Pornography: Is it empowering women or is it degrading women?
Here's a video from YouTube. The texts the protester is wearing and flashing to people include:
Make Love Not Porn.
Make 69 Not Porn.
Porn is fake - Girls are real.
Porn is RAPE - Girls are real.
Do you think that the porn industry, or the sexualization of violence in general contributes to violence against women?
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2 comments:
I think it's a mistake to divide these things into either/or arguments, and I also think it's a mistake to view "the porn industry" as a single, monolithic entity.
There are a lot of different people and groups of people making porn for a lot of different reasons. Most of the people involved in porn are in it for the wrong reasons, producing something that is most likely making the world a worse place to live in. But I believe this to be true of all genres of mass media being produced today, and I don't think porn is an any worse offender than the others.
Probably, it's empowering a few, and degrading many. Probably, it's empowering some, and degrading them at the same time.
Like the music industry, like the fashion industry, like reality TV, like advertising. Maybe the ratios are worse in porn, but I doubt it. Any career path that trades in image alone is a dangerous path indeed.
Personally I'm not a fan of the "monkey see, monkey do" argument that people use to condemn certain forms of media. I'm not convinced that playing violent videogames incites people to actual violence, and I'm not convinced that someone who watches a gangbang video would ever necessarily want to participate in one.
Attacking pornography has kind of come back into vogue in feminist circles lately, and while I'm sympathetic to some of the points that have been made, ultimately I don't think it's a productive fixation.
Anyway it comes down to personal bias, ultimately. Do you think that images are made by society or society is made by images, or is it a feedback loop?
I guess I'm pretty pessimistic about the whole matter, but I think the only way to change things is to become an image-maker yourself, and create (or support) images which contain the kind of content you believe in. Condemnation, bans, and attacks in general just put people on the defensive, and then they don't listen to you anymore.
The problem with the protest video is that it's poorly made and boring to watch, and the protester comes across as smug and self-rightous rather than funny, interesting, or, you know, "right".
i agree. i'm not completely anti-porn. maybe i'd say i'm pro-erotica, anti-porn. A lot of porn goes way too far. the first time i was in a sex-shop i saw a whole section on 'titty torture'. I couldn't believe this even existed, let alone an entire SHELF dedicated to it.
I'm not sure why these women are taking part in these, I'd like to read an expose on this industry or something...maybe then i'd understand it better.
I do believe that pornography is another media that makes men believe they are 'superior' to women. I think some porn makes men think they can treat women like shit, and that its considered 'manly' and even 'sexy' to degrade women.
I've been standing in circles with guys talking about sex, and it's unbelievable what comes out of their mouths.
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