The Sasha Grey Experience: Can Porn Be Empowering? - Page 2

This thread is deader than fried chicken, and the following is a bit old, but I have to share it, simply because it gave me a right chuckle:

"Popular new star Sasha Grey gets gangbanged by twelve dicks in these movies from the video Gangbang 5 Part 2 by Red Light District. Sasha is one horny chick, and I’m definitely a fan, she’s also a smart educated female. I recently saw a video of her appearance on the Tyra Banks show and couldn’t believe how rude Tyra Banks was to her, and how Tyra kept trying to portray her as some sort of victim of pornography. Then she brings on some rejected fatty that claimed she was once in porn, even though I’ve never seen any of her movies to chastise Sasha about how bad it all is. Tyra kept trying to put words into her mouth, kept treating her like she wasn’t mature enough to think for herself. Watching that crap made me remember why I stopped watching television years ago. Tyra Banks after losing her modeling looks, and her failed musical career is a washed up 2nd rate Oprah trying to play upon peoples emotions to push her anti porn agenda by preying upon Sasha.

This movie features Sasha Grey getting gangbanged by some of the biggest dicks in porn, they take turns fucking her throat and asshole with their big cocks, with Sasha urging them on of course. This is one of the most hardcore gangbang anal sex movies ever, and Sasha delivers a top notch super intense performance".

Wow, Sasha just used those twelve men for sex.

She is indeed powerful, as the Emperor has foretold.

I just saw a screen cap for this and it seemed boring, bring me Angel Dark or Jane Darling anytime instead.

I've been trying to convince higher ups at the company I work for to sign her on as a contract star for the past 2 years, but our public image is too vanilla and when she does tamer stuff it doesn't sell for shit. I really just want them to sign her so she'll come to the corporate office for a signing and I can mumble incoherently to her while she autographs a poster my clammy hands just ruined.

I looked up some of her vids not so long back, after I heard about the Girlfriend Experience and had no clue who she was. She's certainly attractive, and you know, gets fucked/fucks like a champ and all that, but the shit that comes out of her mouth? Ehhh. Loud women are cool, rock on, and cuss all you want, but the way she does it? Not hot.

Maybe it's just me.

Gotta have ratings...honestly it's why I hate talk shows. The host tries to pretend they're arguing with integrity when in fact they're simply after ratings, which means reaching the broadest possible audience...who are generally uneducated, unhealthy, God fearing cretins who view controversial subjects with disdain without understanding them. Banks and others like her have no integrity, so their opinions are worthless to me, as they should be to you as well.

Grey...well, she's pretty...she likes cinema...other than that I don't care for her. She's a bit skinny for my taste and has a foul mouth, which alot of American porn stars seem to have, versus European porn stars who seem to be more about sex and not the trangressive nature of porn.

This has nothing to do with Grey, just a funny story...I know this guy who used to shoot porn as a cameraman (not a director)...he was shooting a scene with Nacho Vidal up close as he banged some chick from behind. A bit of Nacho's ass sweat got in his eye and this guy flipped out and stormed off the set never to return and he never shot porn again.

Finally got around to watching some of her vids online. MY GOD....what a talented, talented, girl.

Sasha grey is so vile. Like, she makes me understand why people from alabama think Satan is involved In porn. Mr SOderberg lost a lot of my respect when he put her in a feature film. I do not know how to describe her work without using words like evil, purile , rancid, hateful, violent. maybe I need a thesaurus or at least a tyranosaurus

Without getting into the argument of whether most women in porn have issues or not, how is she evil?

By promoting violent fantasies in men through her videos . Kind of like bill oreiley and his constant drumbeat of " tiller the baby killer", knowing full well there are crazies outhere just waiting for inspiration. Plus I read the rolling stone interview with ms grey and she is a vapid POS , at least that's how she came off .

Ugh. She's not my cup of tea, but you need to dial back the hyperbole.

i do not see it as hyperbole, but again, its just my opinion

All I know is that your shtick got old a long time ago.

You are aware that fantasies of that type are not exclusive to men, right? Sasha Grey is into all that shit, and she's not alone. This isn't a male vs female issue, so don't try to make it one.

Um, just like I am not alone in thinking it is indeed a male female issue. I've read an interview in rolling stone with her
There is no need to film videos of a woman getting choked, slapped and spat on.

Hey, that's her thing, if she can make money off of it, more power to her.

You are either missing or ignoring my point - it is not about men's violent fantasies because Sasha Grey is a woman who has the same fantasies which is why she does what she does. It is not an issue of gender at all. You can be against it if you want, though I don't see what someone else's life choices have to do with you, but you don't get to pretend like you're putting on your feminist shoes because that is SO far from the point here.

yes...ha ha ha

1) it is my choice , what shoes I put on and when
2) I have no trouble with what sasha does on her own time with a willing partner. What I do take issue with is that by puttig out these videos of her being attacked as entertainment, she might encourage her "fans " to try it..... With or without a partner who consents. That's the danger, as far as I see

There will always be crazy fuckwits who do stupid things. Unless we ban every depiction of violence in everything ever, they will always find something to copy. What makes violent pornography worse/different than horror movies and violent video games - or are you the type of nutter who wants those taken off the shelves as well?

No I am not a nutter... And there is no need for name calling. If you look at my posting history, I play fall out 3. This is a game where body parts and people regularly explode into bloody chunks, and the game world is a post appocolyptic horror scape.

What bothers me is sex violence abuse and assualt , and the men who seem to enjoy it (men who sasha specializes in marketing to )

Since my wife and I viewed her last film, I've been getting my ass kicked every night...THANKS A LOT SASHA GREY!

I've had to tell everyone that I've been walking into doors....over over and over again..

Fall Out 3 is entertainment... The same as any adult film.

You can't kill a mutant in the real world but you can slap or hurt someone. It is impossible to emulate the violence in a
Fallout 3, but all to easy to emulate the violent assaults depicted in ms grey's films. That's the difference as far as I see it

Well, to each their own.

Maybe Sasha can cut some PSAs on the use of safe words.

I just wanted to add, i am not coming at this from a place of total ignorance. I have read an interview with her you see, in rolling stone. After reading the interview I took the opportunity to view one of her films on DVD ( i believe it was called "in thru the back door" but i do not know for sure), which was fine, it was just regular enthusiastic sex activities. Then however, I viewed another one of her films online on a video watching website and it was awful. sex attacks, choking, slapping (even vomit). there was almost no sex to it, just violence, abuse and shame. someone is going to need to explain how that is no morally different than playing fall out 3 and chosing to blow up megaton.

Cleo, you asked what the difference was between violence in a horror movie and violence in one of Ms Greys films. i thought about that on the walk back from the coffee shop just now. The difference is, when we see a sex attack take place in "the hills have eyes" (one of the scariest films i've seen, but also a film that i enjoyed), sexual violence is presented as a BAD thing and something the audience is supposed to be afraid of. When the exact same scene basically plays out in one of Ms Grey's videos, its with the understanding that her audience is ENJOYING what they see take place on screen. In my humble opinion, that is fucked up. maybe i'm old fashioned, but given my age i don't think thats likely. i think its just that there is some stuff about her videos that is objectively bad.

no joke, that would actually do something to address *some* of the problems i have with her and her work. (i would want her to go further , but that would definitely help as far as i am concerned)

Yeah, but she still gives some of the best BlowJobs on film that I've ever seen.

For the record, A LOT of women like it rough. Maybe not choking, but having a hand wrapped around their neck AS IF they were being choked gets them off. And some like being lightly slapped. Just like some like their hair pulled, and others like to be ass-slapped. And some guys get off on doing it to women, and seeing the women enjoy it. It's part of the explosion of the desire to fuck the brains out of the other person.

Now, with that out of the way and established, what's porn except cheap plots wrapped around videos of two people having sex? And if sex sometimes includes these acts, then wouldn't it just be par for the course that they'd be included as well?

Now, if you're talking about the kind of slapping and choking that calls for a restraining order, just chalk that up with "taboo" videos like Asian girls being shat on and the rest. Just sliiiightly more mainstream (in the XXX world).

P.S. I'm assuming you mean "choked" and not "gagged", which really doesn't turn me on at all, but I guess someone out there likes it. If the girl can't deep-throat, no need to risk having her blow chunks over your junk by forcing her to try it out.

in the video i saw online, what she was doing did not qualify as a blow job, at least as far as i understand the definition of the term. i did not know vomit was supposed to be the desired body fluid that resulted from the process.

what youre basically talking about i am fine with, especially between two consenting adults. howver..... you say, "Maybe not choking" . in the video i saw, actual choking, as in , cutting off air ways and possibly blood supply to sasha's brain seemed to be the main focus. also, gagging *was* part of it and yes, she did blow chunks. thats what i am railing against. not rough sex in general, but specific abusive acts depicted on film. also the whole tone bothered me, all the spitting and slapping and use of words id rather not repeat combined with words like "stupid" , "trash" and "worthless". i'd be interested to hear an argument for how porn like that is healthy. so again, maybe some of the people who are defending sasha did not see the same films i saw. i saw one of her films that i was fine with, basically just rough enthusiastic sex. however, that is not representitive of her entire filmography,w hich aparently includes many scenes that are far darker.

That is true, I had a girlfriend that liked to be choked HARD...took a long while to get used too given that it just felt wrong... Now when I'm with someone else, I'm not going to go about doing the same thing, its really just up to the girl..but then I know the definition of right and wrong..

Story time.

Being that I'm in the middle of reading Infinite Jest (yes, I'm one of those Infinite Summer people), I need something to cleanse the palate when Dave's fine-spun prose becomes too much. As such, I've got a couple of books of erotica out from the library right now - one feminist and one catch-all, best of the year. That sort of thing.

I was thumbing through these the other night, skimming most of the stories, quickly realizing that both books were, by and large, detailing things that I don't find sexually arousing or writing about them in ways that I didn't find appealing. That's not to say that they were too explicit or describing acts that most would consider beyond the pale, just that it didn't interest me.

So I didn't read them. I remarked to my husband that, if anything, it illustrated for me that whatever it is that turns an individual on represents only a small fraction of sexual possibility, which, frankly, I find both amazing and kind of beautiful. This is why it's so damned hard to make subjective arguments about what "should" and "shouldn't" be permissible in porn. I'm not straight and, as such, like looking at naked women in the company of other naked women. There are people out there who find that just as evil as you, Kate, find the idea of Sasha Grey being choked during sex. Does that mean that what interests me sexually is evil?

Now, I'm not advocating turning a blind eye when it comes to truly morally repellent violence or pornography, but, really, in the case of Ms. Grey's films, everyone is consenting to the game being played. Moreover, I think it's fairly well known, as she's something of a minor celebrity now, that consent is a big part of her equation. She wants to be degraded. She wants to be slapped, choked, gagged, whatever. Personally, I can't follow her there, so I don't watch her films.

If you want to decry the horror of sex trafficking or indiscriminate, thoughtless violence in films made to attract a teenaged audience, then we can talk. But I have a hard, hard time working myself up into a lather over an adult doing what she wants with her body with whomever she wants.

Kate, I really think you need to take a big step back in whatever shoes it is you're choosing to wear on a given day and think really, really hard about your predilection for picking at your sisters. In the space of about 72 hours, you've come in here and trod all over Sasha Grey with some pretty rhetorically flimsy attacks while simultaneously making repeated concern-trolling posts about Christina Hendricks' physical appearance. What's that all about?

As a graduate of the Harvard that they don't tell the proles about (it's the Harvard for REALLY smart people), I find sex to be a distastefully biological phenomenon. I intended to have children through parthenogenesis, which is made possible through the powers of my super smart brain.

You and Roy Miro would get along just GREAT.

I'd just like to take a moment to offer thanks that MissZooey is posting again.

You've been missed.

mISS zOEY,

just wanted to say a few things.
1) one person mentioned the fact they were gay, and that some neanderthals would say that is "evil". people who think lesbianism is evil are , quite frankly, not that intelligent. people who feel sexual violence is evil, well, even though you may not disagree with them, you can see how the word evil might apply more readily to that than to same sex coupling. or not. again, just speaking only for myself.

2) i must not be making myself clear, despite my best efforts. this is my fault. i have NO problem with sasha being choked on her own time. what i am disturbed by is the commercialization of sexual violence. if all parties consent thats fine, but i am worried about the possibility of someone doing it with a partner who does not consent. i have had a few bad experiences, and this issue really bothers me as a result. i can understand some people will disagree with me on this, and thats fine, but i just want to make clear i am not saying sasha is evil for wanting to get choked. i find the atmosphere created in this nation, where someone is a borderline mainstream star for getting choked on film , disturbing. not the fact its something she enjoys.

3) sorry if it seems i am beating up on sisters! not my intention. i have things that bug me and i unload on them. there was an article about ms hendricks, and having finished mad men season 2 on dvd in july, she had been on my mind so i had alot to say, and i'd read an interview with sasha in rolling stone. you'll note i refered to emile hersch as "the vile worm emile hersch" so i hope i am gender equal in my criticism.

She's not Cleo. I repeat, not Cleo.

Reading is fundamental, even with a IQ of 142.

Her IQ is 149, idiot. You must have scored a 770 or lower on the SAT Verbal.

There is a difference between rough sex like choking and donkey punches and the REAL rough sexual violence fetish stuff that you are not so fond of my dear Kate. Google 'russian forced witness / sleep assaults and or Japanese sharking / rape torture.

An education in true depravity ye shall receive.

i think i'll pass on googling that, thanks. i have a vivid imagination, but "shark torture" seems like something a bond villan would come up with.

Update: nevermind, my curiosity got the better of me. Ewwwwwwwww

/34/ Zooey + Sasha Grey don't disappoint me internet

Just an opinion here, but I think the one thing that you're missing out on in your argument Kate, and one thing that nobody else has mentioned, is that porn is selling a fantasy. Porn is fantasy, albeit one that is played out with real people and real body parts. The people who engage in this line of work, particularly those of the Sasha Grey variety, are taking what they enjoy doing and showing that to people who may not ever have a chance to engage in what they're witnessing, though some surely will. Fantasy, as far as I'm concerned, is never wrong. Like the argument made many times before, and one you yourself have made I'm sure, there's a big difference between fantasizing about (fill in the blank) and actually doing it. Rape fantasy is just that; fantasy. People engage in it behind closed doors, but there's quite a bit that plays out in porn that people also do behind closed doors and they can still live normal lives. Commercializing violence isn't the issue. They're commercializing sex and sexuality because that's what they do; porn is about selling the fantasy of fucking. Period.

BTW, I've actually met Sasha on several occasions, including hanging out at midnight screening of Vanishing Point at the New Bev and at a Throbbing Gristle show; she rules. she's incredibly down-to-earth. so is Joanna Angel, another porn star I've worked with, who is also way into what she does and has built a real mini-empire out of her burning desire to fuck on camera.

All I've got to add to this conversation is this.

LOL! Thanks... I totally forgot about PG Porn. It is classic! Gunn is a genius!

More PG would be nice. Those are great.

That was brilliant! "My penis would be mushy! That would be painful."

Didn't read the entire thread, but to address the question raised in the thread title: yes, porn can be empowering, even revolutionary. Sasha Grey is neither. The pornography industry is inherently abusive and exploitive and no amount of cheap sloganeering or claims of subversion can change that. The problem isn't that Grey performs in movies containing depictions of rough sex, it's that the movies themselves are shot specifically from the MALE perspective and are focused solely on MALE pleasure derived from violent and degrading sex acts.
It's called rape culture, and yes, it is harmful.

I'm all for embracing all facets of the colorful spectrum of sexuality, but don't kid yourself into thinking there's ANYTHING "subversive" or "empowering" about ANY mainstream porn. It's all exploitive.