March 12th, 2014
The Daily Beast has a fantastic interview with actual porn “star” Sasha Grey. She no longer does porn–but she has a lot to say on the subject of empowerment, the Duke stuff, etc. The two best moments, however, are these:
(1) Talking about whether pornography satisfies male fantasies or empowers women, she says, “So, to say that porn only satisfies male tastes is ridiculous. I went to Russia and Siberia and other fucked up places and I’ve met tons of women who have told me, ‘You’ve changed my life.'”
This dovetails to an amazing degree with Dirk Diggler’s view of porn: “It’s not about me getting off with a million different chicks. It’s about how to get your wife off. If we had done this before, we could have saved a million relationships. I’ve saved thousands.”
(2) Grey has some interesting views about Russia’s demographic and political future:
[Russians] can physically relate [to me], but more importantly, I think I represent a new kind of freedom and ideology among a lot of young Russians that they don’t have right now. I think that, in the next 10 or 20 years, Russia’s going to change. The youth numbers are so huge, so I think there will be a cultural revolution sooner than we think.
Here’s a look at Russia’s youth numbers, courtesy of the United Nations Population Division:
This is an age pyramid and what you’re looking at is men on the left, women on the right, and 5-year cohorts (the horizontal bars). The longer the bars, the more people in the cohort.
You’ll notice that the current 20-30 year old cohort is the largest group in Russia right now–these are the kids born during mini-Glasnost boom. But “boom” really isn’t the right word for it, since this cohort is just a tiny bit larger than their parents’ generation. The really striking feature of Russia’s age profile, of course, is the 0 to 20 cohorts, which are incredibly tiny.
In the next 10 to 20 years, Russia’s biggest cohort will be approaching middle age and big demographic pressure will be felt in the paucity of young adults left. That said, Grey may be wrong on the details, but she may be correct on the outcome: Russia’s age structure does suggest a society that is not necessarily built for stability in the long run.
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Grey is wrong on the outcome as well as the details. Her prediction of “cultural revolution” is based on her assessment of “huge” youth numbers; the latter do not exist so the former (as she understands it) will not take place.
I do agree with your “not necessarily built for stability” view, and also point out that the age structure reflects such instability as well, in the form of war at the top, and political/economic chaos at the bottom. Meanwhile, the upper half of the pyramid reflects the pernicious effects of alcohol abuse on male life expectancy.
All that being said, as a former student of Murray Feshbach I must concede that a class run by Ms. Grey, while exponentially less informative, would at least be easier on the eyes.
Nedward March 15, 2014 at 11:18 pm
Sasha hails from the outskirts of the north Sac (ramento) and always trashes it whenever asked. Actually I don’t fault her there; drive about 6 or 9 miles up from the Capitol and along Del Paso and you’re pretty much in Mad Max territory