Maybe it's just me, but I'm glad the 42nd Street porn places are
gone. I always felt creepy walking down 42nd Street. Now a video
porn store has cropped up right next to my office on 35th and I'm
starting to feel just as creepy. Whenever I used to go to Jim
Hanley's Universe for my comics I had to walk on the other side of
33rd so I wouldn't pass right in front of the strip clubs. I'm not
fond of the clientele and I'm not fond of the commodification of
women's bodies. Of course, I'm not all that thrilled with
Disneyfication either, but given the choice I'll take that over
catcalls and sleaze.
Hey, I ain't a big fan of the porn industry either. But the
gentrification of Times Square has not done a damn thing to
eliminate the commodification of women's bodies in the area---it
has merely resulted in the same thing in flashier, shiny-happy
tinsel, from the blatant consumerism examplified by the odious SEX
& THE CITY (which ain't nuthin' more than a fucking product
placement lollapaloza that harms the self-image of women who ain't
got Carrie's body type or mucho bucks), to MTV , which has its main
HQ there (forget, for a moment, the endless scantily clad anorexic
bodies you see on your average Empty Vee vid, but these are the
same cooler folks who gave the world woman-hating and queer-bashing
EMINEN).
To me, the ultimate error of the anti-porn feminist movement---at
least in NYC---was making an alliance with the elitist theatere
owners who didn't want the "rif-raff 'n undesirable
elements"---that is, anyone other than white, bougeouis,
"respctable" suburbanites---Dworkin/MacKinnion and other anti-porn
types unwittingly provided a liberal, "politically-correct" cover
for their economic cleansing---which culminated in the
Dinsneyification and corporatization of the Square under Mayor
Rudy.
A feminist once said that the tools of the master will not tear
down his house. And gentrification is one of the tools of the
master.
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