Pornography and Sexuality
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Pornography was, for decades, considered as a subject that did not warrant any notable academic or intellectual analysis. Therefore, the topic is considered obscene and morally disturbing, meaning only a few scholars are dear to undertake the investigation and authoring of its discourse. Therefore, The Jaguar and Anteater by Bernard Arcand takes on a rarely chartered territory and dares to interpret the subject with surprising eloquence on the manner in which it can take an anthropological angle. The author navigates in the murky waters of pornography that are filled with private obsessions, public shame, and extensive media coverage. Even though there is showing the instant shaming of the practice in a different culture, Bernard Arcand insists that pornography is, in fact, a measure of time whose real significance is taken for granted hence rarely understood. Correspondingly, there is an examination of the different disciplines in which the industry enshrouds itself. From an academic perspective, the book borders on an expounding of the pornographically and sexualization mysteries as they relate to anthropological and ethnological settings together with ideologies of feminism.
The work’s merit examines the extremely profitable industry that has incorporated within it are notable levels of technological innovations. Hence, the author seeks to explain the reasons behind its very existence by using anthropological attracting its origins. The author uses data on the development of the industry over the years to its current state. This takes into account the history, engendered politics, and the perspectives that have come with the idea of feminism. Additionally, there is na inclusion of the explanation behind the development of specialized and more individualized modern forms of pornography. Arcand also does not shy away from expounding on the consequences of the genre. As a result, the author shows the manner in which pornography is, in fact, a hidden yet widely available phenomenon in the society due to the deniability of its existence in spite of it being a mirror of the modern society. That is, there is a perfection of provision for the public exactly that which they need, which exemplifies the perks of modernity.
What’s more, the loci of The Jaguar and the Anteater are the elucidation of the various manners in which pornography consumption is correlated with extremism, isolation, and specialization. Arcand draws his argument from a series of research studies conducted by social theories such as Lipovetsky, Lasch, and Baudrillard, among others. There is a variation of the opposing forces between modesty and desire and masturbation and inhibition, as portrayed by the overall societal expectations. This explains the total disgust that is explained to have been leveled by people toward an increase in the marketing of pornography hence creating a redesigning of the political control of pornography. On the other hand, anthropological data is drawn from South American tribal societies to portray the peculiar originality of contemporary pornography. Furthermore, there is the continuous seeking to answer the different controversial questions that come with the industry. Hence, Arcand bases the entire book on showing that beyond the arguments of death and the illusion of eternal youth, there is more to the discipline than the singularity of the masturbation experience.
The anthological account of sexual representation is related to given examples of the South American tribes. Arcand writes of the Sherente ceremony in which there is a dressing up as jaguars and anteaters. The community members enter the village dressed as anteaters while the jaguars stay on the peripheries trying to capture young women. With this strange mixing of two animals from extremely different levels of the food chain, there is a showing of the different sexual representation s within the Sherente. Arcand writes, “ If one wishes to be a great hunter and good eater, highly sexed and sociable, one must be willing to give up the long tranquil life of the anteater”(1993 p247). Therefore, there is a relation of sexual abstinence with the idea of immortality, while sexual obsession leads to the opposite despite it being a means of reproduction. For instance, their angels are represented to have zero gender reference because God’s immortality design is expected to show that they have discarded of sexuality as a ransom for immortality. In reference to the claims by Michel Foucault, contemporary sext is viewed as the discarding of the person’s soul for it to become the essence and nature of the human being. Alternately, the anthropological founding of sexual desires is related to set taboos and black and white lines that dictate the manner in which pornography is to be viewed. This means that the Sherente proposes that human beings live within the comfortability of protected and cozy environments as assigned by the models of pornography. Besides, there is ethnographic data that is drawn from other cultures, including the Tuareg from the African Sahara Desert and India. However, the central thesis is concerned with the manner in which, when juxtaposed, there is a departure of dealing with pornography and sexual issues of different communities from the Western liberal democracies.
Apart from the cultural viewpoint, there is the anthropological discipline and feminism embedded into an explanation of sexuality and pornography. Two arguments are presented in cultural research to do with sexuality. First, the conservative culture dictates that the industry is a violation of traditional values and is to be rejected due to its obscenity. For a long time, representations of sex that were not categorized as pornography were dependent on the surety that the sexual depictions were of redeeming social value (Arcand 1993). The classicization process led to a continuous self-justifying commentary on pornography that is meant to evoke appealing value and dissuade the shade of a perceived socially shameful illness. On the other hand, it is the belief of liberals that sexual desires represented in pornography are to be tolerated except in the event that they infringe upon the rights of other people. Notably, Arcand points out that the primary goal of pornography is the depiction of human sexuality in detail and sells it. However, with the evolution of time, Western individualism has changed the culture from symbolically dancing in groups to the more passionate lambada (Arcand 1993). Consequently, there is the introduction of the historical context where representations of sexuality over periods have multiplied dramatically. According to the feminist approach, the promotion of pornography is a form of instigation against women. For instance, in its entirety, there is a convincing society that women are meant for consumption and fulfillment of sexual desires. The author notes that the anteater’s stability comes from the erasing of the part of the sense of femininity that makes sense of women as beings of continuance and psychologically marked by cyclical time (Arcand 1993). There is push-and-pull in the communal perception of women’s sexualization due to the perpetuation and inherent embedding of the acts in cultural contexts of other communities compared to Western civilization. Hence, feminism’s politics remain relative to given variables in societies hindering the distinction between political interests and social policies. Noteworthy, there are conventional rules when it comes to pornography that is universally accepted, such as non-involvement of children in voluntary and involuntary context.
From an academic perspective, the book borders on an expounding of the pornographic and sexualization mysteries as they relate to anthropological and ethnological settings together with ideologies of feminism. Apart from the cultural viewpoint, there is the anthropological discipline and feminism embedded into an explanation of sexuality and pornography. The ethnological account of sexual representation is related to given examples of the South American tribes. The work’s merit examines the extremely profitable industry that has incorporated within it are notable levels of technological innovations. Besides, the book seeks to redefine the distinct meaning behind modesty, shame, and sexuality. There is no tacit definition of community set standards of tolerance, which means perceptions of pornography by the current definition of political and judicial organs such as the Supreme Court are at a loss in creating social order on sexuality through the use of social policies. Variables in the definition of pornography explored by Arcand in “The Jaguar and the Anteater” include religion, ethnicity, gender, geography, class, and race.
Reference
Arcand, B. (1993). The Jaguar and the Anteater: Pornography Degree Zero. Verso.