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So today I was driving back from South Bend and for some reason I started thinking about porn. I don't know why - probably the recent kerfuffle here on LJ and all the metafandom I've been reading lately - but anyway I got to wondering what Vulcan porn would be like. (What? Why are you looking at me like that? I'm a Star Trek fan; we're required to think about things like this.)
I got to thinking that pornography is whatever is forbidden or shameful in a society, "dirty" - well, I think that's the connotation, though the denotation seems to deal pretty much with sex. Really, is it any coincidence that the term "food porn" has become a common way of describing cooking shows and magazines over the past decade or so? Is it a coincidence that cooking shows and magazines have become so prolific and popular in a society which equates an almost unnatural thinness with beauty and success and desirability? If whole groups of foods (rich meats, desserts, simple carbohydrates) are forbidden to you, don't pictures of gorgeous roasts, heaps of real mashed potatoes, beautiful cakes and pies become porn? They're forbidden, indulging in them is shameful. Porn.
So what would Vulcan porn be? I don't think it would have a lot to do with sex. Granted, Vulcans seem very protective, secretive about their sex lives - Jim Kirk is Spock's best friend but he knows absolutely nothing about pon farr. Neither does Leonard McCoy, which seems almost criminal considering he has to be able to treat Spock for any medical condition that might arise while they're on a mission away from the nearest star base - or Vulcan. Think about what happens during pon farr, though. It's not just an urge to mate, it's a stripping away of all emotional control. Vulcan porn wouldn't have much to do with sex, it would be all about emotion. I suspect that "Gone with the Wind" with its portrayals of love, hatred, betrayal, greed, grief, lust - all these emotions just drenching the movie (not to mention war) would be considered highly pornographic, utterly shocking if it were written, produced, and acted by Vulcans. (Since it's a human movie, they probably just consider it distasteful and perhaps interesting from a psychological or anthropological perspective.) A "dirty nekkid" movie could probably be looked at with far more detachment. In fact, I can't help wondering if Vulcans might consider a "how to" vid something logical for a newly married couple to have.
Can't you just picture an underground film and book industry on Vulcan, keeping busy providing those perverts with vids and novels just crammed with emotions, big and messy, being expressed all over the place? The disapproval the people who sought out that kind of entertainment would be faced with if they were found out? Or the actors! Imagine someone's family finding out that their son or daughter earned his or her living by acting in vids in which they laughed and cried and screamed and shouted, vids that could end up in public where just anyone might see them?
[I've suddenly got this feeling that nothing I've written just now is original. I wonder if I read something like this at some point and just remembered it today? Maybe I've had this discussion in the past. (What? I have Trekker friends; we discuss these important issues!)]
I wonder what Klingon porn would be like? Cardassian? Bajoran?
I wonder if I've ever used the word "porn" this many times in a journal entry in my life!
I got to thinking that pornography is whatever is forbidden or shameful in a society, "dirty" - well, I think that's the connotation, though the denotation seems to deal pretty much with sex. Really, is it any coincidence that the term "food porn" has become a common way of describing cooking shows and magazines over the past decade or so? Is it a coincidence that cooking shows and magazines have become so prolific and popular in a society which equates an almost unnatural thinness with beauty and success and desirability? If whole groups of foods (rich meats, desserts, simple carbohydrates) are forbidden to you, don't pictures of gorgeous roasts, heaps of real mashed potatoes, beautiful cakes and pies become porn? They're forbidden, indulging in them is shameful. Porn.
So what would Vulcan porn be? I don't think it would have a lot to do with sex. Granted, Vulcans seem very protective, secretive about their sex lives - Jim Kirk is Spock's best friend but he knows absolutely nothing about pon farr. Neither does Leonard McCoy, which seems almost criminal considering he has to be able to treat Spock for any medical condition that might arise while they're on a mission away from the nearest star base - or Vulcan. Think about what happens during pon farr, though. It's not just an urge to mate, it's a stripping away of all emotional control. Vulcan porn wouldn't have much to do with sex, it would be all about emotion. I suspect that "Gone with the Wind" with its portrayals of love, hatred, betrayal, greed, grief, lust - all these emotions just drenching the movie (not to mention war) would be considered highly pornographic, utterly shocking if it were written, produced, and acted by Vulcans. (Since it's a human movie, they probably just consider it distasteful and perhaps interesting from a psychological or anthropological perspective.) A "dirty nekkid" movie could probably be looked at with far more detachment. In fact, I can't help wondering if Vulcans might consider a "how to" vid something logical for a newly married couple to have.
Can't you just picture an underground film and book industry on Vulcan, keeping busy providing those perverts with vids and novels just crammed with emotions, big and messy, being expressed all over the place? The disapproval the people who sought out that kind of entertainment would be faced with if they were found out? Or the actors! Imagine someone's family finding out that their son or daughter earned his or her living by acting in vids in which they laughed and cried and screamed and shouted, vids that could end up in public where just anyone might see them?
[I've suddenly got this feeling that nothing I've written just now is original. I wonder if I read something like this at some point and just remembered it today? Maybe I've had this discussion in the past. (What? I have Trekker friends; we discuss these important issues!)]
I wonder what Klingon porn would be like? Cardassian? Bajoran?
I wonder if I've ever used the word "porn" this many times in a journal entry in my life!
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