Mercifully, this week will mark the end to the hormonal excesses of Porn Week on Loyar Burok. Articles on a topic Malaysians are supposedly tight-lipped about were purged onto unsuspecting readers like a satisfying diarrheic release – it must have felt good for the writer of the articles concerned but for many others in virtual proximity, not so much.
In a painfully self-conscious exercise in liberated expression (at times demonstrated by the compulsive use of the word “Fuck”) and “lightening” the mood in normally “serious” Loyar Burok, Porn Week only manages to liberate horny Malaysians from wanking under the covers to wanking in full view of disinterested others. To illustrate, among the articles on Loyar Burok’s Porn Week included a straight man’s review of his favourite porn stash, an incoherent rant about uptight Malaysians, and another man’s personal recommendation of films containing unsimulated sex in an attempt to raise attention to his edgy credentials.
When given carte blanche, everything that can be written about sex and pornography (with the two often conflated) in one week can be summarised from beginning, middle, to end as mainly about dinosaur copulation, spider man humping a wall at its rhetorical zenith and the half-baked ethics of incest and homosexuality (with the two conflated).
Porn Week’s general predilection for shock points to a hollowed-out desire to prove something, that something being a torrent of uncoordinated thoughts against our paternalistic state. And as “something” goes, it’s usually an amorphous mash-up of defiance, frustrations, tantrums, and ramblings as sophisticated as an incoherent teenage diary.
Why there are mainly male-oriented perspectives on pornography on Porn Week (male-identified anonymous contributors notwithstanding) suggests a wider trend in Malaysia of men who feel openly entitled to consuming porn and being a bravado about their sexuality than women. This may also be reflective of a wider trend of women generally who are quieter about sex and pornography, and that expressing enthusiasm for naughty things (and other far naughtier things) in a public forum invites sexist criticism and shaming.
Given that those who have contributed to and enthusiastically lapped up Porn Week are only a small sample out of the general Malaysian public (but an educated, fluent in English, and probably middle class sample, which counts for something), it’s only fair and heartening to say that immaturity, easily excitable tendencies, and penchant for shock for shock’s sake are not really representative qualities of many other Malaysians – thank goodness for my ever quixotic optimism. This point serves to provide the hope that there should be other Malaysians who would be able to write and engage with reading audiences in more intellectually and sensorially exciting ways.
Porn Week would have been a fertile ground to challenge social stigma, taboos, and conventional wisdom about sexual impropriety considering its zealousness in tackling “Pornography” and other erogenously exciting topics, by not stooping so low as to equate incest with homosexuality and having a laugh at biblical texts for example. An initial encouragement for “discourse on intercourse” on Porn Week has superficial value when all the “serious” and “no fun” stuff like the gaze, primacy of male pleasure, production, distribution, and exhibition of pornography are ignored. But then, who am I to challenge the majority of contributors and readers who do not want to engage in these pressing issues to begin with anyway?
Before anyone writes in or thinks that the author is simply flagging herself as somehow more “enlightened” and “superior” to the gaspingly immature contributors on Porn Week, I can only say this: Read some erotica and secondary literature on pornography, widen your sexual and intellectual horizons, have better sex, and FFS grow up.
Alicia Izharuddin 
I really enjoyed reading it. Thanks for sharing. I’ll publicise this on Facebook – it’s so good.
you say you’re “not” flagging yourself as more enlightened & superior to those writing on Porn Week. Yet you follow up with a suggestion that these boys (apparently) have to “widen they’re intellectual horizon” implying that you’re particular outlook on pornographic consumption is better and more “intellectual” than theirs, which totally contradicts your initial disclaimer. signing off, you even used the age old shaming tactics, by telling this particular group of demographic, to grow up. classic.
while the contributors on Porn Week may not be as articulate in their apprehension of English, nor as constructive as yours may be, it doesn’t mean that their “incoherent teenage ramblings” makes it any less entertaining to read. emphasis on ‘entertaining’. maybe what i’m trying to say is, if you like nasi lemak, the other likes nasi goreng, can’t we all just sit at a table and enjoy what we enjoy?
i only responded, because i too like yourself, enjoy erotic materials and found your article to be stimulating and refreshing. Yet at the same time, as a 25 y/o heterosexual male, i find it a little offensive as you degrade those who like nasi goreng (instead of your nasi lemak). a small suggestion if you care to indulge, maybe you could write about the “no fun” subjects you wanted to hear. judging from how you articulate views on other articles, im sure that’ll be an interesting read! looking forward to that 🙂
Hello Angry Malay Woman! I am Don, an American older guy, 58, that was perusing through the Internet with Goggle as my guide, and somehow I ended up with you blog address at the bottom of the screen. Anyway, I have just read the two most recent entries in your blog, and thought I would comment. But first, since you wrote your most recent post in May, allow me to encourage you to write more, and more often hopefully. I am just now started to learn about your country, an interesting melting pot of Chinese, Arabian, and Malay people. The cultures, religions, and personalities combine into a stew, hopefully beneficial to all. While we can’t claim exclusive nor total credit for it, white men have managed to sufficiently screw up our whole world sexually. True, it is men in general that have accomplished this, it was white men who took that foggy, rough piece of rock, and polished it into a diamond of sparkling depravity. Unfortunately, it is also these men who have had considerable influence on the world’s religions and how women are treated and valued, or maybe I should say, de-valued. I’m not here to knock anyone’s religion, or lack of one. But I do want to point that Muslims (The Male Ones) have managed to make it part of their culture that a female has the basic value somewhat in line with a slug, and they treat them that way. That women have allowed this to happen is a monumental shame, in my thinking. If there is infidelity in a marriage, or a girl engages in pre-marital sex, she is shamed, beaten, and some places still stoned to death. They look at the male participant and say, “shame on you, go home.” Anyway, guys have ruined our world. I am not saying that I am personally above the sins of men. quite the contrary, I have been a drooling, knuckle-dragging shit from later childhood. Only in the last 10 years or so have I witnessed my awful actions, and tried to change my life. I counsel girls who have been sexually abused when they were younger, and currently deal with people ages 13 through 46. It is all a huge problem, this ill-effect that man has had on this world. I propose no fixes, it is a far too complicated a problem for simple answers. But women are not the only victims of white men. The British men, bless their hearts, have for centuries also victimized boys as well. When the British Empire was at its height, British men would travel far into their territories to enjoy boys of various ages. Those boys could easily be just 6 years old, or in most cases, ages 10 to 16, but they could also be aged up into their 20’s, as all these boys were normally poor, and sometimes the abusers would pay them some money, which helped their families survive. Sorry for being so wordie, it is a curse I was born with, but I just wanted you to know I enjoyed your words, and will continue to come back hoping you will again desire to write more. I stop here before Tolstoy curses at me for writing more words than in his War & Peace. Take care and best wishes! Don
Don, thanks for taking the time to write your reply.
Yes, age is indeed a rich and limitless source of wisdom and experience, but I have to point it out to you that not all ‘Muslim Male Ones’ treat their women-folk badly. Getting to know a few good Muslim men will dispel decades of assuming that all Muslim men are bad and all Muslim women are downtrodden.
After many months of mental exhaustion attributed to work I am finally back here writing my thoughts. Hope you’re back after all these months to continue reading. Cheers!