Friday, January 21, 2011

Quick Blog # 5

View or read one of the items in my diary on feminist anti-pornography. Do you agree with the message in the article/video?  Why or why not?  Do you believe pornography is contributing to the way men see women sexually?  Does pornography further the problems of sexism and misogyny? Why does so much pornography present women in a degrading manner and how might this impact young men who are consuming these images? Discuss whether you agree or disagree with the feminist critique of pornography...

I mostly agree with what the video had to say. I don’t think child pornography is okay, the portrayal of people of color in porn is sketchy, and I don’t think it’s okay for men to see women as objects for their sexual dominance. I think there is legit porn that is done by professionals and is marketed.
That being said, more dialogues need to be made public about sex, about porn, because it seems to have this taboo in our society. And I shake my head at this. Why is it a taboo? It was mentioned how porn is a billion dollar industry. Yet in our society, driven by gratuitously violent media, we allow the topic of pleasure (a natural body function) to go under the radar to the point where it gets out of control. I think not talking about it is more a reason why young and older men become sexual predators.  
            I don’t think all pornography is misogynistic, but allot of it can be. There are couples that actually enjoy watching porn together. So there is porn being made that caters toward both male and female viewers. Then there is a plethora of pornography that really is offensive and should have stricter monitoring.  
            The type of porn I look at, the women are generally taking an assertive role during the sex. So grappling the question of why women are presented in a degrading manner is not coming easily. The producers of porn are men. Women might get paid a lot for their contributions, but men run the show and thus are paid more. That’s a sneaky fact I didn’t know before watching the movie. That is probably a primary reason why so much porn has women in less dominant positions.
            I disagree with porn that is oppressive, which is most porn. However I’ve watched porn that does not fall into those categories. I don’t think all porn is bad and misogynistic, but I do feel more conversations and rules need to be raised to separate fact from fiction in our society.  

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