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Anarchist bookfair to be held in "porn warehouse"; massive shitstorm erupts
http://anarchistnews.org/content/rec...ook-fair-venue
http://anarchistnews.org/content/ana...book-fair-porn
I'm not even sure if this warrants enough importance to be in the "politics" subforum, I was just amused by the controversy, esp. the 200+ comments on the second link.Mods can feel free to move it wherever.
"Win, lose or draw...long as you squabble and you get down, that's gangsta."
I'm not even sure @news drama in any way reflects actual drama in the area the news relates to.
Augh. Worst throw-back antiporn critique.
In all of the sexphobic "THEY TORTURE WOMEN!!!!!!111!!!!111!" nonsense, they somehow fail to get to what's actually problematic about kink.com - skinny white bodies that reinforce racist hypernormative narratives of what is desirable.
NOW 1990 FTW (not).
The life we have conferred upon these objects confronts us as something hostile and alien.
Formerly Virgin Molotov Cocktail (11/10/2004 - 21/08/2013)
That's true, although I guess there was enough criticism that the bookfair organizers felt the need to write a response...
"Win, lose or draw...long as you squabble and you get down, that's gangsta."
Haha really?
Yeah, no mention that kink.com is one of the few websites that pay decent to their models, that have a policy that DEMANDS that each film end in a shot that shows the scene before is erotic play and all participants are equal and consenting.
Just more sexnegative bs.
Sure money is made but kink.com is as close as a shining example for the sex buisness as one could find. Sure one could have a valid argument whether one should have an anarchist bookmarket in a place owned by a participant in the sex-INDUSTRY but as always the problem is the industry bit and not the sex bit, let alone the bdsm side of this particular site, if anything the bdsm instead of run of the mill fake tit anorexia stuff should be a plus to feminists not a negative.
Last edited by Sasha; 11th February 2013 at 00:59.
The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. What matter where, if I be still the same, And what I should be, all but less than he Whom thunder hath made greater?
Here at least We shall be free
The comparison of BDSM torture (which participants can end at any time) with, say, getting the soles of your feet whipped with a cable in a prison somewhere is really dumb. It makes people look like wingnuts who are out of touch with reality...
"Win, lose or draw...long as you squabble and you get down, that's gangsta."
Darn, I thought only us Marxists were plagued with politicised absexuality - now I see anarchists aren't better in this issue either.
Luís Henrique
It's a loud but small minority, when I once got shit for wearing a support shirt for the union of exotic dancers all the queers jumped to my defense.
The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. What matter where, if I be still the same, And what I should be, all but less than he Whom thunder hath made greater?
Here at least We shall be free
I don't think people should be so flippant and the hostility to the ciricism in some of those posts (such as telling the criticizers to "Shut-up") is worse than the location.
I don't have any "puritanical" issues with the location, but I think that the organizers should have ruled it out as a possibility even if there was only a slight chance that this would reflect poorly on the radical community. And then to justify it on the basis of being cheaper also projects an impression that a potential bargin outweighs potential alienating effects or issues of sexism.
Also to frame the debate only in terms of internal anarchist ideological debates on porn is totally inbread Leftist crap. The causual audience attracted to these events isn't going to be thinking about some anarchist dogma, they are just going to think, Oh radicals don't take sexism seriously.
Calling complaints like this "puritanical" or "PC" or "bourgoise-feminist" in such an inexact and blanket sort of way the people in the article comments did is the same sort of damaging that the SWP leadership has been pulling (and also using radical critiques of bourgoise-feminism as cover).
I agree that the venue should've been elsewhere. But the organizers must have thought about this too? They must've had a hell of a time getting a venue for this, either that or this venue is just remarkably less expensive than any others they could find.
But two things: 1) do these events actually attract sizable audiences outside the far-left milieu, and 2) a lot of these arguments (ie internal anarchist debates) regarding sex work in general only really make sense from an anarchist (or rad-fem, I guess) perspective. A lot of this shit about how people are forced to work at places like this business, how what they experience is somehow equivalent to real torture as defined by the UN, how they're literally slaves (and any participant who thinks otherwise is "brainwashed") and so on and so forth only really makes sense from a certain perspective...although I'm not sure if the people who say such things are trolls or not. Such is the internet I guess. Conversations about sexism and stuff are fine, and I think that businesses in the sex work industry do perpetuate that sort of thing, but just the pitch of the conversation...
"Win, lose or draw...long as you squabble and you get down, that's gangsta."
I've had a booth at this fair for several years and they had been holding it in golden gate park, but had to raise the booth fees because the rent and insurance increased. People threw fits (and were also mad because they paid a booth fee and there's a free section) and I think the organizers may have had difficulty retaining boothers.... I got an email survey from them asking what I thought about the fair, if the price was getting too high and if I'd table again. So I'm sure they got a good rate and I totally believe the organizers when they say this was the consideration. However, I think that it is bad judgement - they probably were just kind of searching for a logistical solution and settled on this for those practical reasons.
But I also know that some of the other locations they listed really are not more expensive. I've helped organize shoestring events at laney community college and I think that would have been a much better choice because it,'s a 15 minute walk from where occupy Oakland happened and a working class campus where probably more than half the students are black or latino. Porn warehouse... or the center of young black culture in Oakland?
As for the people who attend, the politics are pretty low. It's more of a cultural event and of people calling themselves anarchists it leans heavy on the lifestyle end of things... Lots of hipsters and hippies and punks but I like punks and hippies for cultural things (politics can be more annoying tho). Often people I spoke with just weren't political at all. One woman came up and i asked what brought her and she said she was interested in anarchism because taxes were too high and thought there should be less red-tape in government.
The boothers are more of a range... I guess from me the token trot to insurrectionists, syndicalists, life stylists, and liberals. So I doubt that more than a size able minority of attendees know of any debates while more of the boothers probably do.
...oops, more later...
Maybe more people should organize this so it's not a few folks leading the where and when while everyone else sits around like a bunch of ducks quacking about the results.
"whatever they might make would never be the same as that world of dark streets and bright dreams"
http://youtu.be/g-PwIDYbDqI
Anarchist bookfair to be held in "porn warehouse"; massive shitstorm erupts
Jimmie a couple of things. Golden gate park is also federal land and parks police are present. It's never been too much of an issue, but merits mentioning. Also there is the east bay book fair now, so holding the sf one in Oakland makes even less sense.
Maybe because of our different politics, but I see the politcal composition a little different. Sure it's not a pure hardcore anarchist attendance, I did get in an argument with an Obama supporter. But we met/ became better aquatinted there and we are no arm chair revolutionaries let alone apolitical.
As for the Kink Kastle, I have an old female friend who is a PA for a couple of the sites, and it sounds like the amount sexual harassment varies by director.
Oh yeah I think it's a great event and that's why I wish that some of their choices had been more sort of inclusive I guess. The low political level of attendees I described IMO is definitely just the place and time for all of us in the u.s., nothing reflecting on the organizers or anything... In fact it, that they can pull in more people shows there is a wider audience open to more ideas. My point was only that because of this, to justify the choice of location on relatively narrow political grounds misses the point and I think puts us in a bad light.
Also the organizers definitely do seem to be stretched thin and it seems like they get more complaints than actual useful help (on a whole range of things). That's why I find the practicality arguments for the location to be fair (even if I think the location is still problematic) while I think the political justifications are narrow and in poor judgement and I think some of the dismissive ness in the comments to the article is harmful.
Anarchist bookfair to be held in "porn warehouse"; massive shitstorm erupts
Good place for recruitment to be sure, if u need bodies for an action in sf, book it this weekend.
Seriously, bdsm breaks torture laws now? Last time I checked, consensual bdsm was voluntary on both sides, y'know not quite like being beaten in Guantanamo Bay.
Hey, someone posted this more interesting, nuanced critique on @news. It brought my attention to some things I hadn't thought of, and it's pretty "on", imho. Dig it.
The life we have conferred upon these objects confronts us as something hostile and alien.
Formerly Virgin Molotov Cocktail (11/10/2004 - 21/08/2013)
shame on these anarchists and this venue.
Why
Where do you want them to go
I ALMOST DIED OF A DRUG OVERDOSE BECAUSE OF ANARCHISM AND PUNK ROCK
