{"id":731,"date":"2006-11-28T00:41:58","date_gmt":"2006-11-28T04:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/archives\/2006\/11\/28\/youre-in-the-movie-now\/"},"modified":"2006-11-28T11:58:28","modified_gmt":"2006-11-28T15:58:28","slug":"youre-in-the-movie-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/28\/youre-in-the-movie-now\/","title":{"rendered":"You’re in the movie now"},"content":{"rendered":"

Naomi Wolf<\/a>, she of The Beauty Myth<\/a>, etc, has written a piece, “The Porn Myth<\/a>“, for New York<\/a><\/em> that sets out her position that the rise of pornography has essentially resulted in a devaluation of sexual experience. <\/p>\n

For two decades, I have watched young women experience the continual \u201cmission creep\u201d of how pornography\u2014and now Internet pornography\u2014has lowered their sense of their own sexual value and their actual sexual value. When I came of age in the seventies, it was still pretty cool to be able to offer a young man the actual presence of a naked, willing young woman. There were more young men who wanted to be with naked women than there were naked women on the market. If there was nothing actively alarming about you, you could get a pretty enthusiastic response by just showing up. Your boyfriend may have seen Playboy, but hey, you could move, you were warm, you were real. Thirty years ago, simple lovemaking was considered erotic in the pornography that entered mainstream consciousness: When Behind the Green Door first opened, clumsy, earnest, missionary-position intercourse was still considered to be a huge turn-on.<\/p>\n

Well, I am 40, and mine is the last female generation to experience that sense of sexual confidence and security in what we had to offer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I her position somewhat plausible but counter to my experience–at least I have seen no evidence that the sexual currency of “a naked, willing young woman” has been devalued by any of my social circle (and some of them are 15 years younger than Naomi, and presumably in her target group.) Also, the bias of the piece–that this is something men do to women, rather than an instituational effect–gets up my nose a little bit…<\/p>\n

In any case, the point was much more effectively made a long time ago by Nicole Blackman<\/a> in a poem. You can listen to it<\/a> (do it!), or you can read it after the jump.
\n<\/p>\n

“In the Movie Now”<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is no glory in trying to make love to men
\nwho only know how to fuck —
\nman after man after man after man
\nraised on porn.<\/p>\n

Out all day while he’s been watching $2 videos
\nnow piled by the VCR,
\nout all day at work at class at the gym
\nwhile he’s been making plans
\nout all day returning with bags of bread
\nand tomatoes and bluefish for what you think
\nwill be dinner.<\/p>\n

Dinner is you
\nand you are nothing like
\nthe dead-eyed blonde women
\nhe’s been watching.<\/p>\n

You’re in the movie now.<\/p>\n

He is nothing like you remember.
\nNo time for a condom, take a pill,
\nor put in a diaphragm.
\nThose girls never get pregnant anyway.
\nWhat are you trying to do?<\/em><\/p>\n

Clothes cannot come off fast enough
\nget them off get them off
\nshoes are always left on
\nyou don’t know why.
\nYou’re in the movie now.<\/p>\n

You used to scrape your nails
\nagainst the walls leaving
\nstreaks like scars of where
\nyou wanted to stay
\nand where he took you.<\/p>\n

Now you just go
\nit’ll be over
\nin ten minutes
\nit’ll be over
\nin ten minutes
\ntwenty at most.<\/p>\n

A black envelope closes with you inside.
\nYou’re in the movie now.<\/p>\n

He winds your hair around his fist
\nlike a roll and he keeps it nailed to the bed.
\nYou swear you’ll cut your hair tomorrow.
\nYou swear you’ll cut your hair tomorrow.<\/p>\n

You still swim in memory sometimes.
\nIt wasn’t always like this, was it?<\/p>\n

You are becoming stone
\nstone desires nothing
\nstone cannot be moved
\nstone can only be worn down
\nlittle by little.<\/p>\n

Close your eyes and think of England.<\/p>\n

You are tucked in for the fucking.
\nYou’re in the movie now.<\/p>\n

There is no beauty in being held face down
\non a bed of sheets that tear beneath you
\nand you are wearing him like a country
\nyou haven’t the strength to carry.
\nYou’re in the movie now.<\/p>\n

You don’t fight
\nhe takes it from you
\nhe takes it from you
\nhe takes it from you.
\nNow it isn’t yours, how could it be?
\nIsn’t yours anymore, never will be again.<\/p>\n

One eye open, focusing on a window.
\nYears of this
\nand you don’t even say anything anymore.
\nThis is how it is
\nhow it will always be.
\nYou’re in the movie now.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t hurt anymore you shut down examining fibers in the pillowcase counting them until he’s finished 77-78-79 he says look at me look at me it’s no good unless you look at me<\/em> you look right through him look at your bookshelf your grandmother’s patio your list of things to do this weekend the basil leaves drying by the window.<\/p>\n

He says if you cry it makes him angry.
\nI fuck better when I’m angry you know.<\/em>
\nYou know.
\nHe says it every time.
\nYou learn not to cry.<\/p>\n

You are startled that he is doing this to you.
\nYou are startled that he knows how.
\nYou are startled that you stay
\nknowing you would tell a friend to kill him
\nif he did this to her.<\/p>\n

Your mouth is on fire with possibilities.
\nYou say nothing.<\/p>\n

You shut down your body one limb at a time
\nlike you learned in drama class relaxation exercises.
\nAbsence of pain makes anything possible.<\/p>\n

Because you are pretty you are possessed.
\nYou two are alone, owner and owned.<\/p>\n

You used to confuse this with caring
\nyou used to confuse these with caresses.
\nDesire doesn’t live here anymore
\ndesire doesn’t live here anymore.<\/p>\n

You are turned over and over
\nbackstrokes in your own blood
\n(horses have been christened with less).<\/p>\n

There is no glory here
\nonly bloodstains
\nand apologies that come with the stroking,
\nonly throwing up in a sink
\nyou’ll have to scrub out later.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Naomi Wolf, she of The Beauty Myth, etc, has written a piece, “The Porn Myth“, for New York that sets out her position that the rise of pornography has essentially resulted in a devaluation of sexual experience. For two decades, I have watched young women experience the continual \u201cmission creep\u201d of how pornography\u2014and now Internet pornography\u2014has lowered their sense of… Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","xfolkentry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5UQvw-bN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}