Why adult sites do well in the Middle East
April 23rd, 2008A few months ago, I wrote this post, which was misunderstood by narrow-minded racists and Islamophobes, the latter of which seem to be infesting every site in existence. It was republished in dozens of blogs that are authored by the armies of Robert Spencer, the kind of person who twists and plays with words and images only to promote his own backwards agenda, which is exactly what he did with my post (and as a result, sent us a load of right-wing fatheaded traffic; for one month we were littered with hate speech.) It was also republished on this Israeli news site (though I wonder if this same news site would also publish the news that Israel is amongst the worst when it comes to human trafficking.)
For a while I really regretted posting it since people often use our articles against us, claiming that we are animals, sex-crazed hypocrites, et al, when really it is just critical social commentary. Are we not allowed to criticize our own societies without having a bunch of morons repeatedly claim that they morally superior, using our criticism as an example of our “backwardness”? The racism that resulted due to that post was endless.
Anyways, recently I found a good example of my post via a video featuring Zeid Hamdan, who apparently is a member of a Lebanese indie band.
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That new video site is great, when are you guys launching?
Esra’a,
I thought all along that it simply indicated a repression and will to look at that which is forbidden.
I doubt many thought it an indication of much else.
Probably this weekend. Still some bugs to go over. This new player totally rules though – if you noticed, you can send and embed the video from within the player itself. In geek world, this is where everyone goes “w00t.”
You’re mistaken. Take a look at the trackbacks. I refuse to link to Jihad Watch and the like, though. So you would just have to Google it. You’ll find some within the comments as well. There were some forum posts about us being “animals,” I believe the link is also within the comments somewhere.
I see no reason why one should cover up such idiocy – just shows us how much shit we have to deal with when we post this kind of stuff. God forbid we post anything about Israel being the worst amongst human traffickers though, then we just get e-mails of us being “anti-Zionist pricks.” Gotta love the interweb.
Porn is alive and well in the West. Does that mean that the West is frustrated or repressed? Maybe so. But I think that there is a natural inclination for people to desire what is forbidden. That’s what got Adam and Eve kicked out of paradise. And it’s what haunts us till this very day.
Perhaps the overall effect of desiring the forbidden is intensified in societies where religion and social taboos play a more repressive role. But the tendency to want what we can’t have is pretty much universal, and is an aspect of the human condition that gets us in more trouble than we care to admit.
I don’t know, but how much was porn available in the ME before the internet? Maybe I’m just stereotyping but were magazines and videos easy to get? Or is it all new now that you can get it privately over the Net? That might be part of the popularity: the newness of it.
Elephant:
good point. “the newness”, however, is not the sole cause for porn being attractive. in this case, biology matters as well.
indeed Internet (and some other new technologies) made it much easier, though it were possible in the old times as well. I heard that copies of porn magaziones (playboy) or VHS videos had been available in Iran, even immediately after the revolution, perhaps as the stock gathered during Shah regime.
let me add one other point, about which Im going to publish a post as soon as possible: with regards to “breaking the traditional mold” in general, and porn in particular, Internet was the superhero supplier of past decade in Iran. today’s superhero (though very often supplied itself by Internet) is Bluetooth. this phenomenon… wait!
Supply resides where need is. Need is intensified when there is a Ban. Less of freedom, more of need for what composed the natural side of human being, or that’s how I see it.
Porn is great: If porn is available legally in a country, there are less cases of sexual abuse. (Too bad I can’t give a source for that, but I read it in a newspaper as a scientifically researched fact).
@ Nissim:
That’s true, but in can’t be the sole reason for the fascination of porn. In many countries it is not only legally available, but also no longer morally condemned. Still people view porn in these countries.
Maybe porn is just a modern substitution for no longer up-to-date fertility cults…
Simon, you certainly have a point, but I think that the “forbidden” aspect of porn is still there even though it is legally available. Take the U.S. for example. Porn is readily available here, and is tolerated, as you suggest, but still draws a huge market. Why? Because it still smacks of the “forbidden fruit.”
With all its liberal attitudes, the U.S. is still repressed sexually in many respects. The notions of sexual taboos are still very much alive and well here. The attraction of porn must be somehow related to the idea of using the vicarious experience of porn to circumvent sexual taboos.
Another aspect at work is that porn allows a sexual encounter of sorts, without the committment that an actual relationship entails. You get the goodies, without the work. And this desire for instant gratification is present in much of what occupies our time: drugs, drinking, cinema, TV, etc.
So in a way, porn is not just porn, but is symptomatic of larger issues: sexual repression, religious repression, political oppression, the desire for instant gratification, the inclination for vicarious relationships as opposed to real relationships, and in addition, the demeaning of women. I don’t really have a handle of all the implications, but my guess is that it is deeper than we think.
I guess since this leaves no trail at home. n the variety..?
n u got good points nissim
As to your comment on NRG, they would publish items about the situation with women trafficking in Israel. Actually all the leading Israeli newspapers publish information about it. They do it once or twice a year when various international reports are getting published. But unfortunately nothing substantive happens.
I would say the most interesting aspect of porn from a communications aspect is that the internet is the first mass communication medium to really saturate it. It lurked on the fringes of broadcast television, and was and still is the battleground of censorship in print, and was never really relevant to radio (hmmm, sounds like those folks are really getting it on!). Cable television and the internet developed at nealy the same time, and while both offered it the internet was and is of course the most accessable. The sub culture of porn movie houses is pretty much gone, from once being quite popular, but oddly enough the porn video tape & CD industry is still thriving. Over time this will probably fade as well as the older, less tech savvy consumers die off.
I don’t agree with the assertion that legally available porn reduces the instances of sexual abuse and crime in a society. There is still plenty of it in North America, and attacks against children seem to be worse than ever!
An interesting little news snippet from Canada on the topic of human trafficing:
In the wake of changes to the Immigration Act to no longer allow carte blanche work visas to foreign adult dancers, the Minister of Immigration has been assigned police protection following anonymous death threats. Authorities consider the threats to have come from international organized crime groups, and regional biker gangs, both of whom control much of this industry in Canada.
Interfering with someone’s business, I guess….
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