose job would be to use boardtracker to patrol the boards (and maybe blogs), answer questions about the FSC and make reports about FSC activities, make daily or weekly entries in the newly created FSC blog, and in other ways act as a liason between the onliners and the FSC board.

So, that's 8 suggestions to start out with - we need about a dozen more to make this an official brainstorm.

Do me a favor please, and if you make a suggestion, bullet point it or otherwise emphasize it so it's easy to find and copy.

And don't stop making suggestions - we need a dozen more! What do you want the FSC to do for us, if we could get them to spend up to $50K on your project?

DJilla 2006-02-03 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom Hymes
*
* The fact is, we are actively working on developing policies that speak to the most difficult issues we face, which of course are Internet issues. Wanna help?

* I am putting together an outline for a specific proposal regarding metatags right now. When it is done, I will be soliciting feedback from people who know far more about coding than I, and will certainly ask people on this board for help. I should have the outline finished in a week or so. I am on board for developing a tag that is "short, simple and clean"

Simple metags that filters can/will recognize and SE's can/will index only with a self reporting regulation system modeled on how we handle spam now. This is the ways to go folks! Also, a great opportunity for the more technical of you to become a footnote in history by getting involved and making it happen. There is a lot of politicking and email work to be done trying to make a standard happen.

I'd like to suggest that "its a two way street" and to have the most influence upon FSC, we also should show them respect and demonstrate that we can offer a solid base of support. How to do this?

We're all link whores anyway, at minimum a text link to their website on an index page would be nice|headbang| I'm pretty sure you should be a member to use their banner but a text link is cool. Send traffic to the site we want them to improve and show how many more surfers may be interested.

Second: FSC does run on money/donations so participants in the discussion should be encouraged to at least become members. Many "ma and pa" lists couldn't afford the $300 per website hit for FSC membership. But how about signing up for a personal membership (like $50?)?

Remember FSC also runs successful legal referal services for local cases too:

Ms Naughty 2006-02-03 06:08 PM

Alex, the Visa suggestion was made by me, not Furrygirl. While it may have cut down the scammers, it's also made life very difficult for non-US webmasters. That's my motivation in suggesting it.

I'll second Djilla on the idea of cheaper small memberships. Better to have 3000 people paying $50 than 50 paying $300, yes?

RawAlex 2006-02-06 11:19 PM

grandma, it is certain that the more people that are associated with a group, the better it is. FSC would be a much more inclusive situation if 5000 or 10,000 more members were part of the organization. Net dollars to work with, however, only happens if those numbers increase significantly. $300 for 50 members is the same as $30 from 500 - but the overhead to manage 500 members is higher we well. I am sure there is a solution in there somewhere to get more people in the game, just not sure how.

As for Visa, the issue isn't new and Furrygirl hits on Visa every chance she gets (mostly because they won't process for what she considered sexy). The fee isn't outrageous, and the cost to enter this business is lower than everything except maybe car thief or 7-11 holdup guy.

I do agree that the situation for non-US webmasters is a little bit out there, and it does limit people (including myself) as to what can and cannot be done. On the plus side, I haven't really see many sites out there with real processing that I could complain about.

Remember, if our industry doesn't take care of itself, outside forces (government, public opinion, ISPs, payment processors, etc) will make choices for us that we don't always like. That is why a group like FSC or other similar is important, because if we can come to agreements amoungst the majority of ourselves, it is easier to deal with these outside forces.

Alex

Wazza 2006-02-07 12:38 AM

Sorry if this has already been covered - but what is specifically wrong with ICRA tags?

It takes me 30 secs to get one for each new domain.

What is the motivation for wanting to reinvent the wheel here?

RawAlex 2006-02-07 02:06 AM

Wazza, the ICRA tags require that you register each domain, which is totally pointless - and the tags generated are freaking huge!

There is no reason to "register" anything - no third party required.

All that should be needed is a tag "meta rating = "ADULT" and be done with it. The browsers should be smart enough to look at the tag and take action based on it.

There really isn't a need for a complicated third party solution (third parties can disappear, leaving us all in the shit). Think simple!

Alex

Wazza 2006-02-07 02:54 AM

The meta:



And the labels.rdf file is 2kb

I think we can manage both of these...

I'm not certain if "register" is the correct term either - I'm fairly certain that the 30 second process it takes to get the tag and file is to make sure that the correct values are inserted in the correct places.

Bill 2006-02-07 03:33 AM

This was fairly heavily discussed in this part of this thread:

http://www.greenguysboard.com/board/...t=28269&page=3

The ICRA decision is one available to be made by every webmaster. I personally admit I have a strong personal dislike of the ICRA website and tag, so this colors my arguments.

However, to sum up:

1. The ICRA tag is nearly totally unapparent to parents and politicians. We need a tag that is crystal clear and present on every webpage, accesible not only by all browsers but by every parent and all other interested parties.
A self-rating tag is politically useless if it isn't _obvious_ and simple.

2. The ICRA tag is needlessly complex. All we need is a YES or NO - kids not allowed. This is porn - the ICRA/PICS tag attempts to categorize all possible "offensive" topics, and it's categories for sexual materials are, to put it plainly, stupid and not applicable to porn.

3. 3rd parties create industry wide vulnerabilities. (I've asked several times if anyone has a scriptlet or tool that creates PICS tags without ICRA - I'd accept the PICS designation that reads "erect penis and explicit sexual actions" as a universal tag if everyone else agreed to it, and it could be distilled into a simple universal tag.)

4. One single, simple, universally recognized and recognizable tag that can be placed in every porn header is simply a better technology. Why not abandon a poor technology and all start using a simple technology now, while the time to make the decision is ripe?

There are a few more lesser reasons, but these are the most important to my mind.

If you want to campaign for the ICRA tags go ahead. I don't like them, and it will take a lot of good arguments to convince me otherwise.

-----

I think I'll add this topic to the list of brainstorms:

* Create an action group to promote self-rating tags to the browser companies, politicians, and other interested organizations and companies.

Maj. Stress 2006-02-07 03:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RawAlex
All that should be needed is a tag "meta rating = "ADULT" and be done with it.

Excellent idea Alex. Now all that needs to be done is to get filtering software to recognize it and probably the hardest part, get webmasters to use it. Maybe a good start would make it a requirement for link list and tgp? I don't really know, just a thought :)

Wazza 2006-02-07 05:32 AM

Yes I see you've already had a brawl about this - so I'll leave this as my final word on the subject.

What if parents want to allow their children to view certain things and not others?

The point of ICRA is that we declare what our site contains and parents have the final call.

If I were a parent I wouldn't want some porn slinger telling me what my kids are and aren't to see any more than the US government.

If taking 30 seconds to cover an entire domain is too hard - well attaching a tag probably is too...

And what makes you think the FSC tag will be any more visible and widely known than ICRA tags?

This is smelling of a power grab to me...

There's a standards compliant system already in place, but the FSC wants an FSC tag... this is one issue we can already say "job done" about, reinventing the wheel seems stupid and a waste of both time and effort to me.

Toby 2006-02-07 05:43 AM

ICRA is just too complex for scripts to check. Parents that want more control over what their kids see need to supervise their time online.

"meta rating = "ADULT" isn't a new tag, it's valid HTML 4.0. It is simple to add on ANY adult page, and simple to check for.

Also, there's no reason that those that still want to use ICRA can't include both tags.

RawAlex 2006-02-07 10:47 AM

Wazza, not about reinventing a wheel. We wanted a simple wheel, someone tried to foist the space shuttle on us. No more difficult than that. If you want to use a more complex tag, I don't think anyone will stop you, but a simple tag can be checked for simply.

Imagine, for a minute, that we set our bots to make sure there is a ICRA tag (which loads another file). Unless we load that other file, we will never know if the tag is valid (you could put the tag on and then rate your page "acceptable for all people").

A grass roots effort by link sites and TGPs could help tremendously in showing our "good intentions".

I should point out that the ICRA site is a 4 step process, the requires both a site name and an email address. Feels like registering to me.

Alex

SirMoby 2006-02-07 12:42 PM

I use ICRA labels on my servers and I did have to register 1 domain and 1 email address. The same label can be used for all my servers.

1. I think for now we should all use ICRA labels and make it clear to The FSC, lobbyist and hopefully the senate that this rating system is available and is being used today.

2. Obviously we need a better human readable system since ICRA requires registering and forces it's own existence. We need something that everyone can use.

3. I'm not a fan of a single rating such as "Adult". I think we need to make the case for rating of ALL types of material where exposure can be harmful. If we make a rating just for sexual material then it's us against them and it doesn't do shit to protect children.

I propose that we pen a labelling system that includes different levels of nudity, violence, sexual, language, religion and adult subjects such as rape and birth control. This way we can make a stronger argument and pull more people into the mix for the senate.

It makes it very difficult to force the implementation of some complex and burdensome system if a larger group needs to use it and that includes the major conservative supporters.

RawAlex 2006-02-07 04:48 PM

SirMoby, my feeling is split on this issue. Just like on television, there are only a few simple levels. Simple makes it easy for people to understand and control. In theory, what is on the ICRA form that we are suppose to fill out would be the same form that "parent of AOL surfer" would have to fill out as well. Unlikely they would handle it correctly. If you just ask "how old is the surfer", it could auto rate things based on a simpler scale of G-PG-R-X (general thru Adult).

If you wanted to FURTHER go into detail in a secondary tag (or a ICRA tag) more power to you. But I can't picture a complicated system as being the best solution (or a solution that could truly be implemented).

The tags needs to be clean, clear, EASY to read, and what is on the page has to be what everyone sees... including other files and stuff is just not acceptable (hard to bot).

Alex

Greenguy 2006-02-07 06:48 PM

WOW! I missed a lot of this thread with my party weekend. Gonna read thru it now & I think this will be the main topic of discussion on the show tonight |thumb

Ms Naughty 2006-02-07 09:32 PM

If I can point out this announcement:
http://greenguysboard.com/board/showthread.php?t=28708

Sex Reloaded are linking to an instructional page from their paysites. The page uses graphics and simple directions to point out how to block content using your browser.

I think this is a great idea and a good one to throw into the mix here. We've discussed tags and encouraging use of nanny software but I forgot about the browser stuff.

As a paysite owner I think it's a cool idea. We already have a link to Netnanny on our front page, perhaps a link to similar instructions would also be good.

I also had a few brief negative thoughts about putting up a page like that:
1. Will such a page interfere with SE rankings (it's another "out" link)?
2. Will it distract the surfer and ruin a sale?
3. Would a link to such a page belong on the index splash page?
4. Is a paysite the best place to put this kind of info?
These may be the kinds of questions that paysite owners ask about this idea.

I realise this isn't necessarily a new idea - plenty of other paysites have put similar info on their warning pages. Although I suspect that's always been a link elsewhere (like Netnanny) rather than a set of specific instructions.

Would paysite owners be better off doing their own individual pages or linking to a standard one? The latter would save time. Perhaps it can be on the site where we host our "official statement".

And again, publicity is important, so it would help to say that "This page is a public service brought to you by the Adult Industry".

Just a few more brainstormy thoughts... Thanks to Sex Reloaded for their idea.

Greenguy 2006-02-07 09:41 PM

I just wanted to post & say that my "feminist" comments in the early part of the radio show (archive is uploading now) as well as my lame attempt at humor with the title of the chat room was not intended to offend anyone, especially furrygirl, Kat, Trixie, Grandmascrotum, etc. and if I did offend anyone, I am truly sorry.

...and I still blame SirMoby for all this |couch|

MrYum 2006-02-07 09:51 PM

Personally, I'm a big believer in the KISS principle. We already have a valid html tag to use in "meta rating = "ADULT". Combined with providing linkage to a page like Sex Reloaded is using, those are definitely signs of making an effort.

Love Grandma's idea of 'Provided as a public service by the adult industry'...that's the kind of PR we could use |thumb

Getting the FSC to get the word out that we are taking action to assist certainly couldn't hurt either.

Ms Naughty 2006-02-07 09:52 PM

Hmm, I wasn't listening live, and now I'm afraid to download the archive. Perhaps I don't need to know, or comment on it, especially in this thread.

Or should I put on my "SuperDworkin" costume and kick some butt?? LOL

Greenguy 2006-02-07 10:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grandmascrotum
Hmm, I wasn't listening live, and now I'm afraid to download the archive. Perhaps I don't need to know, or comment on it, especially in this thread.

Or should I put on my "SuperDworkin" costume and kick some butt?? LOL

It wasn;t that harsh IMHO but it was looked at as such by others :)

When I log into the chat room, I usually put some silly title in for the room. Today's was "The Greenguy & Jim Feminist & Name Infringement Show" :D

natalie 2006-02-07 10:05 PM

Hey Grandma, I think you will find it safe to listen to. Or should I say GG will find it safe for you to listen to. :P

Trixie 2006-02-07 11:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greenguy
I just wanted to post & say that my "feminist" comments in the early part of the radio show (archive is uploading now) as well as my lame attempt at humor with the title of the chat room was not intended to offend anyone, especially furrygirl, Kat, Trixie, Grandmascrotum, etc. and if I did offend anyone, I am truly sorry.

...and I still blame SirMoby for all this |couch|

It was a good discussion piece (even if I am not used to trying to formulate complete sentences and could barely talk because of my cold).

I missed a lot of what was said in the chatroom while I was blathering on, but went back to read it, saw more discussion about the TERM "feminist" and the baggage associated with it, and wanted to clarify that I am proud to call myself a feminist AND a whore. It's unfortunate that only the most extreme examples of feminism spring to some people's minds when they hear/see the word. Associating all feminists with one militant (and often bizarre) way of thinking has very effectively served to divide and conquer us by making so many people ashamed to associate themselves with the word.

It's nuts to think that feminism means the same thing to every feminist. We feminists have not all adopted one single manifesto just as not all pornographers and people in this industry agree on the steps we need to take to protect our businesses. I am still proud to call myself a pornographer even though I strongly disagree with a lot of pornographers' ideas, goals and products. I would still defend their right to produce it and do their jobs (even though I may be critical of some of it).

DangerDave 2006-02-08 01:41 AM

Having just listened to the show in it's entireity...

IMO Trixie you did yourself and furrygrl no favours...

I too have a family,
and I too have kids,
and I too am independant...

So why do these criteria make you and the other "indie webwhores" any different to any other webmaster including Alex or myself!

Guess what they don't!

DD

Trixie 2006-02-08 02:07 AM

One of the differences is in how other people OUTSIDE of the industry will PERCEIVE an affiliate versus a performer/webmaster/paysite owner-operator. I personally think that the middlemen in this industry are the ones that the public would be the LEAST sympathetic towards. That's my opinion. I'm open to arguments convincing me I'm wrong, but so far I am not hearing any.

Another of the differences is that performer/webmasters interact more with consumers and can better convey that porn consumers are regular people -- adults -- who have a right to consume porn. I think we also need to have consumers as representatives - I'm not trying to say there should be fewer representatives, just considering who could best represent the people that the strong arm of the law says it needs to protect. There are no feminists or mommies crying about how we need to protect tgp owners or gallery submitters, but they ARE crying about needing to protect their fragile husbands and unparented kids and the poor abused porn actresses.

I have to go to bed now, but those are a couple of examples I can think of off the top of my head. Why is the idea that we are different so offensive to you?

It's not that I don't think you're a "regular person", or that you don't have a family, or that you don't take pride in what you do, or that you have no ethics, or that you don't work for yourself. BUT the people who bring real product that they created themselves to consumers firsthand with no middlemen and few or no upsells have a perspective that's different from someone running a linklist or tgp. I don't understand what is so crazy or offensive about that notion.

There are some people who go above and beyond making a buck to try to educate and portray sexuality honestly and depict women with integrity. People whose porn sites also have artistic, educational, and political merit -- those are the kinds of spokespeople I think the industry needs, not to the exclusion of others, but if we're fantasizing about "the perfect" representative, that's what comes to mind for me. Not that I think all porn should have artistic, educational, or political merit, but it would be nice to show that pornography can be all of those things and would make people more sympathetic. That's just what I think. It's hard for me to find much socially redeeming content on a linklist or tgp, but maybe I'm just not looking hard enough.

RawAlex 2006-02-08 02:28 AM

trixie, until you take that huge chip off your shoulder there is nothing that can be said that can convince you of anything - you are beyond right in your own mind, you are on a crusade.

You wouldn't want to hear the truth, and I don't think you could handle it if you had it handed to you on a platter.

Alex

Mr. Blue 2006-02-08 02:55 AM

Some things that I took away from the radio show tonight.
  • First, listening to the show I thought this thread would have been considerably more dramatic than it actually was. If anyone got really upset or offended by this thread they need to get a thicker skin
  • Furrygirl made some valid points
  • Sirmoby was right, why are we talking about feminism?

The first thread that got this all started was Tommy's post regarding linking to a page. That thread got sidetracked by a few people babbling, etc. on unrelated tangents. In that thread I said, "This thread seems to be losing its focus and it's unfortunate that it is because something positive can come out of it."

In this thread Sirmoby wanted to stick on the topic at hand and I agree with him. It's like the adult biz suffers from the biggest case of Attention Deficit Disorder on the planet and we get nothing accomplished because of it.

Let's find people that represent the most avenues of porn. I don't care if it's a woman, a performer, a LL owner, a tgp owner, a tranny, just as long as its someone that will be effective...but we're not even at that stage yet. Let's get to that stage and then discuss it, calmly, without mudding the waters with other topics.

RawAlex 2006-02-08 03:04 AM

Mr Blue, I think we need to consider this: Do feminist whores need their own organization because, by Trixies own admission, their business model is so different from ours? Do they only suck up to the mainstream industry when it works for them, immediately shunning it when it becomes too restrictive or too whitebread for them?

Think about this, taken right off of Trixie's own site:

Quote:

On behalf of myself and WebWhores everywhere, I, TastyTrixie, hereby issue the following original draft 10-point WebWhore Manifesto:

WebWhore Pride Points:

1. WebWhores defy stereotypes.
We are not just a bunch of dumb slutty moneygrubbing bitches. Most of us are not whoring ourselves out of desperation. We come in all different shapes and sizes and from different backgrounds. There is nothing you can assume about a WebWhore except that she has balls (figuratively speaking).

2. WebWhoring empowers women.
We can set our own hours, our own prices, and our own limits. We have the potential to make more money while we have more fun than we could in a "respectable" career field. We can turn off the computer if we feel violated or degraded or put-out by someone (which actually happens far less than in "respectable" career fields).
Those of us with families can take care of them without it interfering with our jobs. We can safely have fun playing dress up, good girl, bad girl, etc. and exploring who we are and what we like. We can have creative/financial/organization control over our own businesses.

3. Good WebWhoring requires skill.
Being a good WebWhore demands more than mere sexual savvy and physical "beauty". Good WebWhores usually have a mix of some of the following characteristics: personality, technical knowledge, creativity, confidence, bravery, style, intuition, customer service skills, empathy, imagination, originality, marketing knowledge, networking know-how, open-mindedness, experience, compassion, curiosity, daring, perseverance, and a genuine love of people and sexuality.

4. WebWhore clients defy stereotypes.
Just as WebWhores are often your typical "girl-next-door" types, their clients are also your typical guys-next-door. People who enjoy internet porn come from all walks of life and are looking for all kinds of different WebWhores. Our customers look and act just like everybody else. Coming across the stereotypical porn consumer (whoever he is) is actually pretty rare. As WebWhores we enjoy special opportunities to get to know all kinds of different people on all sorts of different levels. We have fun with each other, get off with each other and often come to care about each other.

WebWhore Purpose Points:

5. Sex Workers' economic and social contributions to society deserve commendation, not criminalization.
It's about time we stopped marginalizing, stigmatizing, ignoring, and punishing sex workers. We've been around forever, we've made marks on history, we've provided services in response to an unending demand. Quit the resentful narrow-minded bullshit and give us some fucking credit!!!!!

6. Women should NOT be villified and disrespected for capitalizing on human sexuality.
People should pay women for sex work with the same respect and appreciation one would expect to pay ministers, teachers, lawyers, doctors, therapists, etc. Furthermore, one cannot assume a whore's primary motivation for doing her "job" is monetary any more than one could assume a doctor's primary motivation for healing patients is solely for money. Just as there are good doctors and bad doctors, there are good whores and bad whores. . . anybody who does their job just for the paycheck without any joy or emotion is doing a poor job. Having said that, anybody who thinks someone should do a job for him pro bono just because the service-provider LIKES her/his job is an asshole. Would you walk into a psychiatrist's office and say "hey! You like helping people don't you?? I can't pay you but how about if I plop down on your couch and talk your ear off for an hour?"

7. WebWhores should commit to a professional code of ethics.
At the very least we should treat our customers and each other with respect. Unfortunately some WebWhores are catty, judgemental, two-faced, bitchy, biggoted, narrow-minded, petty hypocrites (the same people you have to work with in ANY field). Fortunately in cyberspace it's easier to ignore such nasty bitches than it would be in a regular office. Still, it would be nice if WebWhores would commit to shunning and ostracizing any foul cunt who made a point of disrupting another WebWhore's business or hurting her feelings. We should also disassociate ourselves from any bitch who purposefully misleads or mistreats our customers.

8. WebWhores should join hands with other adult entertainment/sex workers to promote pride in our trade.
Although there are obviously huge differences between dancing, webwhoring, escorting, streetwalking, video porning, etc. we all still have to deal with the same stigmas and bullshit in our respective professions.

9. People need to stop blaming porn for our social ills and start looking at the REAL indecencies in our society.
We tolerate and turn a blind eye to thousands of phenomenons that are more evil, sick and disturbing than pornography. The real obscenity in our culture is our frightening disregard for the golden rule ("love your neighbor as yourself"). WebWhores are NOT the enemy. Porn is NOT the enemy. If we want to "clean up" society we should start by focusing on instilling & practicing basic values like the golden rule. As long as people are inconsiderate and mean to each other we have bigger fish to fry than judging consenting adults for porn creation and consumption. People should get their priorities straight when they talk about "values". We need to treat each other with human kindness and consideration . . . all the other rules we make to govern our behavior are sheer trivia.

10. Compromising our freedom of speech is NOT the way to protect children or further the objectives of feminism.
Does this point need any elaboration? I don't think so.
I am sorry, but I don't think that this manifesto speaks for very many people in the porn industry.

Alex

Toby 2006-02-08 03:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RawAlex
...their business model is so different from ours...

My business model is quite different than most that post on this board. I guess that means I should go find some other organization too.

I have a better idea, lets get back to forming a basic online industry postion statement aimed at addressing the current legal attacks on our industry.

Mr. Blue 2006-02-08 03:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RawAlex
Mr Blue, I think we need to consider this: Do feminist whores need their own organization because, by Trixies own admission, their business model is so different from ours? Do they only suck up to the mainstream industry when it works for them, immediately shunning it when it becomes too restrictive or too whitebread for them?

*sticking fingers in ears and makes the LALALALALALA sound* I can't hear you talking about feminism.

I am a bit curious how their business model is so different than the average webmaster. Granted, I'm just in it for the money and a nice beach house when I retire, maybe that's the difference.

Mr. Blue 2006-02-08 03:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toby
I have a better idea, lets get back to forming a basic online industry postion statement aimed at addressing the current legal attacks on our industry.

I think this thread is gone with the wind...time to start a new one and try to keep the Attention deficit disorder to a minimum on it.

Bill 2006-02-08 03:40 AM

Have a bit of patience - these side issues will reach a homeostasis. The central purpose of the thread will continue forward. If need be new threads for this purpose will be started.

These are just minor bumps on the path. Lets give the process some hours more.


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