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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Eastern Erotica

Posted by 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...

e.jpeg
  • The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife by Hosukai
If one has this in mind, they will see this recent Turkish ad campaign for jeans not as evidence of how the West is continually corrupting the morals of the East but as the continuation of a tradition that has all of its roots firmly and deeply planted in the East.

 

Comments (26) RSS

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1
i always thought that pic was from 4chan
Posted by Swearengen on December 29, 2011 at 9:30 AM
2
"the East"

Fucking love it. I love going to "the East"!

Posted by SweetDarkLord on December 29, 2011 at 9:33 AM
sikandro 3
Reminds me of Uncle Boonmee Recalls His Past Lives!
Posted by sikandro on December 29, 2011 at 9:34 AM
Michael of the Green 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!
Posted by Michael of the Green on December 29, 2011 at 9:39 AM
TVDinner 5
I'm in Spokane. Is that sufficiently east?
Posted by TVDinner http:// on December 29, 2011 at 9:43 AM
6
@5-- Actually, yes. Please admit fault for all the tentacle porn in the world. (claim it was teh meth talking!)
Posted by SweetDarkLord on December 29, 2011 at 9:49 AM
Supreme Ruler Of The Universe 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/
Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe http://yrihf.com on December 29, 2011 at 9:49 AM
samktg 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.
Posted by samktg on December 29, 2011 at 10:02 AM
rootwinterguard 9
Bert Cooper probably has something to say about this.
Posted by rootwinterguard http://www.askanatheist.tv on December 29, 2011 at 10:02 AM
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.)
Posted by Drew2u on December 29, 2011 at 10:05 AM
samktg 11
Also, the name is "Hokusai", not "Hosukai". Amend your caption.
Posted by samktg on December 29, 2011 at 10:05 AM
sikandro 12
Funny no one's complained about the West yet.
Posted by sikandro on December 29, 2011 at 10:14 AM
Lurleen 13
When you're trying to hawk ugly clothes, you need to divert the buyers' attention.
Posted by Lurleen on December 29, 2011 at 10:17 AM
venomlash 14
Uh oh, Charles Mudede has stumbled across "The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife", and will probably soon share with us its modern equivalents. Lemme get a drink.
Posted by venomlash on December 29, 2011 at 10:19 AM
Vince 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.
Posted by Vince on December 29, 2011 at 10:21 AM
biffp 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.
Posted by biffp on December 29, 2011 at 10:23 AM
giffy 17
I once went East for a while and eventually wound up right back where I started. Does that mean we are all East?
Posted by giffy on December 29, 2011 at 10:26 AM
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn 18
Has it already been a week since Mudede posted this picture?
Posted by Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn on December 29, 2011 at 10:55 AM
19
Yes, because Japanese women are sooooo liberated and having 50 men ejaculate on them shows how uptight whitey is.

Posted by Orientalist on December 29, 2011 at 10:56 AM
Foghorn Leghorn 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.
Posted by Foghorn Leghorn on December 29, 2011 at 11:18 AM
Fnarf 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.
Posted by Fnarf http://www.facebook.com/fnarf on December 29, 2011 at 11:44 AM
22
@20 I know, isn't it adorable? Mudede has discovered Orientalism and shall grace us all with its racism!
Posted by Zuulabelle http://www.mellophant.com on December 29, 2011 at 1:01 PM
23
@10 - the modern Japanese are not particularly prudish or guilty about sex
Posted by been east, done that on December 29, 2011 at 2:43 PM
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.
Posted by Brooklyn Reader on December 29, 2011 at 2:47 PM
Bigsfrottin 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???
Posted by Bigsfrottin on December 29, 2011 at 4:57 PM
26
How ethnocentric.
Posted by thypresident@gmail.com on December 29, 2011 at 5:05 PM

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