Pornography Is A Complex Topic

Tropp, Sandra Fehl., and Ann Pierson. D'Angelo. "Pornography (1983)." Essays in Context. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. 543-47. Print.

Professor’s Comment: This powerful essay contrasts the views of two feminist, Catherine MacKinnon and Sallie Tisdale, each of which perceives pornography in widely divergent ways. While MacKinnon's 'Not A Moral Issue' explains the adverse impacts of pornography to women and society as a whole, Tisdale's 'Talk Dirty to Me: An Intimate Philosophy of Sex' is receptive to pornography despite these adverse impacts, suggesting in fact that the solution to the problems associated with pornography is a greater role of women in production of that pornography.

Pornography is the depiction of sexual behavior that is from explicit material (books, films, photographs, etc.) that intends to cause sexual excitement. This definition of pornography that we know of was not the same meaning for centuries. In The Secret Museum, Walter Kendrick evaluate the idea of pornography and how it has emerged into the modern definition of pornography. The concept of pornography first emerged in European between 1755 and 1857 at a museum. This created controversy that was caused by the discovery of the Pompeii erotic artifacts that depict sexual bodily practices. Pornography have changed the public attitudes toward it since then.

It today’s society, pornography is a fast-growing epidemic that is evident in families, marriages, and teenage lifestyles. Supporters of pornography claim that it can be used as a tool to teach students about sex education. However, critics claim that pornography is unjust, influential, and dehumanizing. Pornography is unjust because it has the potential to break down intimate relationships and marriages. It can also have negative effects on children in particular young boys. More and more young boy’s minds are being influenced by pornography which is leading to misinterpretations about how to have a healthy sexual relationship. Most importantly, pornography dehumanizes women and it exploits children. Women and children are being victimized for the sheer pleasure of someone viewing pornography.

Anti-porn feminists believe that pornography is humiliating to women and turns them into sexual objects that satisfy men’s sexuality. But McElroy disagree saying that when it is analyzed critically it means nothing. Humans only are the ones known to have sexuality then how can objects have sexuality. McElroy basing on this concludes saying that anti-porn feminists who believes in this are lessening their fellow’s dignity. In her article McElroy continues to disagree with this saying that there is nothing shameful on focusing on woman’s

Anne McClintock’s “Gonad the Barbarian and the Venus Flytrap”, focuses a lot of attention on how from the beginning of history, women have been denied some of the basic rights and freedoms that have been essential to the way that men live. Starting back from the times where they couldn’t vote and when women were basically seen as property when wedded. Women today and even in the earlier days could not express their sexuality and could not show that they were sexual beings. Anne McClintock gives the idea that women should be able to have the things that men have and they should be able to express it in the same way as men. In this essay, I will analyze how Anne McClintock views pornography as a form of pleasure that is mostly consumed by men and how women are incorporated into the employment of the industry and even in the home setting.

The pornification (or alternatively pornographication) of the social world has created lasting effects in the lives of people that they must deal with every day (Dines 1998, p. 164). Pornification is the process by which the social and cultural world is sexualised. This occurs through the expansion of media technology and the pornography industry, as well as changes in media regulations and restrictions which allow pornographic imagery to intrude into public spaces (Tyler 2011, p. 79). This essay will offer explanations for why the pornification of the social world is occurring, how the phenomenon differs from a freedom of expression issue and is instead considered a sociological issue, what consequences and harm arise from these explanations, and will offer social measures that can be adopted in order to deal with the issue. Pornification has occurred in almost every realm of the social world, including in its unaltered form on the Internet, social media, marketing, advertising, music, fashion, sport, and art. However, this expansion of easily accessible pornified content is a stark and confronting challenge for our social world.

Ethics Pornography is a social problem and is a commodity brought into existence by certain characteristics of a highly developed civilization. The problem with pornography is that any form of censorship or downplay cannot solve it. It is difficult to draw the line between ones right to express their ideas and or opinions or sexuality

In The Porn Myth, Naomi Wolf informs that “The continuation of porn is responsible for deadening male sex drive in relationships to real women, and leading men to see fewer and fewer women as 'porn-worthy,' leading young women to feel they can’t compete with the pornography actresses.”

The idea that pornography gives feminists of differing opinions this middle ground that they can meet on and see how to articulate the different desires of feminism and what they want to turn it into is one of the main reasons Catherine Lumby argues that feminists need pornography (par 60). As Lumby writes in “Why Feminists Need Porn,” chapter five of her book Bad Girls, “the notion that you can draw a cause and effect line between fantasy and social practice is disturbing and distasteful to some feminists,” (par 60).

12.5. Is this it the average number of times Cornell students cry during Finals week? Nope. 12.5 is the number of videos viewed per person on Pornhub.com if it was divided evenly among every person on Earth. Pornography has become a crucial part of our our entertainment consumption, especially with the rise of the Internet, where anything you can dream of can be found with a click. Although porn is as accessible as Facebook nowadays, many feminists believe that pornography is problematic and is a tool for female oppression. One feminist scholar who believes that pornography should be eliminated completely is Catherine MacKinnon. In her essay, “Sexuality, Pornography, and Method: ‘Pleasure under Patriarchy’”, she discusses the issues with pornography in our society. Although McKinnon makes valid points in saying that pornography is an extension of the patriarchy, I believe that pornography should not be eliminated because doing so will not address underlying social problems and because alternative ways, such as changing pornography to be more feminist, is more effective.

Thesis – Multiple outlooks have been taken on the ethics of pornography, and the means by which it may either negatively influence power in sexuality, or actually provide some sort of social value and worth. These different ethical perspectives display the flaws in the industry and what it represents; yet they also end up proving the fact that it can be modified with positive influence and that pornography is not something to be deemed utterly unethical.

Pornography is a term derived from Greek writing on prostitutes and is currently considered as any material such as words or pictures that is sexually explicit (West, 2004). Notably, this description includes different kinds of material in divergent contexts because of the different consideration of what sexually explicit material is from culture to culture. In some cases, pornography is described as sexually explicit material that is basically developed to produce sexual arousal in its viewers.

In recent years, the term pornography has been primarily associated with that which is accessed and streamed over the internet, rather than the literal definition of, “obscene writings, drawings, photographs, or the like, especially those having little or not artistic merit.” This form of visual pornography is a popular and successful business as it is viewed for fulfilling pent up sexual desires, however it promotes the act of having multiple sex partners without the need of any commitment. Although it is for this reason that this business is permitted, there are many overlooked, long – term affects that have become topics of controversy. Not only does pornography affect those who indulge in it, but it can influence those who divulge

Pornography is a widespread modern moral issue. It is known as any erotic picture or film made to arouse sexual desire. The definition of pornography is the printed or visual display of explicit content, used to stimulate erotic feelings. In modern society pornography or porn has become more easily accessible due to the use of technology. The main purposes for it today are to stimulate ones feelings and it has been turned into a sort of entertainment. In ancient times there were no words for pornography, did it even exist? Certain passages from the bible provide information as to whether there was porn and if it falls under the category of something that is good for a society or is it something that is harmful to society.