Pete, thanks for posting the link to the POTC trailer. Man, it looks like FUN. I can't wait!

Sean:

[link]

In the wake of a public outcry against Los Angeles billboards and New York taxicab tops advertising the upcoming movie "Captivity" with images of the abduction, torture and death of a young woman, the film's producer said it will take down the offending ads Tuesday.

The trailer for 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End' is up.

deep breath

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Oh, that looks like fun.

I have no opinion on Captivity, as I've not seen any of the adverts.

but I see that as gender-based as much as sexual (if that makes sense--woman as weak and to be protected, not so much woman as shaggee).

I think that's a pretty fine hair you're splitting there, and a differentiation I was not making when using the word "sexual." My understanding is that (outside of possibly date rape), violence by men against women very rarely has anything to do with the "shaggability" of the woman in question, and is always about the other thing, and yet is still referred to as sexual violence against women. I've always understood the word "sexual" in the term "sexual violence" to be specifically referring to her gender, not her sexuality. And that was how I ment it when I used the term.

Sean:

Thanks, Dana. I'd seen a similar article in the LA Times online.

Torture porn skeeves me right the fuck out. I can't handle it on any level.

Torture porn skeeves me right the fuck out. I can't handle it on any level.

This right here is the lasting, hateful legacy of the Bush administration, and something I find revolting. Because of their casual, cavalier attitude toward torture, it has become far more common and acceptable in mass media than it ever was before he took office. I don't remember exact figures, but I've seen a number of articles to that effect recently.

It's why I can't watch 24 anymore. It's become all about the torture, and I refuse to participate, even if it is a good show.

In a movie where a man and a woman have been captured and are being tortured--if they're being tortured the same (this is a hypothetical; I don't know those details about the movie), is then the violence against the woman sexual and the violence against the man not?

It may be a fine hair I'm splitting, but I do allow for the "Well, I was only looking for someone to beat up" being different from "I, a man, want a woman to torture." Which is again different from there being a sexual component.

a degree of beauty or sexuality

her corpse draped in a sort of sexual pose

If the billboard is troublesome because she's beautiful and because she's put in a sexual position, I assumed shaggability was an issue. Otherwise, what is a sexual position? It can't just be a pose a man puts a woman in. What does her attractiveness have to do with it?

I feel the other posters I linked to play on sexual attractiveness and the forced vulnerability of a hot woman. The billboard doesn't play on that to me.

Don't get me wrong--I dislike the billboards greatly. And the idea that any kids passing by get to see an eyeball being removed is really not palatable to me.

I just am not being disturbed for the same reasons you are, and am therefore very curious.

It started with the Saw movies for me. I know that there are perfectly good people out there who enjoy them but I can't make myself watch them at all.

It started with the Saw movies for me.

Wrod. One might argue that a movie could actually be *more* suspenseful without showing some of the violence. (But, one might also argue that that would require some movie making talent...)

It may be a fine hair I'm splitting, but I do allow for the "Well, I was only looking for someone to beat up" being different from "I, a man, want a woman to torture." Which is again different from there being a sexual component.

Okay, now I get what you're saying. And yes, after reading the description of the film, the movie itself seemed to not be about that.

But I am just talking about the billboard, which I saw before I knew of the film's plot outline.

a degree of beauty or sexuality

her corpse draped in a sort of sexual pose

If the billboard is troublesome because she's beautiful and because she's put in a sexual position, I assumed shaggability was an issue. Otherwise, what is a sexual position? It can't just be a pose a man puts a woman in. What does her attractiveness have to do with it?

I was trying to answer a question you asked, and doing a really half-assed job about it, and was very unsatisfied with these answers. Which was why I took a step back and clarified specifically what I was talking about, so please do not get hung up on those specific phrases.