‘Deeply demoralizing’: Zizek on birth-streaming Aussie porn star & false authenticity

Mankind is one step closer to total depravity now, philosopher Slavoj Zizek said about the news that an Aussie porn star will sell a video of her giving birth. He added that clear moral basis is needed for humanity to stay afloat.

The news of an Australian porn star, Tyi Starr, announcing she would stream the very moment she would give birth to her child has recently hit the headlines and sparked indignation. The porn star herself says that she does not perceive her actions as “wrong” and has no need to defend them.

RT has spoken about the latest tendencies in the domain of public morality with the Slovenian cultural philosopher Slavoj Zizek.

Nothing socially oppressive about some form of shame

A porn star making her birthing public it is a deeply demoralizing gesture. It is not even that much a commercial gesture, but a gesture that introduces society with no sense of shame. More than guilt or any other feeling, shame is a basic human feeling.

I still believe in manners. There are things you do not talk about publicly. There are things, at least in our social situation, which are not meant to be disclosed publicly. In the US there are already people who have garnered support by claiming that women should have their breasts bare. Why cover them? It is just to make a mystery out of breasts to attract male gaze. So, the idea is: ‘we have nothing to hide, let’s open it.’

Some made a step further and said: ‘let’s not mystify periods’. They claim that the fact that women are keeping it private is male oppression. I just wonder where this will stop.

There is nothing socially oppressive about some form of shame. Oppressive society for me is not the one where there are certain prohibitions making you keep some things for yourself. They are simply a part of some notion of dignity and I do not think it is social oppression.

What worries me much more is this idea of false authenticity. Some people believe that if you show ever intimate details of your life this is somehow sincere openness.

State should regulate what people may or may not commercialize

We all fight within ourselves by following our good and bad tendencies and I sincerely believe that good manners make us better. That is why I am incidentally horrified by the latest trends in politics represented in particular by US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which allow politicians to be publicly vulgar.

It is typical for modern capitalism that everything should be brought out into the open to make people applaud. Why some people like politicians like Trump? He openly says all the racist and sexist obscenities that we are ashamed to say. I think it is very sad. It is a debasement of our common morality. At this level, I prefer China over the US because in China there are strict limits of what you can do in public. This element of shame is a condition of our freedom.

There is a big business in third world countries: rich women, who want to have a baby but do not want to destroy their bodies hire someone to carry their child. This is a natural tendency of capitalism. Everything can be commercialized. So, we need to control it from the outside.

I believe that the state should regulate what people may and may not commercialize. We should set certain limits. I would not even call it censorship, just certain legal limitations. We should do that without feeling ashamed of being oppressive.

What is important is to maintain morality that tells you that there is something shameful about some acts, that it is wrong to do it.

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