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F E AT U R E
You Draw the Line on Obscenity?
Where Do
by Debbie Fraker
Censorship is a nasty word in the les
bian and gay community, and with good
reason. But some of the most insidious
attempts to censor our voices come not
from Jesse Helms and associates, but
from within our own ranks.
In case you've had your head in a
bucket, Senator Jesse Helms of North
Carolina managed to add a clause to the
NEA's 1990 appropriations that states
that "none of die funds authorized to be
appropriated for the National
Endowment for the Arts or the National
Endowment for the Humanities may be
used to promote, disseminate, or pro
duce materials which in the judgment of
the NEA or NEH may be sado
masochism, homoeroticism, the sexual
exploitation of children, or individuals
engaged in sex acts and which, when
taken as a whole, do not have serious lit
erary, artistic, political or scientific
value."
Three of these four "no no's" involve
consenting adults and/or the ability not
to participate—either as artist, subject,
or viewer. The fourth is already covered
by laws governing the exploitation of
children.
As a result of Helms' intervention,
John Frohnmayer, Chair of the NEA, has
refused funding to four artists who have
received past funding from the agency.
Two of those artists were gay men, one
was a lesbian, one a straight woman
whose work rages against sexism.
Apparently, Helms's qualification of
"serious literary, artistic, political, or sci
entific value" only applies to the straight
white male Old Boy network.
Media opinion on the controversy
has been split between conservative sup
porters of those good old boys and more
liberal fourth estaters who still support
the idea of First Amendment freedoms.
Does this form of censorship offend
you?
There is another form of censorship
afoot in the land that may interest you.
Lesbian feminists are taking an active
role in silencing the sexual expression of
other lesbian feminists.
A number of the former group would
have us continue to believe that women
are inherently less sexual than men, gay
or straight. While many men seem to
need to have sex, often aggressive sex,
regularly with anyone they come across,
so to speak, women, it seems, are not
supposed to be as strongly motivated by
sex.
Sexual imagery, in fact, is inherently
offensive to many feminists and les
bians, even the images we create for
ourselves. Earlier this year a group of
lesbians charged into a gay bookstore
and indignantly vandalized it destroying
only copies of the latest issue of On
Our Backs, one of the few pornographic
magazines published by lesbians for les
bians. This is not the first time this kind
of havoc has been wrecked on stocks of
lesbian pom. In fact both On Our
Backs and Bad Attitude (also pornogra
phy published by and for lesbians) have
had trouble even getting on the shelves
in some women's bookstores.
Some lesbian feminists, Andrea
Dworkin and Catherine McKennon
prominent among them, and a small but
vocal group of pro-feminist men would
have us believe that all pornography vic
timizes women. Others celebrate our
sexuality through imagery and the writ
ten word. Lesbianism is a sexual orienta
tion!
Then there is the question of alter
native sexual styles within the lesbian
community. In a recent issue of
Outweek magazine, Rachel Pepper, a
freelance San Francisco writer, gave a
rosy report on her experience she at the
Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival,
practically ignoring the controversy
around curtailing the activities of S/M
women as if it were a minor issue.
Maybe it was for Rachel. But articles
in a other gay media, The Advocate
included, described the Festival as a
very unsafe place for these women who
who enjoy sadomasochism. They have
been harassed and humiliated, generally
made to feel like perverts.
This controversy over freedom of
sexual expression has been brewing for
some time. Lesbians like Adrienne Rich
and Audre Lorde have called sado-
masochists sick, and suggested that they
should be denied their right to consensu
al sexual expression. Interesting. In an
age of fighting against homophobic and
heterosexist censorship of the arts, les
bians are struggling against each other
over "perversions?"
An article on lesbian pornography
ran in a recent issue of Outweek. It
reported on the small but mighty number
of women who have begun working on
women-oriented video pornography.
Conspicuous among those mentioned
are former stars of mcn-produced
straight pom, Barbara Dare, Candida
Royalle and Cris Cassidy.
Dare, who was also interviewed this
year by On Our Backs, in which she
posed with her female lover, wants to
see women's sexuality portrayed more
realistically than it has been in male ori
ented pom videos. Royalle has created
Femme Productions so that she can
make her own women-oriented hetero
sexual tapes. She also prefers what she
calls a realistic approach to eroticism.
Cassidy makes lesbian "erotica" through
Tigress Video. She prefers not to call it
pornography, and, indeed, Tigress videos
are more, well, boring than Fatale's pro
ductions.
The differences between traditional
straight pom and the new women-pro-
duced videos are supposed to be a result
of their emphasis on realism. But from
my perspective behind the remote con
trol, the changes seem to be more a
result of the differences between men's
fantasies and and those of women. The
women in women-produced videos do
look somewhat more realistic and,
frankly, more like they're enjoying them
selves. There are fewer "pink" and
"cum" shots in women's videos; more
whole body shots and fewer isolated
body parts.
Women, straight and lesbian, are
owning their sexual fantasies by giving
them imagery, and the variety of lesbian
pornography reflects the fact that les
bians do not all have the same fantasies.
We cannot attempt to shut down our sis
ters' consensual sexual expression and at
the same time demand the freedom of
our own sexuality.
The Kiss and Tell Collective of
Vancouver, BC has created an exhibit of
lesbian photography that ought to stoke
the fires of this controversy here in
Atlanta. "Drawing the Line," will be
displayed as part of the Against the Tide
show at Nexus Galleries.
The series begins with mildly erotic,
sexy images. As the exhibit continues
along the wall, the photos become pro
gressively more erotic, or more offen
sive, depending on your view of sado
masochistic imagery. Female viewers
will be asked to write comments on the
walls beside the photos, which then
become part of the art; men may com
ment in a notebook provided.
In particular, viewers will be asked to
indicate exactly where the artists should
have "drawn the line" on the display.
Comments like the following (from
the San Francisco showing) bring the
exhibit to life: "this is not realistic, its
staged, the others look more real and
that's the beauty of them." (next to a
photo of a woman's back with a cat o'
nine tails splayed across it)
"Do this to me." and "Yii! pleasure
from tweezers?!" (both next to the same
photo)
"I'd draw the line right about here.
This is pure junk to me as a survivor of
ritualized abuse." (under two photos of
a woman blindfolded and securely tied
in a fetal position with her legs spread)
"Nice!!! Censorship sucks. If you
don't like what someone says— respond
to it. Don't fucking cross it out. It's just
as valid as your own opinion." (beside
another comment that has been crossed
out)
It was from the feminist anti-pom
movement that the Kiss and Tell
Collective— Susan Stewart, Persimmon
Blackbridge, and Lizard Jones-
evolved. In a recent interview,
Blackbridge expressed a need for
women "to have that space where we
can explore our own imagery in terms of
sex, not representation but sex." This
space would be denied to us by anti
pornography feminist lesbians.
"Why is it that much of published
lesbian pornography includes S/M
imagery?" I asked Cindy Patton, co
curator of Against the Tide and a co
founder and former editor of Bad
Attitude. She replied, "Lesbians publish
ing the magazines are committed to cre
ating a space for lesbians to explore a
range of images." She added that, as
editor of Bad Attitude, she and others
she worked with tried to avoid labeling
each work that was sent to them as any
thing other than one woman's fantasy.
Sex-negative lesbian feminists would
politicize our cunts and restrict us to
their own version of a lesbian mission
ary position, rather than allow for free,
adventurous exploration of the pleasures
of being women-loving women.
[The word pornography is proudly
used by this author instead of the word
erotica to avoid what she feels has
become a false distinction.]
Southern Voice/October 11, 1990 5