Angela Carter on representation
Working on the book today, I found this in an interview with Angela Carter:
It’s not very pleasant for women to find out about how they are represented in the world. They find out much more about what their real existential status is from pornography, and it’s very unpleasant. It really is. It’s enough to make women give up on the human race.
No, I didn’t use this quote in the book (I used a bit on specfic further up, because it was a most excellent bit). But it hit home, and I thought I’d share.
The thing is, we typically don’t find these things out through actually reading pornography (or whatever you care to call it, wherever you care to find it). We find these things out because the view of women promulgated by pornography leaks out into the rest of the world, including places it absolutely does not belong. I don’t have a personal problem with porn per se, though I’m aware of and deplore the myriad problems in its production. I have a serious problem with porn as a filter on the world I have to live in, and I run into many, many men too many who employ such a filter and either aren’t aware of it or will defend it to the death.
Bloody frustrating, that’s what. Carter captures that beautifully.