But there is another issue that sites like this bring forward, that is the silent victims . . . the husbands, wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, relatives, children . . . all who end up losing a person who gets subdued into the BDSM lifestyle. I read about the President of Cox Television, Andrew Fisher, who was accused of having a sadomasochistic sex affair at the Mayflower Hotel. In divorce documents filed evidence was presented of communications between Andy Fisher and woman who worked for a US Senator. The information related to an ongoing sadomasochistic sexual liason over many months.

In the divorce proceeding, the parties are arguing over whether evidence of sadomasochistic behavior and perverse sexual addictions of the husband should be allowed at the trial. Lawyers for the wife, Robin Fisher, filed trial subpeonas for James Cox Kennedy, Chairman of the Board of Cox Enterprises, along with Andy Fisher, and the husband of the woman accused of the affair, Lesley Rich.

The battle to cover up the evidence in this matter is raging in numerous states. Imagine the impact this has on families of both the victimized woman and Mr. Fisher who makes every effort to cover up any such activities.

Lets think twice before we condone and popularize this set of fantasy and behavior, and weigh it against all the potential harm to everyone involved.

“This site is devoted to my renderings, drawings, stories and material of fabulous costumed heroines in peril. This is fantasy material. I in no way endorse violence nor exploitation of women. This is merely fantasy material based on sexual fantasies we’ve probably all had about 70’s and 80’s super heroine related TV shows, movies and comics (http://www.superheroinecentral.com/mrx/xpage/xblm.htm)”

Most likely, the viewership of these sites feel shame “after-the-fact” because, as was stated, it turns women into objects and the men watching get to “defeat” the woman inside of them. Im not sure why this is the case, however. Perhaps it is because these authors and viewers have been raised in an environment where women were mistreated and if they were to bond normally with women, they would see there is more to them. But, why superheroines? To tell you the truth, I understand the description of the women as “pure” and why that adds to the excitement. These superheroines arent only representing womanhood, they are also representing and objectifying truth, justice, liberty and freedom. These are all “pure” concepts. Its the id in the viewership that like to see these concepts embedded in women tore down. I am trying to think of why this should happen, but all i could think of is the idea of objectification, but i think that is more a symptom rather than the cause. It probably has a lot to do with the psyche. We must realize however that in reality, we live in an invisible world and it takes mind over body to see it.

I would assume that most rape porn that uses some degree of story and character uses characters made up specially for the occasion, and whether I like it or not I can at least accept that it might be different from how the porn-lover sees women in real life. But taking characters from other sources - especially characters that are meant to be powerful and respected - and putting them into rape porn… I find it much harder not to imagine the men concerned fantasising about doing it to real women.

I think what I would prefer is less of a tone that these people shouldn’t be producing or consuming porn (because it veers way too close to the idea that they shouldn’t be having those fantasies, i.e. thinking strong women subdued scenarios are sexy, i.e hello, thought police), and more of an analytical tone — this is what these fantasies really say about our society and its perceptions of powerful women. This is also why I don’t believe the comics storylines are any less (or more) problematic than the actual porn. At least the porn is honest about its titillation value.

And I guess I am more OK with fantasy porn, i.e. girls in superhero outfits, even in scenarios like this, b/c the fact that you shouldn’t — *can’t* –model this behavior seems so much more obvious than in “mainstream” porn. Nobody’s likely to use a superheroine abduction DVD as an educational device, in other words, while people unfortunately do this all the time with, say, Rear Entry volumes 1-92.

Superheroes can be incredibly sexy, because of the way power affects the interpersonal dynamic. My girlfriend writes Huntress/Question fic that’s really effective because of the way the characters are simultaneously larger than life and all too human. I’ve even seen comics-based fanfic with BDSM elements that I could consider erotic (and I’m about as vanilla as they get as far as that goes). This, on the other hand, ain’t it. It’s simply fanservice for misogynists.

Any good fetisher (is that a word? o.O) will get that I’m not attacking their fantasy, per se, but rather reacting to the problematic link between violence against women and pornography centering around their fetish. Because, like I said, this shit does spill over into real life, and porn is different from doing a scene.

And as for the “sides” of feminist sexual politics — I totally agree that we’re all working for the same goal. That’s one reason why it drives me crazy when someone from one side will start attacking the other with ad homs. Really, people, feminism doesn’t need more infighting. If people would just step off the personal zingers, it would be easy to see that there are a lot of areas in which we have common ground.