This somewhat alarming video was recently posted in Reddit’s GamerGhazi subreddit. It features Sarkeesian Effect co-creator Jordan Owen explaining, at some length, his disagreements with antiporn feminist Gail Dines over the book Fifty Shades of Grey. (Dines, you see, was Owen’s previous obsession, before he discovered Anita Sarkeesian; this video is a couple of years old.) Alas, the sound cuts out about halfway through the nearly hour-long video, so you won’t get to hear the whole thing.
You might also be slightly distracted by the fact that Owen delivers this lengthy critique while sitting naked in a bathtub.
dang, ninja’d.
I’ll take that.
Ah, thank you Policy of Madness 🙂
My theory on Owen’s, er, choice of location… I didn’t watch the whole thing but right at the start he says something about while he’s running a bath. Obviously the best time for serious critique is in that 45 minute window!
Oh, and this is a very strange post to announce this on but I’ve finally gotten round to not just lurking in the comments here. Hello Mammoth! I’ve been reading for maybe a year or so.
Over a minute per shade!! Without watching more than the first few minutes, I can tell that he is VERY well prepared. Listen up, wimminz! He has something to says!
*Another de-lurker here
@kirbywarp:
thanks all the same 🙂
I can get behind the idea of not policing other people’s porn interests and sexuality and I think a lot of feminists can be pretty unfair about the sex industry and really quite judgemental but…
But…
>_> Come on! This in no way implies that 50 Shades of Grey does not have some extremely problematic components and that it might be a really good idea to break them down and analyze them, especially in the context of how women feel they are allowed to experience their sexuality…
Why do the internet misogynist hate critical analysis? What in the world is wrong with Women’s Studies giving you an expertise on porn? WHY DO YOU HATE THINKING PEOPLE!?
o.o I’ve also always felt that one of the best read-alongs of the 50 Shades book is Cliff Pervocracy’s, since it comes with a familiarity BDSM. It kind of really shows how the protagonist doesn’t seem to be enjoying herself and yet somehow great sex?
I dunno, I guess I’m all for moar porn for women in theory, but oh god the execution…
<_< I shall go back to reading my porny PSOH fanfics…
Welp, I know how I’m spending my afternoon.
Now I’m hoping that the Sarkeesian Effect isn’t the scam that it seems to be and that they do actually make the documentary. I want to watch them fail. If this video is any reliable indicator, that fail will be spectacular and glorious to behold.
O RLY, Jordan? On what basis do you make that claim? Have you watched all of it? ALL of it???
And if you have…that’s just pathetic. (It also explains a lot.)
Howlowl – welcome package
https://artistryforfeminismandkittens.wordpress.com/the-official-man-boobz-complimentary-welcome-package/
Well, this is embarrassing… my link turned into an image that has nothing to do with my link. Mea culpa. Not a great first impression for me.
On a more pertinent note, I’m with @alaisvex. There is a multitude of evidence the Sarkesian Effect will be a Plan 9 From Outer Space level disaster — decades from now, pop cultural anthropologists will slap the neo-futuristic version of Yakety Sax over it and use it in place of the Price Is Right losing horn on internet boards.
Ugh, why do I keep borking image embeds?
Anyway, NOPE
The das sporking team also tackled in-depth reviewing of the fifty shades books; they’ve finished shades of grey and shades darker, and are about halfway through freed.
Heres a link to start out with the first book sporking, if anyone is interested: http://das-sporking.livejournal.com/242338.html
I also don’t understand how people like this can criticize Sarkeesian’s fundraiser considering the quality of their videos vs the quality of her videos. I mean you can CLEARLY see where the fundraiser money is going in Sarkeesian’s series… AWAY from the tub at the very least…
Also… Hi! I never introduced myself…. I’m Irene! You’re all awesome and this blog is awesome and you’re keeping me sane while my cat is suffering kidney failure so… THANK YOU!
There’s also a tumblr called Fifty Shades of Suck, to save you all the agony of reading poorly crafted “BDSM” fanfic of a poorly crafted vampire series.
@gilshalos
Thank you!
Agreed.
Gah.
50 Shades was popular among the kind of people who don’t normally read erotica and are not familiar with kink. It’s awful. In interviews stars read excerpts from it as jokes. People post pictures of their faces after reading passages from it as jokes because it is poorly written and awful. It’s just awful. What’s to defend?
I kind of want to cry … because in many points, I don’t disagree with this fellow (about BDSM).
I do want to say that I don’t generally think porn is super awesome. Even if you don’t have to worry about the participants suffering in any way (mentally, physically, or emotionally), sex divorced from character and real relationships to me is a waste of time. Not creative. Not interesting. But I like my love smutty. That I won’t deny.
I haven’t read 50 Shades, even though I’m not opposed to BDSM (I probably should read it just because, but the kind of BDSM it is isn’t the kind I generally like). There are some BDSM stories I love. BDSM can be done in so many different ways, and the people (the personalities) involved matter. A LOT. I like the idea of subverting what would normally be an oppressive situation … I think a little pain can enhance pleasure … and the D/s I like gives the sub nearly all the power. I don’t like having BDSM bleed into day-to-day life because then (to me as a woman) it seems to be not so much a subversion of oppression but oppression itself. Now, if the sub were a straight male … I could see how that might be subversive and liberating.
And I think that BDSM deals with consent and boundaries in ways that society at large could learn from.
So … uh … I’ll just go hide behind that couch over there.
(runs away)
One word keeps coming to mind.
Pruney.
Diana,
I have not read 50SoG, I have read some of Pervocracy’s reviews of it and had to stop because I found them too triggering. 50 Shades is not about consensual BDSM. It is about a powerful millionaire who physically, emotionally, and sexually abuses a college student.
I clicked play on the video and clicked through to various points and all I can say is why is he in the bathtub?!?? WHYYYYYYYYYY?
(Also noticed from related videos that he has other shirtless videos. Do not understand. at. all.)
Yeah, whatever your views of porn or BDSM, 50SoG is basically just a novel about abuse masquerading as romance. There’s no point even trying to raise a discussion about the merits of anything sexual with that book as a frame.
Irene, I’m so sorry about your kitty friend.