Ranat, at beyond the hills, has some emotionally profound and perceptive things to say. I’ve read her before, but now I felt the need to bring the discussion here, since it reminded me of what we and Mousie where going through here, in the comments.
Personally, I believe there are no inherently dominant or submissive acts. I believe Dominance and submission aren’t even acts. They’re a way of relating. There are acts we associate culturally and personally with dominance and submission, and I think it’s dangerous to confuse either with Universal Truth.
You can say that again. It was both enlightening and liberating to read Thumper describe what he saw in the (porn) pictures in his Weekly Woof. Most of it is, of course, inside his head as he himself proclaims. But it’s oddly liberating to read him describe how lovingly, tenderly the women in the pictures take their pleasure where they will, tease the men and all ends up happy. With a happy ending for the women!
It just goes to show. My take on the pics was totally different before I read Thumper’s review. Imagination. It’s a beautiful thing.
Past the Hurt 
It’s pretty amazing all the different, personalized interpretations we can have about the same imagery. The picture of Neytiri holding Jake in Avatar that for me was a profound gender role reversal struck someone I know as Madonna and Christ, which horrified me (basically because I felt like the sanctity/specialness of my experience was threatened by theirs, which of course it wasn’t).
Why does it always have to be about Jesus? Let me tell ya, others have suffered quite like him and they had no one to hold them. Women.
I was about to comment on your descripiton of Avatar, but I had so much else to say that I didn’t have time. Which, I think, is a good thing. I’m glad I found you. 🙂 It was a monumental moment to be so concretely proven how small, fragile and childlike Jake was to the people he himself first saw as childlike and naîve. Even though the movie entirely reinforced questionable stereotypes of “native people”, “naturality” and of course the white (American…) man’s heroics that always rise above those of others. Always.
For me, the scene with Neytiri was the truest thing in the whole movie. It’s pretty much how I(‘ve) see(n) men in my life. Not that that’s been a good thing, but there it is. The ones always in need of protection and care. The small ones. This is of course not a healthy image, and it’s been talked to death in the feminist blogosphere. The myth of male weakness is something I carry with me and have profoundly taken part in shaping.
But here, though, I felt that they were equal. She just was stronger and able to take care of him. It was beautiful. How he could submit to her, let her help him. How it was an opened door to a new direction, despite of the myths that are so close. It’s totally different.
But yeah. Been there. I remember so many instances where my experience has been shot down as, I dunno, aggressive, too negative or something. But seeing things others didn’t see was natural to me. It wasn’t negative. It was just enlightening.