there’s a salon article on rotten.com. Dr. Michael Wong Chang, the pseudonymous proprietor of BonsaiKitten:
“The dichotomy between exploiting ‘distasteful’ subject matter in the guise of information and exploiting it as entertainment is artificial and hypocritical. Lurid details of human fault and misery are published in the ‘mainstream’ media for exactly the same reason that certain people exchange this material informally — to titillate the viewer.”
what’s interesting is that there’s a strong link here to a reading i was just doing for my art history class (photography and the politics of representation). an essay by carole vance on the attorney general’s commission on pornography seems especially relevant considering that the commission employed just this sort of titillation as a tool to further their own agenda.