I hear a lot of people call AW a 'porn' site, but I really don't see it that way. It's too different.
I want to believe that there are people who find people--the way they naturally are--beautiful and sexy. I think this site's success is evidence that there are people like that out there. In the USA especially, there is this undercurrent in society, that a woman has to put on a costume to be sexy. And she has to look a certain way to be beautiful--hence all the plastic surgery. To me, that obscures the true beauty.
I don't know that I'd even call AW porn. The film Boogie Nights is sort of an eulogy for pornography that came close to being infused with artistry. It shows the "cum drenched sluts" / "fellating dildos" / "extreme[r] sex" world overtake those filmmaker with artistic consciences--and even subverted some of them. I think there's something there. Porn as the word is used today, is synonymous with sexual-exploitation of women. AW isn't porn. Maybe it's "porno". It seems like people used the word "porno" up through the 70s to describe all erotic content--this was certainly better than the 80s stuff. By the 80's everything became one-syllable: rad, ... porn.
But I don't think AW is porno either--nor is ishotmyself.com for that matter. Porno may be superficially better than porn as a word... But, even though the artistic vision that fizzled with the consumerism ("I want more") of the 80s, that artistic vision was very much the product of a male-centric world. There was a brief period (corresponding with 3rd wave feminism) where films were made with the idea of "I can do all these demeaning things, but I can reclaim them as empowering because it's what >I< want to do." It was an inspiring philosophy (except for the demeaning things part), but I think it never really was put into practice. (Like how there's never actually been Communism in Russia--at least as Marx taught it.)
So here, we are pornography... literally in greek: "pornos = dirty", "graphos = words" .. but somehow graphos gave us words for pictures like "graphic".. Some ancient authors supposed used the word 'pornography' to refer to 'writings about prostitutes,' but that's a little sketchy. Those words dont seem to fit this new movement trajectory in erotic art that seemingly is spiraling out of Australia. The underlying philosophy seems completely different than what we've seen.
Before: scripted, costumed, exploitative, tendency towards the extreme (cum drenched sluts, 100 person gangbang, etc.)
AW: no-scripts, natural, not obscuring supposed flaws but celebrating them instead, making erotic art not synonymous with 'filthy' but rather with something real and beautiful.
So, I hope this IS a trend in the world. Thanks, Abby.
-- Oh and a little random history on how I came to find this site: --
I used to use www.pictureview.com and then switched to www.diiva.com (since instead of going only several weeks back, it seems to keep pictures in its archives for a really long time). Then I discovered AbbyWinters.com by using the newsgroups. And I also discovered ishotmyself.com there too. Oddly, these are the only specifically porn sites I ever have suscribed to. I'd never seen such raw, real erotic art before AW--I'd have to subscribe. And honestly, all the while it stimulates your sexual impulses, there's something that makes you go.. wow--that's beautiful. [And why, pray tell, should it be surpirsing that sexual impulses and beauty go together? I think we're taught as children that nudity and sexuality is dirty and that's hard to get past.]
And, after a while as an AW subscriber, I was poking around usenet again, and found ishotmyself.com -- and I thought to myself, wow-- this is some really good raw stuff too! AW might have some competition. (Of course, on further investigation, I found it was quite different in form and purpose, and not 'competition'.) Little did I know that there was any connection of ishotmyself.com to abbywinters.com until I started paying closer attention to what countries people were from, and I did a search on the forums here. So anyway, good to be here.
Also, check out the entry at wikipedia.com on Abby Winters. It may need some revising -- but anyone can revise anything on Wikipedia.
-Jay
incidentally-- somehow the [backup?] billing system automatically set me up with a silly user name (AceFreely?) .. is there any way to change this? .. Maybe I accidentally clicked when i should have clacked.
I want to believe that there are people who find people--the way they naturally are--beautiful and sexy. I think this site's success is evidence that there are people like that out there. In the USA especially, there is this undercurrent in society, that a woman has to put on a costume to be sexy. And she has to look a certain way to be beautiful--hence all the plastic surgery. To me, that obscures the true beauty.
I don't know that I'd even call AW porn. The film Boogie Nights is sort of an eulogy for pornography that came close to being infused with artistry. It shows the "cum drenched sluts" / "fellating dildos" / "extreme[r] sex" world overtake those filmmaker with artistic consciences--and even subverted some of them. I think there's something there. Porn as the word is used today, is synonymous with sexual-exploitation of women. AW isn't porn. Maybe it's "porno". It seems like people used the word "porno" up through the 70s to describe all erotic content--this was certainly better than the 80s stuff. By the 80's everything became one-syllable: rad, ... porn.
But I don't think AW is porno either--nor is ishotmyself.com for that matter. Porno may be superficially better than porn as a word... But, even though the artistic vision that fizzled with the consumerism ("I want more") of the 80s, that artistic vision was very much the product of a male-centric world. There was a brief period (corresponding with 3rd wave feminism) where films were made with the idea of "I can do all these demeaning things, but I can reclaim them as empowering because it's what >I< want to do." It was an inspiring philosophy (except for the demeaning things part), but I think it never really was put into practice. (Like how there's never actually been Communism in Russia--at least as Marx taught it.)
So here, we are pornography... literally in greek: "pornos = dirty", "graphos = words" .. but somehow graphos gave us words for pictures like "graphic".. Some ancient authors supposed used the word 'pornography' to refer to 'writings about prostitutes,' but that's a little sketchy. Those words dont seem to fit this new movement trajectory in erotic art that seemingly is spiraling out of Australia. The underlying philosophy seems completely different than what we've seen.
Before: scripted, costumed, exploitative, tendency towards the extreme (cum drenched sluts, 100 person gangbang, etc.)
AW: no-scripts, natural, not obscuring supposed flaws but celebrating them instead, making erotic art not synonymous with 'filthy' but rather with something real and beautiful.
So, I hope this IS a trend in the world. Thanks, Abby.
-- Oh and a little random history on how I came to find this site: --
I used to use www.pictureview.com and then switched to www.diiva.com (since instead of going only several weeks back, it seems to keep pictures in its archives for a really long time). Then I discovered AbbyWinters.com by using the newsgroups. And I also discovered ishotmyself.com there too. Oddly, these are the only specifically porn sites I ever have suscribed to. I'd never seen such raw, real erotic art before AW--I'd have to subscribe. And honestly, all the while it stimulates your sexual impulses, there's something that makes you go.. wow--that's beautiful. [And why, pray tell, should it be surpirsing that sexual impulses and beauty go together? I think we're taught as children that nudity and sexuality is dirty and that's hard to get past.]
And, after a while as an AW subscriber, I was poking around usenet again, and found ishotmyself.com -- and I thought to myself, wow-- this is some really good raw stuff too! AW might have some competition. (Of course, on further investigation, I found it was quite different in form and purpose, and not 'competition'.) Little did I know that there was any connection of ishotmyself.com to abbywinters.com until I started paying closer attention to what countries people were from, and I did a search on the forums here. So anyway, good to be here.
Also, check out the entry at wikipedia.com on Abby Winters. It may need some revising -- but anyone can revise anything on Wikipedia.
-Jay
incidentally-- somehow the [backup?] billing system automatically set me up with a silly user name (AceFreely?) .. is there any way to change this? .. Maybe I accidentally clicked when i should have clacked.
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