Porn As Drug Of Choice 2

You know, I guess I'll just go right out and say it:

I don't mind porn (and this post was inspired by YOU, sashi, so I'm hoping to hell you're reading this).

Okay, so I lied. Jikon's little rant had a part to play in this post too, so there.

Sure this makes me somewhat disgusting, perhaps, but seriously any red-blooded male (or at least one with a working penis) will be at least intrigued by the premise of seeing naked women (men optional) frolicking on screen, no matter what he tells you, girls. And before any of you start pointing fingers and calling me a demeaning, misogynist bastard, this post is not meant to justify anyone's habit of buying or watching said material, or even the act of producing it.

This post is about how even a casual watcher of porn such as myself has limits. I won't lie here, folks. I've bought enough porn to stock a third world country, and you know what? Almost all of it wasn't for me. I admit I had some stock of my own, but they were mostly for people who didn't have the gumption (also pronounced balls) to buy their own for fear of violating some obscure religious tenet that forbids them from actually physically buying the stuff or (more probably) the fear of being found out by their girlfriends who think they're such angels.

Maybe it's because I've never really been bothered with it. Whatever the cause, I've been around the block (remember when Petaling Street actually sold porn on VHS?) and I'd like to think I've seen every conceivable type of porn out there with the notable exception of the near-mythical snuff film (for the uninitiated, snuff films purporterdly show people actually being killed). Yup, if it involves naked women performing sexual congress with various animate/inanimate objects and/or living creatures, I've probably seen it (though I can't say I'm actually better off doing that).

The thing about the porn distributors in Malaysia is, they're damn perceptive on what's hot at the moment. So when the whole "Kisah pramugara terlampau" and other Malaysian artistes/students engaging in hanky panky were being splashed all over the papers, you would be accosted by peddlers touting the latest pelajar sekolah, datin xxx and even Siti Nurhaliza porn videos. Most of these were fakes of course, Thai/Indonesian productions cleverly masked with Malaysian music and different covers. Still, a lot of people fell for them, and such being the nature of the content, who would dare complain?

Yes, I've seen the authentic ones (these were passed to me by people I know) including the ex-steward, the supposed Datin, a popular actress and the model spycammed in her home, and honestly if you were really hard up, all you need to do is fire up your favourite P2P app and type in amateurs, or summat. Real Malaysian porn (though it exists) is very small in number, perhaps because most of them are now stored in hard disks. This shameless usage of celebrities' names is something we're not unfamiliar with (and honestly, doesn't it intrigue you to know what a particular celeb does on his/her own time?) but I think the line has to be drawn when it involves a dead person.


One could argue that the whole idea behind porn is the dehumanisation of the actors/actresses. We turn them into objects, stripped of their names and personalities. They exist purely as sexual creatures, and our actions are somehow excused (weak though this is). When people willingly tape themselves for the purpose of making money (and these can be big productions indeed) it's one thing.

But when the late Noritta's name is now part of a marketing ploy by our vendors to push some other VCDs, it's another. So yes her name's been splashed all over our dailies, and what we can read from them alone would make Judith Krantz blush. But no matter how promiscuous she may have been in life (and regardless if it's really her on the discs), if you're reading this and you later get offered to buy a copy of it, please. Decline.

There are other movies out there. It's a matter of taste, really. There is a line between crass sensationalism and marketing, and this reeks profusely of the former. Maybe it would be better if we stopped buying porn altogether (it's been a year and a half since I last bought any, and I don't miss it THAT much).

So yes. As contradictory as this may be, if you do purchase porn, at least make sure it's not some shoddy rip off preying on your curiosity. It's terrible, really.