Tired of being told what
is sexy and desirable?

Write your own definition of sexuality!

Populate digital spaces with your own understanding and
meanings.

Start with a haiku

It is no surprise to hear that pornography
is big business on the internet. A
commercial research company estimates pornography as
a USD57 billion industry worldwide, with 12% of total websites
being dedicated to pornography. The lucrative pornography
industry makes it one of the main players in impacting how
most of us use media. From things like VHR,
digital video disks (DVD), video online streaming, to
3G
mobile telephone technology and iPods,
the porn industry has dabbled and pushed in money to see
which kinds of platform can reach masses of consumers. And
their preferences usually count.

The funny thing is, the reason they are
so powerful is because they have the power of consumers
behind them -- people who have the capacity to access and
use technology, to purchase content, or at least, have a
say in what is wanted.

The classic consumer imagined in this situation
is male. So the understanding and definition of sexuality
and desire for the purchase of this 'classic consumer' is
imagined within the same old, main/male-stream heterosexual
framework: women are seen as sexually passive objects, while
men are seen as sexually active subjects.

This is one of the problems with pornography.
What women want is dictated within the viewpoint of what
men want women to want.

A quick check on global statistics shows
that there are at
least as many women as there are men in the world, and
a majority of them has a higher
percentage of women in employment as compared to men.
What happens to our consumer power? What happens to our
capacity to define what sexualities mean from our diverse
experiences? Why must we leave this in the hands of men?

You have the ability to decide on
which technological platform or developer you would like
to support. Don't like porn? Find out if your telecommunications
provider is making deals with porn producers. Or use your
access to technology - however 'low' or 'high' tech - to
write your own ideas of female sexual agency.

Populate
digital spaces with your own understanding

and meaning of sexualities.

Haiku
is a form of Japanese poetry that usually has a pattern
of 5-7-5 sound units, like syllables. The first line has
five syllables, the second has seven syllables, and the
third goes back to five syllables.

Example:

Suppressing a yawn

Another pair of long legs

I switch off the porn

You can also write
a Renga,
which is a collaborative form of haiku.

If this is just plain complicated, or not
something you're into, write anything you like! Collaboratively
write a piece of prose, limerick, rant, dialogue… etc.

No rhyming or actual/pretence of talent
needed. Just have fun :)

If you don't have regular internet connection,
you can write yours offline and email it to us at ideas
AT takebackthetech DOT net, and we'll put it up for you.
 

Or if you prefer, add them directly to
the comments
section on this website.