Marx and Porn

Sorry for the sensationalist headline but Steven Shaviro (Of The Cinematic Body fame) has written about porn, Marx, and commodity fetishism on his blog The Pinocchio Theory.

'Porn today isn’t the least bit different from cars, or mobile phones, or running shoes. It embodies a logic of indifferent equivalence, even as it holds out the thrilling promise of transgression and transcendence — a promise that, of course, it never actually fulfills.'

This is possibly true on the level of consumption but is the production of pornography perhaps more vicious and exploitive than the production of cars, mobile phones, or running shoes, or is that based on a sanctified conception of the sex act? It makes me think about debates surrounding the legalization of prostitution as well.

http://www.shaviro.com/Blog/?p=526