June 7, 2015

"Milo Yiannopoulos watches Emma Sulkowicz's new sex tape so you don't have to."

Writes Instapundit, who includes 4 paragraphs of Yiannopoulos's Breitbart article. I've read Instapundit, so does that mean I don't have to read Yiannopoulos? Can I get 2 layers of protection? I don't want to watch any porn, let alone some young feminist artist's self-porn. I'm no Sulkowicz fan, but from what Instapundit includes, I'm no Yiannopoulos fan either:
It’s revealing of her vanity that she insists on being filmed from four angles. Every crevasse of her unappealing naked body must be considered. Her congressional interlocutor is a gruesome sight in three dimensions, chosen, probably, to make young Emma look thinner. Which doesn’t work, I’m sorry to say.... But you do at least have to give an actress credit for doing nude scenes with a man who has larger breasts than she does....
I'm not entertained by the straining at humor that comes in the form of jocose phraseology like "congressional interlocutor." And criticism of Sulkowicz's body is counterproductive to any point worth making. But I do click over there and funnily enough I see that I still have 2 layers of protection. Yiannopoulos begins:
In preparing for this review, my researcher had to watch Emma Sulkowicz, a.k.a. “Mattress Girl,” perform fellatio on an overweight man eleven times. He tells me that he is now seriously considering homosexuality.
So Yiannopoulos did not watch Emma Sulkowicz's new sex tape so we don't have to. Yiannopoulos got an assistant to do the scut work. Why reveal that you don't do your own research? Apparently, it's to get off a stupid (and very old joke) about homosexuality.

ADDED: I see that Yiannopoulos identifies himself as "a queer." That makes the joke about "considering homosexuality" seem less homophobic and the criticism of the woman's body... different. And I'm puzzled about whether Yiannopoulos watched some or all of the video along with the male heterosexual assistant who — for reasons I don't quite understand — "had to watch" Sulkowicz "perform fellatio" 11 times. Did Yiannopoulos force the man to watch the video? Did he force him to watch it 11 times or did Sulkowicz perform fellatio 11 times in one video? I'm assuming it's one or the other of those 2 options because 11 is a prime number. I'm confused! I can't believe I got myself mired in something I was trying to avoid. I don't watch porn and I don't like to hear the details of what's in porn (unless it's on the level of David Foster Wallace in "Big Red Son").

IN THE COMMENTS: I wrote:
Based on those articles in Breitbart and The Daily Caller and some of these comments, I suspect that Sulkowicz's performance art isn't so much the video, but the commentary that will come out around it. She's making this happen. You are performing as anticipated. Enjoy being part of the show, you knuckleheads.

123 comments:

Mark said...

This a surprise for a story out of Brietbart?

Its like you expect them to have rigor or ethics. Not sure why you would look at their track record and expect thst.

Tank said...

@AA

Whether you appreciate it or not, I think tha author was going for humor rather than strict accuracy.

Skeptical Voter said...

I don't know Ms. Althouse. I would say that Ms. Sulkowicz could have used some professional help and made a better video. I live adjacent to the San Fernando Valley, the once, and probably still, porn film capital of the world. The reviewer complains about the poor production values of Ms. Sulkowicz's effort. There are any number of competent porn film directors who could have done a better job--lighting, camera angles etc. than seems to have been done here. You want a good result, you have to hire competent people.

OTOH they might have refused to work with onscreen "talent" that (from the reviewer's description) wouldn't make the cut in even a low budget (like $50) film.

Bay Area Guy said...

The yuck factor is off the charts with poor, clueless Emma. Doubling down in lies and stupidity will likely end up badly for her. Her parents must be clueless too.

alan markus said...

OTOH they might have refused to work with onscreen "talent" that (from the reviewer's description) wouldn't make the cut in even a low budget (like $50) film.

According to the director, the guy was recruited off of a fetish website. Fetish not named, perhaps a "rape fantasy" site? Did the film in 3 takes, wonder if they even had to pay the guy.


5 More Bizarre Facts About the Mattress-Girl Sex Tape

Paco Wové said...

At some point, it just feels base and vile to pay more attention to the foibles of the mentally ill, especially if you have no plan to try to help them. With Althouse as my witness, from where the sun now stands, I will comment no more upon Sulkowicz and Jenner, forever.

MayBee said...

I watched part of it out of curiosity and realized watching two normal people have sex just isn't that hot. I stopped because the whole thing is so pathetic. And I feel for the guy whose life has been made worse because of her instability.

Beta Rube said...

I wonder if Bill Clinton is miffed that he wasn't the first to invite a porn actress to the SOTU.

Ann Althouse said...

"Whether you appreciate it or not, I think tha author was going for humor rather than strict accuracy."

Is he describing the video or not? I refuse to look at the video, so I just don't know.

alan markus said...

At some point, it just feels base and vile to pay more attention to the foibles of the mentally ill, especially if you have no plan to try to help them

The bigger story is all the "normal" people who are willing to jump on her crazy train.

MayBee said...

Also, in california they passed anlawnsaying porn actors must wear condims. Sulking a has unprotected anal sex with a fetish porn actor. That seems unwise.

Ann Althouse said...

Based on those articles in Breitbart and The Daily Caller and some of these comments, I suspect that Sulkowicz's performance art isn't so much the video, but the commentary that will come out around it. She's making this happen. You are performing as anticipated. Enjoy being part of the show, you knuckleheads.

MayBee said...

Alan- yes. How on the world did she become such a hero? if she is a hero to you, how do you really see women?

Laslo Spatula said...

My Neo-Nazi Girlfriend who Is Not My Girlfriend and I are at Denny's, and -- as usual -- she is massaging my balls under the table with her feet -- when she asks me if I ever view pornography. I am not saved by the sudden appearance of a waitress bearing pancakes, so I answer:

"I've seen some, yeah."

"Some?"

"Some."

"Well, have you ever watched interracial porn?"

"I don't know, I --"

"--Surely you would remember if you saw a tiny white woman being pounded by a massive black man with a massive black dick. Or a white man eating some black girl's pussy."

"I'm just not into that," I say, silently urging on the arrival of pancakes, damn it.

"Why not?" she asks, her feet becoming more insistent under the table.

"I don't know, I guess I just like..."

"You just like..."

"...I like watching white women have sex. No real reason."

"Don't you think that's a bit racist?"

"No, it just works out that way, that's all. For me."

"Me, I don't mind watching a tiny white woman being pounded by a massive black man with a massive black dick."

"Okay..."

"No facials, though: a black man shouldn't come on a white girl's face."

"Okay..."

"It is just a matter of People knowing their place in things, that's all."

"I don't know if I can agree to that..."

"You're the one who won't even watch black people in porn. It is funny: the people who say they aren't racist seem to be the most racist. Sometimes."

NOW the pancakes come. The Pancake God has tired of toying with me. A bit late, that.

After we eat we head back to her place and have sex.She asks me to Talk Black so I say:

"Bitch, I'm gonna have your azz, real hard."

"Louder!"

"BITCH, I'M GONNA HAVE YOUR AZZ, REAL HARD!"

She tells me that my 'Black' is getting better.


I am Laslo.

Bob Boyd said...

So what is he saying? His assistant watched Emma give a guy head and thought to himself, 'Now I kinda want to do that."

MayBee said...

Althouse- I don't know about the eleven times. She does perform fellatio and kind is bends/squats toward the camera.

Tim said...

Only halfway paying attention here... but, Did I get it that this Milo character forced his staff member to watch the video? So is he not guilty of forcible mind-rape of an unwilling assistant? (break out the eye bleach!)

Just a joke.

Actually this whole thing is a joke. I have never believed in the whole "performance Art" meme.

Like the guy who cut himself on stage and blotted the blood on paper towels to send out over the audience, it is a cry for help from an unbalanced mind.

Guildofcannonballs said...

This was all orchestrated by Milo to get Althouse and Instapundit to talk about him.

Good job, law bloggers.

Those gays are crafty you know...

RigelDog said...

Wondering why (aside from antagonism) Milo talks about Emma being "fat." One thing I've noticed about the pictures of her is that she has really nice long, toned arms and legs. Looked to me like she was slender and in good, athletic shape. Now even that is "too fat?"

traditionalguy said...

Laslo to the rescue. He is the pan cake god who exposing the degree of silliness of bowing to any ideology of sex. It's supposed to be fun, not mass guilt.

Tank said...

@AA

You'll just have to look to find out.

Maybe you should before further commenting and criticizing other writers.

MayBee said...

. I suspect that Sulkowicz's performance art isn't so much the video, but the commentary that will come out around it. She's making this

Few people agreed to be part of this under her definition, "performance art". That's her story. The rest of us are living in the world, watching her be used as a real symbol by important people. She doesn't have our consent to use us.

kcom said...

Yes, he's describing the video. I assume he watched it at least once, but his assistant was tasked with the in-depth research (no pun intended, well maybe). I didn't watch all of it, but enough to get the gist. I don't think I could have survived 11 passes either.

It's straight up porn, so you shouldn't go there. It's very poorly done technically, too, which I can only assume was done on purpose, for the "art". Otherwise, it's just a really crappy porn tape. There are four angles, all from different cameras apparently mounted up on the walls somehow. The screen is divided into four sections showing the four cameras so lot of it is small, far away and indistinct, which is a good thing. I could be more accurate but I have no desire to go back and do any more research. Let's just say she has a body made for radio and so does her partner. And her accompanying text is simply gobblydegook. The whole thing is an embarrassment (or should be). I also couldn't help thinking of her parents. What does it mean when your daughter is famous for something like that? I feel pity for them. I would think that's not the dream they had for her when they raised her and sent her off to college.

Tank said...

See,Rigeldog did not watch the video.

Vox Day had the best comment, don't be a Breitbart intern !

Laslo Spatula said...

"I don't watch porn and I don't like to hear the details of what's in porn (unless it's on the level of David Foster Wallace in "Big Red Son")."

Being that I am not David Foster Wallace maybe Althouse should skip my last comment.

Or she could amend her comment to "David Foster Wallace and Laslo."

One or the other.

I am Laslo.

Michael K said...

"Looked to me like she was slender and in good, athletic shape. Now even that is "too fat?""

I watched part of it and they are both fat. You'd think carrying that mattress around would be good exercise.

My porn watching is pretty limited but I have been struck by the fact that pretty girls are willing to do this now, even some for free.

Emma is not one.

Tank said...

Incidentally, this mattress person, who has been parading a false rape charge around for months, deserves it.

MayBee said...

If there's anything you want to do and think you shouldn't be judged for it or made to account for how it affects others, just call it "performance art". Then only the rubes can object.

alan markus said...

May Bee said: Alan- yes. How on the world did she become such a hero? if she is a hero to you, how do you really see women?

Where do you think I think she is some kind of "hero"? As to how I see women, she is so unique that I can't correlate anything she has done to "womanhood" in general.

And it isn't just "women" that jumped on that crazy train - fellow guy graduates were wearing bands at the graduation ceremony in her honor. Of course, it was a "proud" mother cited in the article where I read that.

alan markus said...

By the way, May Bee, if I misinterpreted your comment at me, I apologize. Still working on getting the "flavor" of your comments.

kcom said...

Looked to me like she was slender and in good, athletic shape. Now even that is "too fat?"

Uh, no. The pictures I've seen of her previously were as you described. In the tape, though, she doesn't look slender and athletic. She looks lumpy and pasty and unattractive. That's why, when it first came out, I reserved judgment on whether it was really her. It didn't seem likely. But she took credit for it so I guess it's true.

alan markus said...

Laslo to the rescue.

He is the performance artist of internet blog commenting.

MayBee said...

Alan- sorry, I combined thoughts there. The "you" was a generic you. Not directed at you. I was going to make that clear, but I'm on a phone and it was too much effort. Totally my fault!!

Guildofcannonballs said...

By far the greatest success, do in no small part to our gracious host, in creating media sensations is the Fabulous Sarah Palin. She crushes the competition.

She has entertained conservatives by making irrationality voyeuristic in a real-time setting (cf. Andy Sullivan; Davie Letterman) thereby allowing peeks behind the Leftist's masks.

Very instructive. God Bless Sarah Palin!

MayBee said...

So I agree with you, it's crazy she got to be a hero. I'm wondering what people who see her as a hero think of women. Including women! Why would a U.S. senator see a woman carrying a mattress around a college campus as a hero?

jr565 said...

Aren't performance artists some of th most obnoxious people in the world? How many times have you watched performance art and said "wow this is really profound and life changing. And really great art". Usually it's more along the lines of "oh my god, I just wasted an hour watching something that I wish I hadn't watched. Not because it was disturbing and challenged my perceptions. but was boring as hell, and self indulgent crap."
A perfect example was in How I Met Your Mother where Barney Stinson, after being forced to endure an hour of Lilly's performance art was honest that he thought it was a POS. she was offe ended and said as a friend he should support her art and not be critical of it because he was her friend. So he decides to test that theory, and puts on a show of his own and make his friends watch it.

Lilly doesn't like the word "moist" and cringes every time someone says it. So his whole show is him saying "moist" over and over watching her face spasm. Then he has a middle section where he has a squirt gun and squirts Lilly in the face with it over and over.

Actually, that's pretty damn funny. Bless you Barney Stinson.But only as a critique of performance art. And beciase it was directed solely at making one person uncomfortable (which does have its merits) But imagine if you didn't get the joke and were in the audience. It would be the most excruciating experience ever.

Ann Althouse said...

"You'll just have to look to find out. Maybe you should before further commenting and criticizing other writers."

I did look. I looked at their writing.

Are you saying that I have to repeat their research before I can have an opinion on their writing. Like if some NYT writer reports on a war, I have to... what? Check it out myself.

Sorry, but I do not have to watch some porn before I can criticize some guy's write-up of it. I don't purport to know what's in the video. I'm commenting on the commentary, which I find loathsome.

Gahrie said...

Enjoy being part of the show, you knuckleheads.

Well.....it is an improvement over "splooge stooge".

Women makes a porno as art.

Man watches porno.

Woman = good

man = bad

Ann Althouse said...

Thanks for the descriptions, kcom.

MayBee said...

What do women who believe in the heroism of Sulkowicz think of men? I hat are people who promulgate the myth of "1 in 5" and "rape culture" think of men? Don't buy into the "performance art" excuse Sulkowicz gives. She's trying to take away your agency to criticize, and introduce fact over propaganda.

It is healthy to see men as a danger. It isn't healthy for girls to grow up thinking men want to rape. It isn't healthy for boys to grow up hearing they are so bad.

Don't give in to the tactics of The Cult of Rape. Don't think you can't criticz because it's "art"! Push back!

Wince said...

I don't believe that is Sulkowicz in the video.

kcom said...
That's why, when it first came out, I reserved judgment on whether it was really her. It didn't seem likely. But she took credit for it so I guess it's true.

Why? Her lack of credibility what gave her this platform in the first place.

MayBee said...

Maybe I should call it the Cult of Moral Panic.

JAORE said...

"Why would a U.S. senator see a woman carrying a mattress around a college campus as a hero?"

Because she believes invoking the WAR on WOMEN (dah-dah-dah-daaaaaaah!) is a vote getter and a profile raiser?

Alex said...

Amazing how Ann is playing you dolts. Milo is the best bet GamerGate has and she's trashing him. He's a homo too, but doesn't count because he's trashing Ann's precious Emma.

Feminism uber alles.

chickelit said...

Althouseman Talks Down To His Flock

Lewis Wetzel said...

Pretty much every single guy should video his sexual encounters. Exculpatory evidence.

Chris N said...

The 'personal is political' is a cry of monstrous totalitarianism.

Few, if any, sane, normal, reasonable people can be found anywhere nearby.

Inviting such ideology into one's personal life is madness. I choose to see a confused, more pathetic by the day, mentally ill or getting there girl who was also invited to the State Of The Union address for what amounts to probably nothing more than handling her love and sex life horribly, and then making a spectacle out of it.

She does art no service, she does genuine rape victims no service, and she may yet become such a liability that even feminist ideologues who helped her make her mattress will soon kick her off.

madAsHell said...

Wait!! She had to recruit some fat slob from a fetish web site??

She couldn't find some white frat boy.....cuz all the frat boys do is rape, and white privilege.

President-Mom-Jeans said...

Her parents and Senator Gillibrand must be so proud.

This whore's 15 minutes of fame need to be over.

President-Mom-Jeans said...

It's too bad it wasn't a snuff film.

Chris N said...

Let's say it's not her, and some kind of sad, morally vacuous meta critique on 'culture.'

Stop feeding the troll.

Guildofcannonballs said...

This is a link showing I can link fancy medical stuff too. Ha.

How does it relate to this post?

Well, to start, blue balls. Women used to think men were being selfish by wanting to ejaculate, yet science has now shown us ejaculation regularly helps prevent prostate cancer. Being sans prostate doesn't excuse a selfishness that leads to early death while preventing a modicum of pleasure daily.

Torts galore (connect the dots).

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Althouse said...

"I suspect that Sulkowicz's performance art isn't so much the video, but the commentary that will come out around it. She's making this happen. You are performing as anticipated."

Does that performance include... "I don't want to watch any porn, let alone some young feminist artist's self-porn... I can't believe I got myself mired in something I was trying to avoid. I don't watch porn and I don't like to hear the details of what's in porn"

you don't have to answer that.

Iconochasm said...

"Based on those articles in Breitbart and The Daily Caller and some of these comments, I suspect that Sulkowicz's performance art isn't so much the video, but the commentary that will come out around it. She's making this happen. You are performing as anticipated. Enjoy being part of the show, you knuckleheads."

You give her far too much credit.

Bay Area Guy said...

So, last night my buddy and I took our 3 boys to a high school championship baseball game in beautiful San Rafael, California - about 20 mins North of San Francisco. The wives and daughters stayed home - too long and boring for them.

The setting was absolutely stunning. It was played at an old Pacific League stadium, that reminded me of Bull Durham. About 1,000 seats, all behind home plate. Beyond the right-field fence were these beautiful green hills in the twilight dusk. Throngs of healthy teenagers attended, no beer, no dope that I could see. Many parents and siblings giving raucous support. I ran into 3 old childhood friends against whom I played in 1975. I ran into my old basketball coach who holds summer camps that my kids are now attending. Between innings, the loudspeaker played "Slow Ride" by Foghat from the 70s.

The kids on both teams played tough. The pitching was lights out - these kids could throw heat, and vicious curve-balls and change-ups. Our team lost 3-1. In victory, the other team stormed the field in a massive celebratory dog pile on the pitcher mound. They earned it. After the celebration died down, the teams shook hands and participated in a nice award ceremony, even though it was 10:30 pm by now.

And the girls. Boy, oh, boy. All these teenage girls, with long flowing hair, tank tops, plenty of smiles, laughter, exuding confidence, exuding health, exuding self-assurance, occasionally flirting with the guys, but mostly cheering on the team, with a few furtive glances to their IPhones, between innings.

What is my point?

My point is that there were no Emma Sulkowitz types, no mattress girls, none of that self-destructive nonsense that is taught and promoted by the Feminist Left in college.

What I saw was a snapshot of attractive, healthy, intelligent girls enjoying a slice of Americana in a safe, healthy environment. It's what separates us from the Commies and Muslims. There was no Leftist Commisariat complaining about the lack of girls on the diamond, or lack of diversity in the stands - it was just normal folks, in a normal community enjoying a competitive baseball game, that these teenagers had sweated and fought to win all season long.No different than 500 other Saturday nights across the country.

I wanted to tell these youngsters that their spirit and smiles gave me hope for the future. I wanted to thank the coaches and parents for their time and effort in creating, nurturing, and sustaining a great group of kids. I wanted to ask the umpires why there were so good and fair, why were they spending their Saturday night contributing so much?

If ever you're feeling blue about Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner, Mattress Girl, or the screeching nasal voice of Ms. Clinton, I encourage you to put down the IPad, put down the NY Times, have a beer and attend a baseball game this summer. It'll relax you, connect you to what is great about American culture, and you'll feel refreshed. Mattress girl, and her wretched enablers, are nothing more than outliers. Trust me. That is all.

khematite@aol.com said...

One line of that review is stolen (knowingly or unknowingly) from Groucho, who said of Cecil B. DeMille's "Samson and Delilah" (1949) that 'It's the first picture I've ever seen where the man's breasts are bigger than the woman's.'

holdfast said...

I think that she messed up the aspect ratio of the video - it's too wide (look at the length of that mattress), which makes her and her companion look wider. Agreed that in the pics of Skankowicz at Columbia she looked relatively in-shape, but here she looks terrible.

And yes, now that she's released a hard core sex tape for free, she's officially a skank.

Virgil Hilts said...

From reading descriptions of the film, it sounds like: (i) the camera video settings apparently flatten the "actors" making them look squatter, presumably making ES look chunky when she probably is not (presumably to give the effect of a cheap closed circuit system), and (ii) the fetish site guy they chose is really, really heavy and has a huge member (even, as I understand it, by porn standards). I get the artistic choice behind (1), but (ii) seemed a little weird.

khematite@aol.com said...

To spare folks having to google, I probably should mention that the man in DeMille's movie, mentioned above, was the famously large-chested Victor Mature and that the woman was the famously small-breasted Hedy Lamarr.

n.n said...

The narrative opened with selective child. The second act was gender equivalence. Followed by trans equivalence. It reached its denouement with selective exclusion. The awards ceremony for The Sexual Revolution will feature minor celebrities adorned with high-fashion mattresses.

Anonymous said...

According to the Professor here, the problem is not a complete insane person that engaged in months long campaign with proven false claims and ruined a man life- its that she doesn't like the reviews a homosexual man posted about said lunatic girl's porn videos. Strange priorities.

I love the fact that you start with the fact you don't like the author, but then have to add later in an edit that he is gay. Anyone that read a single piece from Milo knows that. So it must just be on ideological reputation.

Marc in Eugene said...

I 'know' Milo (@Nero) from his days at the Catholic Herald; he wrote a mildly amusing 'guide for journalists' who were covering Pope Benedict's state visit to the UK (was republished by l'Osservatore Romano, even). He writes mainly about tech stuff these days, including the incomprehensible GamerGate business.

[http://yiannopoulos.net/2011/09/26/covering-the-pope-a-guide-for-journalists/]

Lewis Wetzel said...

n.n. wrote:
"The narrative opened with selective child."
Apparently it is impossible to have a just society unless everyone is miserable and children are slaughtered by the millions. Where all the happy feminists and homosexuals and transgendered people?
Forward!

Skeptical Voter said...

Well kudos to Bay Area Guy for describing life as it is normally lived in a significant portion of this country--out where the buffalo roam and Caitlyn Jenner and Matrress Girl Sulkowicz rarely intrude. Sounds like he and his sons--and the young women who attended the baseball game had a great Saturday night.

But being ever helpful, and pondering the reviews which panned Ms. Sulkowicz's "performance art" I had another thought. Forget the poor camera angles and the bad lighting. Maybe the video could be salvaged if they just had a good script. And our very own Laslo Spatula is just the sort of "script doctor" [a profession well known in Hollywood---they can turn a sows ear of a script like Sulkowicz's "effort" into a silk purse] who might be able to salvage that video. Give Sulkowicz a new Spatula script, hire a cheap director from the porn industry, substitute a good looking couple (you can call them Sulkowicz and "friend"--it's make believe after all) and you just might have something.

I'm not certain what they call them (although they do get mentioned in the LA Times) but there is a sort of "Oscar" ceremony for the best films of the year in the porn industry. Laslo one of those golden statues could be yours if you just helped Ms. Sulkowicz out.

clint said...

"Based on those articles in Breitbart and The Daily Caller and some of these comments, I suspect that Sulkowicz's performance art isn't so much the video, but the commentary that will come out around it. She's making this happen. You are performing as anticipated. Enjoy being part of the show, you knuckleheads."

Nah.

She's an attention addict.

Just like the drunk who ends up drinking mouthwash or nyquil, she's willing to take even negative attention, just because she's frantic that we not start ignoring her or forget her name.

It's "performance art" only in the sense that she wants it to be noticed, not in any greater sense.

It's "art" like the fiftieth time some idiot pushed a pie into a celebrity's face, not like it was the first time.


"madAsHell said...
Wait!! She had to recruit some fat slob from a fetish web site??

She couldn't find some white frat boy.....cuz all the frat boys do is rape, and white privilege."

How very, very stupid would you have to be, as a white frat boy, to agree to simulate rape on camera with a woman who has a history of making false rape accusations?

Now, if she'd managed that... that *would* have been true performance art, and worthy of our attention.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I think a lot of "Big Red Son" doesn't stand the test of time but DFW's description of being in the men's room at the porn awards should endure forever.

Sebastian said...

"nothing more than outliers . . . That is all."

Unfortunately not. Outliers are being normalized.

Birches said...

I'm glad you picked up on Milo's "queer" schtick. It does change things on his commentary. His most recent viral article before this one was on circumcision titled,No One Wants to Live in a World of Uncircumcised Penises.

Fen said...

I suspect that Sulkowicz's performance art isn't so much the video, but the commentary that will come out around it. She's making this happen. You are performing as anticipated.

Riiiiight. Kinda like when a law professor writes something really stupid. She's just testing us or trolling us or joking us or something. Gosh darn it you women are so clever.

Etienne said...

I just don't see how you can monetize this thing. How do you make money on this, and if you can't make money, then what is the purpose?

I guess commentary for commentaries sake is OK, but it seems like a waste of time for me, when there are more active conversations about dieting and fruit pollination.

Big Mike said...

IN THE COMMENTS: I wrote:

Based on those articles in Breitbart and The Daily Caller and some of these comments, I suspect that Sulkowicz's performance art isn't so much the video, but the commentary that will come out around it. She's making this happen. You are performing as anticipated. Enjoy being part of the show, you knuckleheads.


@Althouse, your interpretation is far from being the only possible interpretation. And, based on your comment, I think you credit Emma Sulkowicz with more cognitive capabilities than she actually possesses. Not every woman is in your league, and you should remember that.

I'm not planning to watch the video because (1) I don't care for porn that includes violence towards a woman, even faked violence, and even towards Sulkowicz. (2) It's a purported reenactment of an event that may not -- based on the available information probably did not -- happen.

Can someone put me on the jury for Nungessor v. Columbia University? Please! Pretty please!

walter said...

" I see that Yiannopoulos identifies himself as "a queer." That makes the joke about "considering homosexuality" seem less homophobic.

It wasn't to begin with.

William said...

For an encore she should make a sex tape with Caitlyn Jenner. The Kardashians have already pioneered in the field of celebrity sex tapes, but this would take the art form to a whole new level.......Is lesbo porn more or less of a rape? Is a transvestite having sex with a girl more or less of a rapist? if you want thought provoking performance art porno, this would be hard to beat.

William said...

And hard to beat off to.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Even with distorted aspect ratios I thought ES looked perfdcy fine. A "normal" body. As art this film stinks. I don't think Emma has good mental hygiene.

LTMG said...

In 20 years one of the lesser tabloids will carry one of those “What ever happened to…” articles. Reading, we’ll learn that Sulkowicz, looking very much older than her years and retired from basement porn production, is working second shift at a fading fast food joint not far from the railyard in Akron.

William said...

I've see pictures of this girl at her graduation ceremony. She has an attractive, intelligent face, but there's something severe and humorless about her. She doesn't have a face suitable for porn.......I didn't see the video and have nothing I've read here makes me want to. Is my disinterest part of the performance.....I'm as depraved as the next guy and spend a fair amount of time watching porn. Nonetheless I have my standards. I'm not going to watch 50 Shades of Gray, the Kardashian tape, and now this. When I want to look at art, I'll look at art, and when I want to view porn, I'll view open.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Saint Croix said...

I don't want to watch any porn...

I don't mind watching people have sex. It arouses me, so I'm okay with it. This porn was arousing, and then it went violent and I lost interest. That was my reaction. Sex is arousing; sadism is not.

Also, I think she's physically attractive. I have to remind myself that she's mentally ill and I cannot have sex with her. It's a big brain/little brain war. Not even a war, more like a skirmish.

Saint Croix said...

I'm no Sulkowicz fan

Artists can be evil. Roman Polanski raped a girl. O.J. Simpson murdered two people. I still like Chinatown. Just yesterday I was watching O.J. Simpson in Naked Gun II: The Smell of Fear.

So I'm trying to judge this art, as art.

The camera is static and there's no music. It looks exactly like amateur porn. The "narrative" is that it goes from normal sex to violent sex. It does make me think about people in the porn industry, how lost and unhappy they are. It's a depressing little movie. But almost all porn is exactly like that. Arousing without being exciting.

She's interested in blurring the lines between sex and rape. That's a horrible idea in real life! And as art, it's even worse. She has told us the whole movie is consensual. So the violence is real, and she's in charge of it. I'm left with the idea that she wanted this violence to happen, wanted this pain to happen. And of course it then becomes impossible to separate her art from her "art project" of claiming that she was raped by her boyfriend.

How is a rape victim supposed to respond to a rape? That's one thought I had. I think it's perfectly okay to have a sex life afterwards, to have sexual urges and to act out on them. I don't object to her making a sex tape, although I think it's a bad idea. I think she's lost and unhappy, and I feel for her.

Another thought I had is that the man in her movie is as dehumanized as she is. I think I have a gender bias in that I'm more worried about her and her life than I am about this guy and his life. In the "narrative" he's a violent asshole. That's how she sees men, I suppose. But in real life, she's the producer. She hired this guy and used him. And her purpose in using him, I think, is to suggest that men are evil and women are sad victims of this brutality.

I see her as a manipulator, and a person who has a tremendous amount of deceit in her life, including self-deceit. Which is weird because the sex is real. She's not faking that part. It's all the rest of it that is fraudulent.

TreeJoe said...

There's some really good research into the long-term mental health outcomes of certain groups of people: two of these classes I'll speak to now since it's in the MSM - transgender and rape-obsessed (either rapists/rapist wannabees/or those who have been raped and build their life around that fact).

It's not good - they have terrible rates of contentness or happiness, escalated suicide rates, and in general a far higher degree of diagnosed mental illness whether that be depression, anxiety, insomnia, etc.

I resent what Emma has been pushed to become, though she made her own choices, because it's blatantly unhealthy. Whatever happened in her dorm room 3 years ago, this woman is likely to never move past this phase of her life and never enjoy healthy normal sexual relations - not because of violent rape, but because a cadre of people and her own preferences decided to build a shrine around her self-image of a raped woman who needs to fight back.

We can question her choices, we can question her motivations and intent. But what I'd rather see a focus on is the likely outcome that this young woman is going to spend another 50-60 years of life seriously screwed up because she hasn't been coached through a difficult phase of life effectively and has instead received instruction to make her life about a bad incident (rape or not, it wasn't a healthy incident, that's for sure).


Bill said...

I don't read everything Milo writes (including this), but he has his merits, which include courage. That's him in the yellow hair, publicly defending Muslim 'apostates'.

Drago said...

I am betting there are a substantial number of graduate school credits in Emma's immediate future, not to mention the inevitable radfem academic dept purchases of the film in question along with the required study guides.

Monetization indeed.

Saint Croix said...

Chickelit, this is awesome. It's like Althouse read by Screwtape! I love it.

roundeye said...

Emma is not unemployable. She has a job interview for a job she can make between 3 to 5 thousand dollars a day.


http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/620/912/67c.jpg

walter said...

Here you go William, pretty and smiling and porn-capable face?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204705446340950&set=a.3732072625288.2147212.1380180484&type=1&theater

She's pretty..messed up. Or just crassly working her lot.

TreeJoe wrote: "she hasn't been coached through a difficult phase"
Her parents have been by her side..both psychiatrists. This bubble is industrial strength. I wouldn't worry about her "career" though..don't see fast food..I see her building her "Feminist" credentials for at minimum, speaking circuit, more "art" and perhaps evolving into academia or any number of misguided non-profits.

Real American said...

Emma "Fuck me in the Butt" Sulkowicz likes to pretend to be raped. I didn't need to watch this video to learn that.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Okay. You guys got me interested enough to go look at the sex tape.

But it looked like they were in a doctor's examination room, and the four camera thing was distracting, and I started skipping forward, and I lost track of the passage of real time.

So I really have no good sense of how long the guy stayed in the saddle, which was the only aspect remaining for purposes of indulging my neurotically insecure and competitive need for comparison.

Unknown said...

You are a part of the show too, Althouse, you knucklehead.

Freeman Hunt said...

I kept wondering why anyone would egg her on and report on her so much. I finally looked up a picture of her. She's very beautiful. Question answered.

themightypuck said...

@AA If you think Sulkowicz is the troll here and not Milo you don't know trolling.

William said...

Both her parents are psychiatrists. Perhaps she's one of those people like Marilyn Monroe or Brian Wilson who were driven crazy by their psychiatrists. Well, like Lena Dunham and Caitlyn and Jean Jacques Rousseau, she's been able to convince a significant portion of the population that acting out her neuroses has something to do with the liberation of humanity. It's a tough act to pull off. You can't claim that she's a complete failure as an artist whatever her demerits as a human being.

damikesc said...

And criticism of Sulkowicz's body is counterproductive to any point worth making.

She made a porn. There isn't much more of a message than the naked bodies involved and the fucking.

I see that Yiannopoulos identifies himself as "a queer."

Openly gay and a very different thinker on gay issues.

Milo is a brilliant writer. Hitchens for a new generation. You might not get it.

Guildofcannonballs said...

They say that the battle plan changes after the first shots are fired. Plans don't cut it in warfare.

But my plans are changing from minute to minute, point-to-hoc.

kcom said...

Re-reading my description (and reading others) I think a perfect description of the ambience of the whole production is "security video porn".

kcom said...

"I don't believe that is Sulkowicz in the video."

Part of me is still reserving judgment because I thought of that, too. It could be a "trick" with a later reveal that it wasn't really her. Then the important question would be asked, "What does that say about blah, blah, blah?"

Of course the answer is "Zzzzzz."

kcom said...

As to her accompanying writing, it's just inane. Completely lacking in nanity.

As to Milo's writing, you call it loathsome. I thinking watching the video here would actually help. You can't do justice to what he wrote without knowing what he was writing about. I'm guessing, since the video project was the essence of loathsome, he probably thought his response was the right one. He was probably correct.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

BAG,
Good post. I saw the same type of kids at a scholarship awards ceremony the other night. Yeah, the Legions of Dysfunction make all the noise and get all the attention but, in the long run, they won't reap any of the rewards worth having.

Tank said...

@kcom

Exactly.

Anonymous said...

You quote Milo's negative words about both the woman's and the man's bodies yet you only criticise his negativity of the woman's body! Why the sexist double standards? Also, you have totally ignored Milo's other points, e.g. as the lack of books in a student's room. I don't see the point of this piece from you other than simply criticising Milo for criticising someone's body. This is porn, bodies are open for criticism in porn.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Damn! Now that I've read what the esteemed Ms. Hunt had to say, I have to go and do a google image search to see what she looks like.

WILL THIS LIVING HELL NEVER END???!!?!!11!!???!!!1!????!!!

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Well, I guess that's the sort of thing where reasonable minds can differ.

To me, she looks kind of like what my Japanese sister-in-law would look like, if she were batshit crazy, which she's not.

Different strokes and all that.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

That said, I wouldn't kick her out of bed.

Well, not if I got a signed release beforehand, anyway.

alan markus said...

The narrative with the video was crafted to disclaim that it isn't a portrayal of the actual Nungesser incident, yet the cameras were set to 8/27/2012, the date of the alleged rape by Nungesser.

Now, the dates have been blurred out (as was the male actor's face). This seems pretty recent, as there was a comment about the date within the last several hours.

Sounds like someone's lawyer has jumped in. Time to grab some popcorn and see if there are further developments. Maybe Columbia will be having something to say about the dorm room, if it is on their campus.

chickelit said...

Maybe Columbia will be having something to say about the dorm room, if it is on their campus.

I should hope so. They coddled and encouraged this monster. Time for them to own her and perhaps pay out a big settlement. That's about the only thing that will change a University's behavior in these sorts of matters: money and bad publicity.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Ain't it funny how a melody, can, bring back the memory;

Take you to another place and time.

Even change your state of mind.

A melody; can bring back the memories.
r
Take ya' to another place and time,

even change your state of mind."

Clint Black, Songwriter and Philosopher Extraordinaire; though specifically unaffiliated with myself or my avatar's namesake such. Were's they's as.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Fluctuating capacitivelyness over three years does scare me.

Makes me wonder why a bunch and such.

This is a link to "why you left I never knew".

MayBee said...

Completely lacking in nanity.


Love this.

Michael K said...

Great line from Claremont Review today.

"Our ruling elites are dumber than the Bourbons: they’ve learned nothing, remember nothing, and will believe anything. -"

Unknown said...

Imagine spending 6 figures to send your child to a University and ending up with a Mattress Girl. That said, I also suspect that these particular parents contributed to her insanity. Still, i wonder if they could sue for educational malpractice.

Unknown said...

I watched the vid. Emma has a bush. It's disheartening for me to realize that the only women left on earth that have a bush are feminists, lesbians, and/or completely insane.

I am not Laslo.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Apparently she wants Nungasser to lie down and get fucked without complaining. If necessary, she would like the administrators at Columbia who have the job of preventing rape and assisting rape victims to hold him down for her.

Etienne said...

I think it was Hitler, or maybe one of his Generals, who said that you can't really blame the officers with having sex with Jewish girls, because they are so sinister in the way of creating desire for them.

They all knew that they had to be ultimately gassed, but Hitler shouldn't have these officers shot just because they had sex with them.

This seemed unreasonable.

dbp said...

I wouldn't call Emma S. beautiful--she has what I consider a nice figure and a face that isn't quite pretty. The guy in the film is well-hung but out of shape, his moobs are bigger than Emma's.

Rather than four fixed cameras, they should have had one: It should have been operated by a human who could follow the action and keep the shot well-composed. As it is, you have three shots that are uninteresting and the fourth is too small to be of much interest.

Anonymous said...

Ann Althouse wrote

Sorry, but I do not have to watch some porn before I can criticize some guy's write-up of it.

I didn't read the commentary of the porn video. I only read your commentary of the commentary of the porn video.

In the future, is it enough for us to read your commentary of that to which you link, or will we be chastised if we only read your commentary?

walter said...

dbp,
I assume she was going for a security cam/voyeur look.
But what shall she do next?
For her next installment maybe she can partner with an animal..such a powerful metaphor..."This is not bestiality" or some such. How do you say that in Pig Latin? Or if she feels the world is against her, a record breaking gang "rape"...with lots of "Billy Boy" product placement.

Freeman Hunt said...

People love to see and read about beautiful girls who have been wronged or who are crazy. Most people seem to think that this beautiful girl has either been wronged or is crazy, so people will watch. Media perfect.

walter said...

Ann added:

IN THE COMMENTS: I wrote:
Based on those articles in Breitbart and The Daily Caller and some of these comments, I suspect that Sulkowicz's performance art isn't so much the video, but the commentary that will come out around it. She's making this happen. You are performing as anticipated. Enjoy being part of the show, you knuckleheads.
----------------------------

Ann..you "knucklehead", you.

chickelit said...

Saint Croix said...
Chickelit, this is awesome. It's like Althouse read by Screwtape! I love it.

6/7/15, 12:42 PM


I appreciate that Saint Croix!

Etienne said...

She looks Filipino to me. I wonder if her mother is from Subic Bay?

Jason said...

This post is meta to the point of absurdity. If Hannah Arendt were here she'd write something about the banality of meta. Even more banal than the banality of evil, for at least the writer exploring the banality of evil does not preen or congratulate herself for not viewing or investigating the evil head on.

Jason said...

If ever you're feeling blue about Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner, Mattress Girl, or the screeching nasal voice of Ms. Clinton, I encourage you to put down the IPad, put down the NY Times, have a beer and attend a baseball game this summer.

That option died with the DH, my friend.

It's over. It's all over.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

The stray thought occurred to me: Ms. Sulkowitcz seems to be indigenous to the academic setting, perhaps she might avail herself of the Evolutionary Psychology Depratment and they could perform experiments on her to see whether it's true that the glans of the human penis really does scrub the vagina clean of the semen of all the men who've previously dumped their load in there.

Testable hypotheses and all that.

She could call it performance art!!!

A TWOFER!!!!!!1!!!1!!