ISIS Terrorist Propaganda Videos are like Gonzo Porn? Give Me a Break!

[Image:  Evil Angel Studios]

by Coleen Singer at Sssh.com Porn For Women

Look, I get it: these days, any manner of visual material that is any way salacious, spectacular and/or controversial, people like to append the word “porn” to it in order to make their point. Horror porn, food porn, torture porn, car porn, shoe porn, and now – apparently – radical Islamic terrorist gonzo porn.

I’ll concede that Simon Cottee’s piece for The Atlantic makes some valid points, and that there are some superficial similarities between the violent propaganda produced by ISIS and gonzo porn – the primary one being that they’re both relatively low budget, and neither genre offers much of a plot line.

The differences between gonzo porn and ISIS videos, however, are far greater in number and significance than their similarities, and to compare them beyond surface-level sameness is inane. It uselessly serves to demonize gonzo filmmakers, and does little to shed light on ISIS and its motivations, or to explain how their despicable propaganda could possibly appeal to anyone.

I’ll start with the most obvious difference between the two “genres”: in gonzo porn, nobody gets their fucking head cut off.

Gonzo porn directors also generally don’t blow up mosques or film themselves shooting handcuffed people in the back of the head and throwing them into rivers – but hey, if you think that two videos having no plot outweighs the fundamental difference between vicious, premeditated murder and entirely consensual sex, then knock yourself out: please do regale us with the many and varied parallels between the movies of John Stagliano and the works of that black-hooded British asshole in the ISIS videos.

(On a related note, I’m eagerly awaiting that black-hooded British asshole’s first off-Broadway musical….)

Some of Cottee’s comparisons in the article are clearly born of having no idea how filming porn actually works. While he’s not entirely off base to say that “making use of a single camera and only the most rudimentary editing skills” is similar to production techniques in gonzo porn, he strays way the hell off the mark when he suggests that another gonzo-like quality is that ISIS videos are “often filmed in real-time.”

If you are the sort of person who believes that 30 minutes of on-screen sex in a gonzo porn video means that the performers just plopped down on the couch and had sex for 30 minutes in real-time while someone pointed a camera or two at them, then forgive me for spoiling your fantasy: Gonzo porn doesn’t work like that.

What you don’t see in gonzo porn – because of that “rudimentary” editing that Cottee mentioned – is that there are frequent breaks in the action. These don’t just come when the performers change positions; they take breaks to do things like apply more lube, stretch out for a minute following a long time in an uncomfortable position, or to reestablish the male performer’s erection. Yes, that’s right: losing wood on set is a constant issue, which is why so many male porn performers use Viagra or Cialis as performance-enhancing drugs these days.

Where I do think Cottee has a point is in his analysis of the difference between other, older forms of terrorist propaganda and the videos that ISIS makes. This is the strongest part of his analogy to gonzo porn – but it only really works if you think the older, longer-playing terror propaganda videos are analogous to “feature” porn, and I’m not so sure that comparison works, either.

To be fair, Cottee is not making a qualitative comparison here; he’s not suggesting, for example, that it would be a good thing for Obama to float some drones over Van Nuys looking for gonzo porn directors to wipe off the face of the Earth with Hellfire missiles – or maybe he’s just reserving that recommendation for a follow-up article.

At the end of the day, any analogy we white-bread Americans come up with to explain what ISIS is doing or what they are about is pretty likely to be flawed and wildly off-base. Why? Because we don’t understand what motivates these psychopathic assholes, and we probably never will.

The sick fuck limey wearing that black mask in those beheading videos just doesn’t give a shit about human life – not even the life of other Sunni Muslims, despite anything he might say to the contrary. If that bastard actually made porn, he wouldn’t use actors; he’d abduct people off the street, rape them and film it. That’s just how he rolls.

Whatever you might thing about gonzo porn, gonzo porn directors, or the men and women who perform in gonzo porn, this much ought to be pretty damn clear: they aren’t at all like jihadists, and jihadists aren’t at all like them. Period.

About Coleen Singer:
Coleen Singer is a writer, photographer, film editor and all-around geeky gal at Sssh.com (@ssshforwomen), where she often waxes eloquent about Female Friendly Porn, sex, pleasure products, censorship, the literary and pandering evils of Fifty Shades of Grey and other topics not likely to be found on the Pulitzer Prize shortlist. She is also the editor and curator of EroticScribes.com. When she is not doing all of the above, Singer is an amateur stock-car racer and enjoys modifying vintage 1970s cars for the racetrack. Oh, she also likes porn.

Visit Coleen at Sssh.com for more sex news, commentary and hot porn for women and couples!