Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.03.2007, Blaðsíða 6

10_RVK_GV_03_007_OPINION
NEWS | BACK ISSUES | PODCASTS | LISTINGS | REVIEWS
WWW.GRAPEVINE.IS
One of Iceland’s main selling points
has always been “purity”, a trait
on which Icelandair has capitalized
with the tantalizing phrase, “Come
and take a break from the world”.
Maybe I have read too much litera-
ture, but when I see Geysir “erupt-
ing” I cannot help but wonder if
foreigners consider us a sex-crazed
country. Furthermore, every ad-
vertisement from Iceland seems to
stress how alluring our women are;
beautiful, yet easy (in their heads
meaning sleazy and good looking).
It is not a stretch, considering that
some of Icelandair’s more recent
ads are pictures of scantily clad la-
dies, frolicking in the Blue Lagoon
inviting, one assumes, the male
population of other countries over
for some manic and wild nights in
Reykjavík.
Put these things together, and it
seems as if it were only a matter of
time before the porn industry came
to sink its teeth into “pure Iceland”,
i.e. at least the enticing escapism
of the country. Most people are
aware of the group of porn mo-
guls, including the “almost Icelan-
dic” (Western Icelanders) broth-
ers who, in their quixotic quest to
provide the world with porn, de-
nounced their Icelandic ancestry.
Harsh words indeed. Now it seems
that Iceland has been branded the
antithesis of The Netherlands, or
rather the culture of Amsterdam.
I consider this to be a good thing
because most foreign male visitors
are not exactly going there for the
windmills, Edam cheese, wooden
clogs and Dutch cuisine.
I think the same thing can be
said of the so-called porn confer-
ence. These people were not com-
ing here to witness or partake in
any Icelandic culture. They wanted
to talk about porn, introduce porn,
and maybe, let us not delude our-
selves, make contacts here in this
country. A porn conference by its
nature is not like any other conven-
tion, neither is a KKK convention.
Not that racism and gender degra-
dation are the same thing, they just
seem to stem from the same root:
A total lack of empathy for a fellow
human being.
Sadly, many Icelanders deemed
it appropriate to take part in some
mass hysteria of apologies by writ-
ing semantically horrendous writ-
ten comments on the homepage of
the conference, with more spelling
errors than sense. Are we actually
apologising to purveyors of smut?
What next? Will we apologise to
Holocaust deniers if they are not
allowed to hold a conference here?
Have we apologised for denying
Jews to come here and seek ref-
uge, or apologised for trying to ban
African American GIs from coming
onshore or leaving the base?
Certain phrases and comments
written by these people on the net
strike me as amazingly simplistic
and childish, including statements
that Hotel Radisson’s decision was
“a black day in the history of Ice-
land,” thus putting it in the same
category as dates such as 1918,
1783 and 1262. The history books
in the next decades will be an in-
teresting read if we ascribe to their
logic. Our grandchildren will read
about when we lost our indepen-
dence, “Móðuharðindin” or when
volcanic ash suffocated livestock
and humans, The Spanish Flu and
the winter when almost everybody
froze to death – and then the day
a hotel decided to uphold a moral
stance, at least under pressure. A
Black Day indeed.
Most of those commenting also
concurred that they were ashamed
of our government or that the
horrible witches of feminism have
brought this curse of Puritanism
to our country. Some even went
so far as to be ashamed of being
Icelandic. To them I say, why not
exchange nationalities? We could
get some people here from Sudan,
and you can leave for Sudan. The
hypocrisy of these people is appall-
ing.
When Falun Gong practitioners
came here to demonstrate against
Li Peng, there were nowhere as
many voices of dissent protesting
about the rights of the Falun Gong
being trounced on. Their right to
denounce him as a mass murderer
was annulled and made void by
our government. Or when the po-
lice here in Reykjavík took pictures
of Icelandic protesters and actu-
ally manhandled some of us to the
ground. That is just fine and dandy,
but God forbid there be a porn con-
ference cancelled. The horror! It’s
as though the Internet itself were
being closed by the reactions.
From what I can gather, the
individuals of snowgathering.com
seem to have taken offence to
our allegedly puritan society – a
society that seems to be too pure
to handle porn. And somehow in
their minds, with twisted logic, we
have become sexually repressed
whale killers. Imagine the headlines
around the world: “Keiko haters
kill off innocent porn conference.”
I highly doubt that I speak only for
myself when I say that “I love sex
and prefer that to whale meat any
day”. Hell, I don’t even consume
any flesh. So, how I can support
Radisson’s decision despite their
obvious hypocrisy? Simple. You can
agree with freedom of speech, as
an undeniable right, it just does not
mean you have to be the one that
is helping them out. Porn is a fact
of life, you cannot tell people what
to do; and Radisson does provide
porn at an affordable price in the
privacy of the consumer’s room. To
decide to cease doing that is purely
image control. But they have a right
not to host guests they deem inap-
propriate.
I hate generalizations but it
seems like there is a generation of
men that have grown up and con-
sider it absurd for women to be op-
posed to being depicted as money-
shot recipients. Imagine growing
up with your Barbie doll to aspire
to, along with your pretty pink
sheets and with a rosy dream of
becoming a beauty pageant queen
and then when you have the nerve
to question these things, being told
off for the audacity of being a radi-
cal feminist. It sort of reminds one
of the sombre tone that was taken
in the Civil Rights movement:
“How dare they?”
It seems as if a whole bunch of
males in our country have forgot-
ten the Icelandic Sagas, and in the
process have become snivelling lit-
tle bureaucrats, chanting in unison
chorus of spite against the evil and
manipulative feminists, those “ker-
lingar” that dare to oppose a de-
cent conference and free speech.
Are some men too afraid of having
female equals? Because there sure
were enough of them in the Sagas,
like Auður, back to whom almost
everybody can trace their roots.
Unfortunately, this whole dis-
cussion has become a farce, re-
minding one of an absurd theatre
with meaningless chatter in the
media, for example the chairman
of the Left-Green party, Stein-
grímur Sigfússon, has proposed
setting up “net-police” to surf the
Internet, with the emphasis on
curbing distribution of porn on the
Internet. This kind of careless talk
reminds one of a totalitarian state.
What next? Are we going to burn
the Marquis De Sade’s works, cast
the smutty Classics into the sea
and say good riddance to literature
in general? Goodbye disgustingly
rude Catullus.
Is there a difference between
visual eroticism and what is con-
sidered porn on the net? Defin-
ing porn is not as simple as some
people seem to think. The line
between eroticism, satire, porn,
literature and art is pretty thin
sometimes, but I am reminded of a
great little anecdote: If the Swedish
plumber comes over, gets laid and
does not fix the sink, well you were
probably just watching some porn.
All sex, no plot. Although that does
not mean I want the government
telling me what to watch, eat and
do. That is not their role and should
never be. It was not only feminists,
the Left Green Party, the Mayor (In-
dependence Party) and the Church
that opposed this conference,
there were many other individuals
who thought it had nothing good
to bring to our country. Bygones.
Let’s get over it. They will host their
conference elsewhere and Iceland
will still be hip if that is what you
people are worried about.
However, enough is enough.
Some of us are not huge support-
ers of porn, that doesn’t mean we
can try to get rid of it with censor-
ship and Draconian laws. Knowl-
edge and education are better
tools. I think we should give the
feminists a little more credit and a
lot more respect, but that does not
mean we will agree with this new-
est approach of trying to phase out
porn on the net and in shops. I my-
self prefer a more direct approach
in my sex life rather than the pas-
sive approach of viewing porn on-
screen. Sadly, that does not ring
true for all, a fact I was reminded
of when reading Silfur Egils on visir.
net: “What about all us men that
don’t get love, what are we sup-
posed to do?” How about watch-
ing less porn and trying to get out
some more?
No Love for Porn!
By Marvin Lee Dupree
upcoming concerts
F
í
t
o
n
/
S
Í
A

“One of Europe’s
finest ensembles.”
- BBC Music Magazine
tickets sold at www.sinfonia.is or tel. 545 2500
All concerts take place in Háskólabíó unless otherwise noted.
fl group is the main sponsor of
the iceland symphony orchestra
SAturdAy, March 10th @ 3:00pM
family concert
Conductor ::: Berharður Wilkinson
Soloist ::: Björg Brjánsdóttir
W.A. Mozart ::: Magic Flute, Overture
W.A. Mozart ::: Aria, der Hölle rache
Hector Berlioz ::: Songe d’une nuit du
Sabbat from Symphonie fantastique
paul dukas ::: the Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Atli Heimir Sveinsson ::: Intermezzo from
dimmalimm
Camille Saint-Saëns ::: dance Macabre
John Williams ::: Hedwig’s theme from
Harry potter
SAturdAy, March 10th @ 5:00pM
chamber music at the national
gallery of iceland
una Sveinbjarnardóttir, violin
Sigurgeir Agnarsson, cello
Anna Guðný Guðmundsdóttir, piano
Hafliði Hallgrímsson ::: Metamorphoses
Ludwig van Beethoven :: piano trio 1 & 2
Claude debussy ::: piano trio
tHurSdAy, March 15th @ 7:30pM
russian giants
Conductor ::: rumon Gamba
Soloists ::: tatiana Monogarova
Sir John tomlinson
Igor Stravinsky ::: Fireworks
Sergei rackmaninov ::: Isle of death
dimitri Shostakovich ::: Symphony no. 14
tHurSdAy, March 22nd @ 7:30pM
romeo & juliet
Conductor ::: pietari Inkinen
Soloist ::: Sif tulinius
piotr tchaikovsky ::: romeo & Juliet
Sofia Gubaidulina ::: Offertorium,
Concerto for Violin & Orchestra
Serge prokofiev ::: romeo & Juliet,
from suite 1 & 2
tHurSdAy, March 29nd @ 7:30pM
easter concert
Conductor ::: Hörður Áskelsson
Choir ::: Mótettukór Hallgrímsskirkju
Felix Mendelssohn ::: paulus