Pornography: The Modern Day Construction Of Women's Oppression

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.

Supporters may be varied and polarized but most believe that there is a real problem and

This interpretation challenges the belief of feminism who say pornography can empower women. Jason states that “pornography lead men to think that women are not sincere when they utter the word ‘no’” (Stanley1). This finding challenge feminism common assumption that porn empowers women by having them work in something they are getting paid for to get out of poverty. The author also talks

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.

Good sex is considered to be legal and healthy, whereas bad sex is criminalized and dangerous. In contrast to MacKinnon’s view on pornography, Rubin argues that pornography is a means of sexual exploration and can be liberating. Sexual activities are a means through which sexuality can be explored. Rubin argues that anti-pornography movements exaggerate the dangers of pornography as destructive and negative. Anti-pornography movements depict pornography as harmful and degrading to women, but this in itself is harmful for it does not account for consensual and desired sexual activities. Through classifying sexual activities, such as BDSM and sex work, as good and bad, the state effectively limits sexual exploration to certain acceptable societal norms. This is further illustrated through R v. Price, in which the judge ruled that there was no evidence that BDSM videos cause harm (Lecture Slides: February 9). Conforming to cultural norms subsequently ensures that the patriarchal system of sexual value, in which MacKinnon argued is male dominated, is adhered to. Even though pornography can perpetuate sexual objectification, the oppression of sexual desire by the state limits any form of positive sexual exploration. The state and law should not penalize possibilities for positive sexual experiences because of social stigmas. The disapproval of society and the state of particular sexual

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.

This phenomena causes women to either hide or suppress their sexual desires and even be negatively labelled (Jervis, Lisa). Women cannot escape these labels, which is completely unjust and an element that helps to continue the female victim blaming cycle. Furthermore, the portrayal and treatment of women in media, especially in pornography demonstrates to men, that all women want to be dominated and that females are all whores at heart (“Pornland: How the Porn Industry Has Hijacked Our Sexuality”). This objectification of women in pornography causes females to be more vulnerable and at risk for rape since most of the viewers are men who ingest this false fantasy. Therefore, this leads a rape culture in a society that does not take rape accusations seriously since women are recognized to hold the power to lure men, but in reality both sexes have the ability to attract one

227). Among these females, 27.8% were forced to be sexually photographed or filmed by their partners, 75% were forced to consume pornography and 80.5% claimed that they were forced to re-enact sexual acts from pornography (Moreau et al. 227). With 9.4% having reported that they experienced forced sexual relations with other individuals, 38.5% forced with other couples, 53.8% forced into sexual relations with other individuals including family and 69.2% having experienced prostitution through the force of their partners (Moreau et al. 227). With most of these statistics demonstrating forced exposure of pornography to an individual, it could potentially lead to the solidification of sexual scripts involving the alteration of values and such. Which slowly and forcefully educates the females of subordination and objectification. Forcefully creating beliefs that women are tools for sexual gratification as a normality of society. Overall demonstrating that the exposure of pornography has positive correlations with the increasing of sexual

They believe the patriarchal society defines gender roles that permit men to feel superior to women, and as a result, objectification is “created and sustained by pornography’s existence and consumption.” (MacKinnon) In pornography, women are portrayed as sexual objects that “desire disposition and cruelty; desperately want to be bound, battered, tortured, humiliated, and killed; Women are there to be to be taken, used, violated and possessed.” (MacKinnon) Pornography normalizes sexual violence, it reinforces the idea that it is permissible to treat women as objects to be used and abused.

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).

MacKinnon believes that pornography maintains male-dominated views of sex and is an extension of the patriarchy and thus, from a feminist standpoint, it should be eliminated. First, it should be established that MacKinnon believes that “male dominance is sexual” (315). From that, it can be established that practices such as rape, sexual assault, prostitution, and pornography “express and actualize the

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.

MacKinnon argues that pornography defines male treatment of women, and is the clearest demonstration of male dominance. Her perspective is radical, but valuable because it forces one to reexamine his or her view of pornography. She says that, “male power makes authoritative a way of seeing and treating women that when a man looks at a pornographic picture... the viewing is an act of male supremacy” (130). This form of expression dictates the way in which men view women as a class. The uneven distribution of power in this system makes pornography a form of discrimination. “Pornography causes attitudes and behaviors of violence and discrimination that define the treatment and status of half the population” (147). Not only women are subject to this form of oppression. “Pornography is the