For those of you unfamiliar with this new original series on Starz, Party Down is the story of 6 former actors and aspiring actors, using a catering organization called Party Down to get by. Starring such cuntastic women as Lizzy Caplain (Mean Girls, True Blood) and Jane Lynch (Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, 40 Year Old Virgin), as well as a plethora of duuuudes, I've found this is one of few programs I get super excited to watch each week.
Beyond just being hilarious, Party Down has done a great job of negatively displayed a misogynistic husband, making the heterosexual characters into vocal queer allies, and keeping the gender roles to a bare minimum.
And then we've got the newest episode, "Sin Say Shun Awards After Party". Sin Shay Shun is a (fictional) pornography production company, and Party Down is catering their annual award after party.
Immediately, I am analyzing.
1. Right off the bat, we are faced with a conversation between one woman who was awarded "Best Blowjob of the Year", and another woman claiming her blowjob to be much better.
2. We see only female porn stars and only male producers, assistants, investors, all with adorned with female arm candy, profiled.
3. All conversation is revolving around heterosexual porn.
4. Roman, a wannabe sci-fi writer and straight-up nerd (played by Martin Starr) makes a blatant advance toward one of the women, and when denied refers to them as "stuck-up bitches" and says (paraphrased) "You'd think they'd be up for sex, they're porn stars!"
Many of these are left unresolved, which remains bothersome to me. Perhaps it serves to show that the mainstream pornography industry is so circulated that it's all that's noticed, with an uneven balance between men and women. We're gonna go with that one.
I am pro-pornography. I feel that anti-pornography comes dangerously close to anti-sex, and even anti-woman. Criminalizing pornography would severely limit the sexuality of women. I think this is a really good example of why pornography should not be criminalized, but rather strengthened and expanded to be more fully inclusive and egalitarian.
I have not seen the show (although I will definitely have to check it out now!) but I agree with your statements about the importance of strengthening and expanding pornography. One simple step towards expanding the types of pornography offered is to make sure that we consume socially responsible pornography and encourage others to do so as well.
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