Eroticism, Pornography and... Zombies? (Part 2)

At the risk of having my blogs run long I decided to make this a two part work. As you hopefully know from reading Part 1, I was discussing the ways in which Audre Lorde's differentiation between the erotic and the pornographic can be exemplified by comparing her definitions of each to elements in the 1943 film I Walked with a Zombie. Before part 1 inexplicably left the reader hanging, it demonstrated the connection between Lorde's erotic and the film's Voodoo. So if my comparison is any good, then the film must have an opposite to hold hands with Lorde's pornographic.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from the lively Voodoo people is the emotionless zombie Jessica. While her outward beauty remains, she wanders without free will or an ability to object to operations and testing. She is reduced to an object possessed by her husband, Paul. She is, at first, considered alive because of her outward beauty... but only acknowledging outward appearances without the concern of the subject for the sole purpose of our own satisfaction and gratification seems wrong, kind of like a porno.

The sexual acts of pornography are done for money, not for lust (unless you count leaked home videos, but that's an arena I'm not about to dive into). Therefore, there is very little emotion involved. Sure they may appear to be utilizing one another's life force, but it's just acting, just like Jessica (get it? emotionless, acting, movies... never mind, I thought there was a joke there).

So why does this matter? Why should we acknowledge a difference between eroticism and pornography and venture out through the fields to find our own Voodoo dance of the erotic? Like usual, I turn to Hollywood for answers. In the film, the combination of the Voodoo (erotic) and the zombie (pornographic) result in the destruction of the zombie. I don't see how pornography could be killed, especially by the erotic, but I do think that an embrace of Lorde's erotic can have positive effects. Killing a zombie is a positive in almost everybody's book. Since Lorde describes pornography as an abuse of another's emotion, I think it's safe to say that eradicating abuse would be a good thing. So by practicing sharing in another's emotions in the way outlined by Lorde's erotic, we can avoid abusing another's emotions.