Slog
News & ArtsThursday, December 29, 2011
Hetero Eastern Erotica
Posted by Charles Mudede on Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 8:51 AM
It was the French philosopher Foucault who noted that the West as a whole didn't have something like the ars erotica of the Near and Far East...
- The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife by Hosukai
4
It would be SO COOL if the world were this easily parceled and understood! I'd love to be able to conflate Japan with Turkey!
6
@5-- Actually, yes. Please admit fault for all the tentacle porn in the world. (claim it was teh meth talking!)
7
If you think things are bad in the US, I just clicked on the NYTimes hyperlink for "Global Edition" and you know what I found out? That the Rest of the World is a hellhole...I left that section in like 30s !
http://global.nytimes.com/
http://global.nytimes.com/
8
Charles, it's not very nice to flatten a variety of disparate cultures into a single entity, like "The East". In my field, we call that primitivism (this being of the Orientalist brand), and we frown on modern thinkers who perpetuate it. Really, you know better.
10
Wasn't it because of the Portuguese visiting Japan that helped to push a more prudish and guilty view of sex?
Then again, I think I remember from my art history classes that prints like the above were not uncommon, but to control the populace, some emperor outlawed those prints (but as these things go, they just moved underground and popped up again a few decades or so later.)
Then again, I think I remember from my art history classes that prints like the above were not uncommon, but to control the populace, some emperor outlawed those prints (but as these things go, they just moved underground and popped up again a few decades or so later.)
15
Just looks like bad porn to me. Erotic? I have some prints I bought at The Traveler from India where it shows classic figures in full on intercourse that are quite lovely framed.
I wouldn't frame this jeans ad.
I wouldn't frame this jeans ad.
16
@7, in relative terms, the US is looking a little better than the rest of the world. It's an opportunity to do the planning and investment required for the US to continue to be a superpower, but the politicians are going to spend the year working on a two-party election.
17
I once went East for a while and eventually wound up right back where I started. Does that mean we are all East?
19
Yes, because Japanese women are sooooo liberated and having 50 men ejaculate on them shows how uptight whitey is.
20
Awww looks like Chuckles has read Orientalism and thought "That Far East place sounds awesome!" I mean, really we've got fully clothed Turkish advertising featuring kama sutra positions from India, which is clearly just like the centuries old 'Dream of the Fisherman's Wife' from Japan. East is East, after all.
Really what's interesting is the sort of global capitalism we live in that results in the commercialization of tantric imagery to appear just "risque" enough to cause a stir in both Turkey and the greater internetz.
Or you know, octopussy.
Really what's interesting is the sort of global capitalism we live in that results in the commercialization of tantric imagery to appear just "risque" enough to cause a stir in both Turkey and the greater internetz.
Or you know, octopussy.
21
What makes the ads interesting is that they are a shot in the current political and cultural war between the Islamic extremists and the Westernized moderates. Turks live this conflict every day. I hope this is a sign that fundamentalism is losing.
As far as I'm concerned, though, "The East" begins at I-5.
As far as I'm concerned, though, "The East" begins at I-5.
22
@20 I know, isn't it adorable? Mudede has discovered Orientalism and shall grace us all with its racism!
24
Ahhh... "recent." What's in a name? ...
I suppose it's more recent than The Fisherman's Wife, but the jeans ads article was posted in 2007, which is several orders of magnitude less recent than things usually discussed as "recent" in Slog.
I suppose it's more recent than The Fisherman's Wife, but the jeans ads article was posted in 2007, which is several orders of magnitude less recent than things usually discussed as "recent" in Slog.
25
All I could think when I looked at those photos was how awfully unstylish the clothing was. You can't cover up bad jeans with sexual positioning. Am I right???
Advertisement
Most Commented on Slog
-
Hating People Doesn't Make Them Thinner by Jen Graves
-
Los Angeles Gay Bar Bans Bachelorette Parties Until Marriage Equality Is Attained by David Schmader
-
Fill in the Blank by Grant Brissey
-
This Reminds Me of the Great Calculator Scare of the Late '70s/Early '80s by David Schmader
-
Idiot Tries to Defend Bigoted Anti-Gay-Marriage Preacher on Anderson Cooper by Paul Constant
-
Six Moms with Too Much Time on Their Hands and a Shitty Website Decide to Fight Gay Superheroes by Paul Constant
-
What the Hell Is Wrong With Seattle's Pride Parade? by Dominic Holden
-
The Saturday Morning News by Unpaid Intern
-
Why Mayor McGinn's Wife Canceled Her Family's Seattle Times Subscription by Eli Sanders
-
The Sunday Morning News by Unpaid Intern
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Comments (26) RSS