“…Here’s what I dislike about the stuff I’ve seen. For the most part, the men are faceless and invisible, no more than props to show off the fetishised power of the female dominants. These pose and strut, whips at the ready. I don’t dare say there’s nothing sexy about their heels and catsuits, but whatever sexuality there is, is focused entirely at the camera. I don’t see chemistry between the players, I don’t see passion, or even play-acted attraction. The kinky electricity flows not between the players, but directly from the domme at the camera: at the supposedly enthralled male gaze.
As a female viewer, I feel irrelevant. This isn’t surprising, because most porn is made for men. Even so, when I watch X/F porn, I can get a lot of pleasure out of it just by empathising with the girl on the receiving end. Perhaps, this is the key to my dismay: when I look at spanking/BDSM porn, I want to empathise with the submissive. It’s all about the submissive for me, male or female. In the F/M porn, instead, the gaze follows not the submissive – the object of empathy, but the woman – the object of lust…”
She was an ’80s icon. This busty, beehive-haired, sharp-tongued “Mistress of the Dark” entertained and influenced a generation of young goth-ettes (of which I was one) during her ten year stint in television and film. Now, after an absence of over two decades, Elvira is back.
“…Tentatively titled “Elvira’s Movie Macabre,” the new series will feature 26 two hour horror films, hosted by the Mistress of the Dark herself. The series will air on THIS! Television and in national syndication through its distributor, Trifecta Entertainment…”
Unfortunately there is little chance of Elvira’s new vehicle making its way to UK television. However, we can hope its best bits will leak onto the internet before long.
“…Elvira was first created and performed by actress Casandra Peterson back in 1981, when she was chosen to host a revival of “The Vampira Show” that eventually became the original “Elvira’s Movie Macabre.” Peterson’s Elvira became quickly known for her distinctive makeup, sexy outfits and her sharp valley girl wit. During the ’80s, Peterson frequently appeared as Elvira on “The Tonight Show” and several other TV talk shows, as well as several national ad campaigns for Coors Light and Mug Root Beer. Elvira reached the peak of her popularity in 1988 when Peterson starred and co-wrote the feature film, “Elvira: Mistress of the Dark.” The character also spawned multiple comic book series, action figures, trading cards, pinball machines, perfumes and even a wildly popular Halloween costume…”
And so, inevitably, we return to the real horror – Christine O’Donnell. For those who live outside the USA or missed my “Thrill of the Chaste” blog post this week, O’Donnell is the right-wing political extremist who has been trying to persuade the folks of Delaware not to masturbate. She has a range of other odious opinions, including the far-right’s fairly standard bashing of gays, women and foreigners but, during a Fox News appearance in 2007, she also launched a bizarre attack on science that went well beyond its usual Darwin-denial: “American scientific companies are cross-breeding humans and animals,” she is quoted as saying, “and coming up with mice with fully functioning human brains.” Nobody knows quite how O’Donnell came to this conclusion, but some have suggested that she may have mistaken the “Animaniacs” cartoon series for a documentary on genetic engineering.
Despite her popularity among the angry and impressionable, O’Donnell’s nonsensical outbursts have led to criticism from saner factions within the US media. Her response? A campaign video that begins: “I’m not a witch. I’m nothing you’ve heard. I’m you.” Yes. That’s right. Christine O’Donnell thinks that she’s you. I’m pretty certain that she isn’t me.
So anyway, Elvira has announced her return with a magnificent spoof version of O’Donnell’s video. “I’m you,” she says, “except with bigger tits.”
The glorious Suraya Sidhu Singh, editor of Filament Magazine, will be running a women’s erotica workshop at the Ladyfest literary festival on 13th November. Here’s a snippet from her interview at the “For Books’ Sake” website:
“…Zak Jane Keir and I are hoping to answer the question, ‘Why can’t I go to a news agent and buy a porn mag for women?’ We’ll be debunking myths by drawing on academic research about women and using our experiences of the publishing industry to demonstrate how things really work, and handing around fascinating examples of women’s erotica stretching back to the early 1970s…
…Women are simply not taken seriously by the magazine publishing and distribution industry. The virgin/whore dichotomy is alive and well, and there seems to be a real belief that all women are the same. I would not have believed that the world were still so old-fashioned had I not experienced it at first hand…”
