Left Behinds

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Monday, February 27, 2006

Military Porn and Torture

Over at The Notion, the adorable Richard Kim connects the recent military pornography scandals.

This confluence of events presents the unlikely but completely plausible scenario in which 1) military boys star in gay porn which is 2) subsequently used by military interrogators in Guantanamo to torture prisoners in violation of international law then 3) these same military boys are prosecuted for acts which are perfectly legal under civilian law but remain punishable offenses under a silly and discriminatory set of military policies while 4) the torturers and their supervisors get off totally scot-free. Ain't that America.

We've just got to include Jeff Gannon in the mix and we've got ourselves a bona fide military porn party.

I've been waiting for someone to discuss the strange politics and psychology of using gay porn as a torture technique. When I first saw the Abu Ghraib photos in news kiosks I thought it might have been some Eulenspiel Society zap or something. I'm not belittling their monstrosity -- I'm just saying that there's a surface resemblance. And if the torturers were more in touch with their perverse inner selves maybe it wouldn't have gone down like that.

Anyhow, I just can't believe that that "military porn" involved actual soldiers. Porn featuring "Straight Boys Doing It For Cash," "My Straight Roommate," and "Broke Frat Boys" are usually performed by such blatant queens that I'm sure not one single viewer believed these were real military personnel until this tribunal gave it its stamp of (dis)approval. Best marketing ploy ever.

Tags:news and politics, culture, military porn,gays in the military,pornography, ,national security, abu ghraib, War on Terror, gay, richard kim, guantanamo

3 Comments:

At 3:55 PM, Antid Oto said…

Somebody did.
At 4:39 PM, Solomon Grundy said…

From the top of the hierarchy ordering sexual humiliation techniques, to obscure web-sites selling war gore and pictures of girls next door together, this is a very sexualized war and it's damned strange, particularly coming from a regime that pretends to be an arbiter of strict sexual morals.

It's clear that the leadership of this country is extremely concerned with consensual sex between two adults but they find images of sexual violence and kinky torture techniques to be thoroughly acceptable among soldiers and useful to the war effort. This is a very odd perception and one that leads us back to the conclusion that something extremely unhealthy has invaded our body politic.

Exactly.

Thanks for the link.
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