Although this is all detailed in the article, I will give a bit of background: March 20 is Equal Pay Day in Belgium, raising awareness about the severe pay gap between men and women. The public service announcement (if you click the link, you can also watch it) features well-known former-porn star Sasha Grey, who is a self-proclaimed sex-positive feminist. Grey has been features on shows such as The View, and has spoken about her choice to star in porn and the empowerment that she felt as a result. In the PSA, Sasha talks about her former jobs, and experiences in porn, stating "
I
liked really dirty things. I've been hung upside down and tied up and had a
12" dildo stuck in my ass. With my mouth gagged. I'm proud of this. It's
something I chose to do. Who I am? I'm Sasha Grey."
Rock on Sasha, I support you!! So far so good, right? The PSA ends by declaring that these days, the only way that a woman can make more than men is in the porn industry. The PSA makes it sound as if porn is a shameful career, being sure to have Sasha highlight the "shocking" things that she has down in porn films. So, this is what this ad says to me- "The pay gap sucks, and unless you want to be a disgusting whore and go into porn, something must be done to change this!" So, here we go again with the slut-shaming and stigma against women in the industry. I wonder if Sasha knew what she was getting into with this PSA. I am disturbed and confused by the entire thing. Does anyone have any thoughts?
Below is a photo of Sasha that is unrelated to the PSA. I love her message.
As I have seen it, the usual error we make in assessing our experience and making judgements based on it is to over emphasize the significance of the most recent experiences and project the what we have "learned" from them into the future. We become too sure of what we think we know about ourselves and the world now, too critical of or disparaging of our past lives and attitudes, and too certain of the persistence of our current attitudes into the future. In fact we change. That change is almost biological in its certainty, and some of it is probably determined by the biology of maturation and aging. Some of it is determined by the effects of things that happen to us along the road.
ReplyDeleteI've thought for many years that a person of a given age today has more in common with another person of that age 10,000 years ago than they do with someone 20 years older or younger than they are at this moment in time.
In that sense there are no "eternal verities" which apply across our lifetimes, other than, perhaps, a few core values such as a need for autonomy and self determination, compassion, learning, fairness, etc. And the truths of the perceptions of reality, and the needs and motives of a 20 year old human are more persistent across one hundred generations than they are across our individual lifetimes.
Sasha Grey's core values, of autonomy and sex positivity may not change over time. But it's not unlikely that her evaluation of how those values are best expressed, and how they can be lived out most effectively at a given point in time and for the best possible outcome over a lifetime, will change somewhat as she matures biologically, experiences varying conditions of life and work, gains and loses important personal attachments, and more.
When we leave our childhood - home, teachers, friends, etc. - and start accumulating adult experiences and knowledge, the flood of new information can result in a transformation of experience that seems to invalidate all previous knowledge and attitudes, and at the same time seem to be a permanent new state of awareness and consciousness. I think that dramatic transformation between 13 and 23 years is real and true.
I don't think it is permanent, or conclusive or should be frozen in time. It seems to me that we continue to alter and build our consciousness as we go through life and that the changes that result are natural - no harm, no blame. A lot happens, a lot is learned after the time we are taught to think of as our learning years. The more prepared we are to accept change, to accept new learning, the more likely we are to maintain an appropriate attitude of generosity and flexibility in dealing with what comes up for ourselves and what happens to our peers and mentors as they move through life.
I love what you are doing, and hope you continue to love it, and do it, for a long long time.