Tag Archives: pornography

Porn and Feminism

Posted on by
Reply

Don’t google “funny porn picture”.

Just ask wikipedia: what do Feminists think about pornography?

“Feminist views of pornography range from condemnation of pornography as a form of violence against women, to an embracing of some forms of pornography as a medium of feminist expression. Feminist debate on this issue reflects larger concerns surrounding feminist views on sexuality, and is closely related to feminist debates on prostitution, BDSM, and other issues. Pornography has been one of the most divisive issues in feminism, particularly among feminists in anglophone countries. This deep division between feminists was exemplified in the Feminist Sex Wars of the 1980s, which pitted anti-pornography feminism against sex-positive feminism.”

Got it, ok, thanks.

The other side of the coin from pornography production would be pornography viewership. As with many other lifestyle choices, the choice to view pornography has destroyed many relationships and lives. That being said, it is also quite common currently for spouses to divorce over juvenile Facebook drama. Make your own choices responsibly and keep in mind the preferences of your relationship partner.

The arguments concerning pornography are as old as the technology they are represented upon. The basic idea behind anti-porn feminism focuses on the negativity of pornography. Meanwhile, the sex-positive feminists focus on the positive sides of porn. As there are a myriad of both positives and negatives to pornography, perhaps everyone should shut up.

What I find most pertinent to the debate’s merit is the welfare of the women in the videos. If they are choosing to partake in such acts of their own free will and not out of monetary necessity, then I am glad for everyone involved.



You Might Also Like ...

Porn Scorn

Posted on by
Reply

photo of porn image pictures
You guys, porn is a normal part of being a person. It’s not that everyone watches porn. Not everyone drives cars. Not everyone watches sportsball. These are, however, all normal things.

I did not grow up watching porn. Aside from having hilariously terrible computers (I mean, when one of your parents works for a major computer company, you would think that your family would have computers before your friends do and that they would be better; we had the opposite) and being extremely paranoid about getting caught (I am, as a rule, quite risk-averse), I was more than content to read smutty fanfic.

Most fanfiction is not sexual in nature. The vast majority of fanfic is poorly written. But what well-written smutfic (sexually explicit fanfiction, often with sex as the plot) in the realms of Harry Potter and Inuyasha that I could find, I read. It got me through high school. I have read the term “Quidditch-toned abs” more than most people, I would wager.

In fact, one of my favorite actual authors, whose first actual book—of which I received a signed copy months before it was published—is being made into a movie and will be in theaters in a year, got her start writing extremely long, extremely good Harry Potter fanfiction. She also wrote Harry Potter smutfic. (This is not, however, a Fifty Shades situation — none of her original story or characters are borrowed from anyone else’s original work)

In college, with my own computer and a much greater measure of privacy, I started looking into porn, but mostly through friends. I think that this is probably more unusual, but my friends and I discuss porn with each other. We’ll recommend porn to each other, or even send each other copies when one of us has an external hard drive that stops working. We might just tweet about liking a particular new “actor” (it’s awkward to call them that), or send each other porn that we especially like, or just talk about what we like the best. I assume that that’s how other people talk about who made the best touchgoalruns* in the latest sportsball thing.

A darling friend of mine, whom I had not seen in at least a year, came to visit me in 2009 when I was living in an apartment. I happened to mention how I had not seen Pirates, which is (or was, at least) the highest budget pornographic film ever made. As …

Continue reading →



You Might Also Like ...

In Defense Of Porn

Posted on by
Reply


Pornography is a touch subject for anyone; it’s extremely touchy for feminists, and I doubt most of them will like my stand on this. I think pornography has become a very feminist industry. Yes, there are still young girls with issues that get into for all the wrong reasons, but there are also successful, smart, businesswomen that come out of it as well.

There was a huge uproar when Sasha Grey read to children; Jenna Jameson has been called a number of things. Both of these women say they got into the industry for their own reasons. Sasha wanted to explore her sexuality, and Jenna wanted to become more confident. Both retired at early ages very wealthy women. Sasha has moved into more mainstream roles and Jenna started a company that sold to Playboy for 30 million dollars.

That’s a whole lot of girl power in two girls, and I haven’t even gotten to Katie Morgan yet. Or the 12 other college-educated “porn stars” I can name off the top of my head. I’ve also visited porn sets as a writer and the girls have been some of the sweetest I’ve worked with. When the director yells “cut” they usually start discussing everyday matters: what their kids are going to be for Halloween, the price of gas, etc. They’re normal girls making a living in a taboo way. They walk around being judged all the time and yet, they remain very strong in their convictions to do the work they want to. Selling sex is the oldest profession in the world – it’s not going anywhere anytime soon and finally, women have found a way to make it on their terms. That’s pretty feminist to me.

So naturally, it irritates me that newcomer James Deen is being hailed as a “feminist porn star.” Deen very well may be a feminist – I don’t know him personally – but it’s not the man that’s bothering me, but the reasons that the media are giving for his feminism. They say because he “looks his partners in the eye” and “whispers a constant stream of presumably sexy things in their ears.” Oh yes. He must love women.

The truth is most men in porn love women. They tend to prefer the company of women to men and are extremely …

Continue reading →



You Might Also Like ...

What Does a Good Sexuality Study Look Like?

Posted on by
3

Scientific studies about human sexuality are becoming more frequent than ever; they get funding because they are, by definition, “sexy,” and because it’s an area of human behavior that we still have much to learn about. But what makes a good sexuality study? To one set of researchers embarking on a new project, it’s one that is “unlike almost all the previous research that has been conducted,” in this case, on pornography. Researchers Clarissa Smith, Feonna Attwood, and Martin Baker, from the University of Sunderland, Sheffield Hallam University, and the University of Aberystwyth, respectively, feel that “In the past, pornography has overwhelmingly been assumed to be a ‘problem’, and the only really important questions to ask about it are – how much do people (and especially children) encounter it, and how great is the ‘harm’ that …

Continue reading →



You Might Also Like ...