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Hardcore Lessons In Pornography at Brandeis

By LAURA MARIANI

Last time I checked, it was good for nearly one hundred million results if you were foolish enough to type it into Google, and it remained the number one search term on Boogle, Brandeisian namesake of that wonderful search engine. It has inspired controversy on campus and in the White House (that's whitehouse.gov, not whitehouse.com), and you've probably seen your share of it on the newsstand, on TV, or on your hard drive. I'm talking about porn, and you should be, too.

LAURA MARIANI / The Watch

At 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 8, a few dozen Brandeis students gathered around the North Quad AB Lounge. Many sat outside to watch the moon during the beautiful lunar eclipse that favored us that night, but for these students, November 8 contained a memorable appearance by more than just one heavenly body. It was the night of a North Quad event called "Porn 'n Chicken" (named after the Comedy Central movie of the same title), and there was plenty of both to go around.

I became aware of the event on November 5, when North Quad Director Rusmir Music sent an email to all North residents (including yours truly) advertising the free pornography screening and fried chicken dinner. This message, as well as fliers placed strategically around the quad, invited all students over 18 to come, watch porn, eat chicken, and participate in a "really important, yet fun, discussion." As I sat with them outside, people seemed to be really excited about the chicken, at least.

When I could no longer stand the near-record cold outside and hurried into the lounge, I was immediately carded by a CA. After proving that I am a mature, responsible adult of age 19, I was allowed to come inside. I grabbed some KFC, a biscuit, and a Dr Pepper, and sat down on the floor to take in the show.

CAs involved in the event had rented several videos from Grand Opening!, a specialty store in Brookline that is owned by sex educators and welcoming to female patrons. They chose to begin the evening with a scene from a movie called "Tight Ends and Wide Receivers", which, if you haven't figured it out, is gay porn. The scene featured a young blond guy who bore a passing resemblance to "Queer as Folk" actor Randy Harrison having sex with his wrestling coach. It was everything I've come to expect from "mainstream" porn -- horrible tan lines, cheesy music, bright lights, awe-inspiring pubic wax jobs. I had never really seen gay porn before, but to me it was more of the same old thing, without the girls. Obviously there were students present who didn't share this opinion, and some uncomfortable people moved away from the TV during this part of the event. However, I was impressed by how calm and generally respectful everyone remained, even during some potentially disastrous extreme close-ups.

We moved on to straight porn. An "amateur" movie about two couples getting friendly on a ski vacation included such memorable scenes as the girl brushing her teeth while having sex on the bathroom counter, and the guy who spat directly onto his partner's vulva after intercourse. While I hope to never see either of those things again, the more bizarre aspects of this video served as a kind of mood lightener. It wasn't erotica; it was a burlesque show.

The final movie contained what was described as "hardcore lesbian porn." We were warned that this was not the "girl on girl" material with which some of the audience members might have been familiar, and it sure wasn't. The scene we watched featured a strap-on, nipple clamps, and a little device that I've since learned is called a clit clip, as well as one obviously pregnant actress and one character whose gender was rather ambiguous. However, it also included the only use of a dental dam I've ever seen in porn, and such attention to safety that the strap-on got a condom, too. Many viewers didn't seem to appreciate the stars' health-conscious use of barriers, however, and left halfway through. They were seemingly either disgusted by the mild S&M or disappointed by the lack of bleached-blonde cheerleaders making out with each other. (That would have been redundant, though -- we covered homoerotic locker room sex with "Tight Ends and Wide Receivers"!)

The evening culminated in an open discussion led by Rusmir. I was disappointed that many students had left by this time, and the ones remaining were almost universally female. Still, participants in the discussion brought up many issues about sexuality that aren't often discussed in a public forum, and while not everyone spoke, everyone seemed comfortable being there. Topics covered ranged from masturbation to female ejaculation, but I think the real point of the discussion was just to open doors, to say that it's okay to talk about these things, because good communication is vital to personal relationships and openness is vital to a healthy community.

I met with Rusmir and CA Luda Shtessel, two of the people most involved in planning and executing the Porn n' Chicken extravaganza. (They also give credit to CA Rajat Singhal, who wasn't there when I visited the Department of Residence Life.) I wanted to hear their motivation for doing this, and also wanted a chance to take Porn 101: Eroticism, Pornography, and the First Amendment down from my bookshelf and put it to some use.

One of my first questions was whether the timing of the event had anything to do with one of President Bush's most recent proclamations. He declared October 26 through November 1 to be "Protection From Pornography Week" because "Pornography can have debilitating effects on communities . . . ." I thoroughly disagree, and thought that they might, too. Was this their inspiration?

"Well, President Bush is always an inspiration," said Rusmir sardonically. Yet the two had not known of this edict against "obscenity, child pornography, and child sexual exploi-ta-tion . . . ." (Hooked on Phonics breakdown of the word "exploitation" Bush's, not mine.) Luda explained that she got the idea from a friend who attends Vanderbilt University, where events like these have become a sort of bonding ritual for some students. To involve Residence Life staff and thereby imply that the porn has an official backing, however, seems like it might cause some problems. Porn in college classrooms and bookstores has been a source of controversy in the past, after all.

I read them a quote from Porn 101 regarding the use of pornography on campus, in which Berkeley professor Linda Williams states, ". . . . I was genuinely not convinced that undergraduates . . . could or should be asked to handle the anxiety produced by materials whose aim is to put you in the throes of sexual arousal. . . . if I taught a course on pornography would we not need to talk about what turned us on -- or off? Could we, should we, talk about that[?]"

Both of them seemed to disagree with Williams' assertion that to discuss porn is to discuss what personally turns us on. Rusmir assured me that his intentions all along were to remain "objective" and "academic" throughout the event. This was not an evening designed to titillate the student body, but rather to inspire dialogue about the place of porn in our sexuality and culture.

When I asked if either of them had received complaints about Porn n' Chicken, the answer was yes, but not an overwhelming amount. People responded to Rusmir's mass email saying that the event was inappropriate, but he says that someone else wrote to say they had no idea why anyone would consider it controversial at all.

He did say, however, that he was concerned by the fact that while sexuality organizations on campus do a great job of raising awareness about safety, "no one talks about pleasure." Luda agreed, and we talked about the fact that discussion of pleasure, comfort, and good communication in sexual relationships is an important part of educating. "That's a huge part of sexual curiosity," she said. She's right, and maybe the reason people are so curious about it is that almost no one will talk about this stuff outside their bedrooms. Well, these Residence Life staff members are talking about it now, and so are the students who were there that Saturday. It's a big step in the right direction.

Laura Mariani '06 is contributor to The Watch