Sasha Grey & The Girlfriend Experience

You might have heard that porn starlet Sasha Grey is staring in a new, relatively-mainstream film. The Girlfriend Experience is directed by Steven Soderbergh.

Part-time sex blogger Ann Althouse links to an article about the film… and pulls out this great bit on “feminism”:

[Sasha] says she wouldn’t call herself “a crusader,” and she thinks the term “feminist” is useless. “Every woman is a feminist in her own right,” she says. “Whether you’re anti-porn or pro-porn or somewhere in between, feminism has become such a generalized, watered-down viewpoint. Someone can say, ‘I’m a feminist because I believe in sexually empowering women.’ That’s my view on feminism. Someone else’s opinion might be, ‘Having sex is just wrong no matter what.’ And both sides might call themselves feminists.”

And the post elicits all sorts of interesting comments.

It’s fascinating to read these comments and see how differently people view the porn world. There is one guy, “John”, who seems to be hell-bent on the notion that porn cannot be anything more than the most base and empty images of people fucking.

But porn has evolved from the seedy-theater films of the 1970s. Especially in the last few years. It’s not just pornstars fucking anymore. The newer stuff pushes boundaries and is much more real. Is Abby Winters just about people fucking? Is Sex and Submission? I could go on and on…

And there are people who can’t stand this! They want to hold onto their notion that porn is dirty… the fact that it might not be dirty, or that it might be more than dirty and have something worthwhile to offer the viewer, just doesn’t compute.

Violet Blue, for one, appreciates this. From her SF Gate column last week:

For me, Sasha Grey is “The Girlfriend Experience” (trailer) personified. A “girlfriend experience” (as shown in the film) is an expensive branch of sex work where a groomed, cultured, and pedigreed escort is the client’s companion: physically, intellectually, and emotionally. Yes, there is nudity in the film, but there is no hardcore or explicit sex, as many assumed would be when it was made known that Soderbergh cast an adult actress in the role of sex worker. This just glares the “girlfriend experience” Hollywood perception in the face — do you want to see Grey naked and having sex? You can. Go right ahead. Big f-ing deal. It’s as if Soderbergh and Grey are both saying now that that’s out of the way, let’s say something interesting about the so-called “girlfriend experience.”

Yup, the fucking is cheap. Pictures and video of that are available all over. But Soderbergh’s got something more interesting for ya’ if you want it… Do you want it? Or do images of non-naked porn people scare you?