Melbourne academic and author Cordelia Fine has included Big Porn Inc: Exposing the harms of the global porn industry in a cover essay in the latest edition of The Monthly. Fine writes:
“The men in porn are little more than scaffolding for their erections but it is the women who are the product, and who endure the discomfort, pain and humiliation. The work of Dines and Tyler, and Big Porn Inc, all draw our attention to the women who furnish the extraordinary quantity and variety of product choice.”
In a piece titled ‘Out of the Closet’, The Weekend Australian
Magazine has extracted the first chapter of Big Porn Inc, by a woman we called ‘Caroline’. Caroline writes:
“I have no time whatsoever for those who see it as liberating or empowering to women’s sexuality as this is absolutely not my experience at all…The distress [of partner’s porn use] caused sleepless nights, lots of crying, a constant feeling of being on edge, an anger that was all consuming – that lasted for an extended period of many weeks…”
See also: Big Porn Inc: Exposing the Harms of the Global Pornography Industry.
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4 Responses
While I am sad that ‘Caroline’ did not have a good experience with pornography, this view is not representative of how all women feel about pornography.That’s not how I feel about pornography. And I would argue that given how big the Australian population is, there are women who agree with ‘Caroline’, and who also agree with me. Call me naive, but why can’t we all just agree that everyone is different?
Porn is not something which women and men can just ‘hold differing opinions’ porn is filmed male sexual violence against women and porn reinforces male supremacist claims that women are not human but just men’s disposable sexual service stations. Therefore women cannot be harmed in porn because the women in porn aren’t human and neither are the innumerable women men force to enact pornified sexual acts for their sexual entertainment.
The issue is not about individual women some of whom do like porn and believe porn is ‘fantasy’ rather porn is about how it normalises male sexual violence against women and reinforces men’s belief that women are not human and hence human rights only apply to men. Remember porn is made by men for men’s consumption and the tiny number of women who like porn does not alter one iota the fact porn is filmed male sexual violence against women. Should we therefore cease demanding an end to porn because some women happen to enjoy it? One can easily make the claim ‘I like making insulting comments to women and men who are not of the same race/ethnicity as myself but because the issue of racism is seen as something which affects men but not women then I would be inciting racial hatred if I were to enact such behaviour. However, porn is not supposedly filmed male sexual violence against women so it is okay for men to consume it and also it is okay for the tiny minority of women to claim they too enjoy porn.
During the decades of struggle by abolitionists demanding an end to slavery, some enslaved women and men said they preferred to be enslaved rather than free and struggle to find sufficient food and shelter. But as with porn the issue was not about individual enslaved women’s and men’s beliefs it was about the fact white men believed they were entitled to enslave women, men and girls who in their view were not human and furthermore subject these enslaved women, men and children to sadistic violence.
Porn is not about whether or not one person prefers the colour blue whilst another person prefers the colour purple – it is about eliminating one of the central tools male supremacist systems uses to reinforce misogynistic claims that women aren’t human and also to justify male hatred and male contempt for women. After all men cannot harm or inflict sexual violence on someone which male supremacist systems do not recognise as human and who are these persons? Why they are females not males but don’t say it publicly because only male is the default human and that means filmed male sexual violence inflicted on women does not harm them because they are not human.
Thank you Jennifer. Pleased you responded.
Your original opening sentence: “…porn is filmed male sexual violence against women and porn reinforces male supremacist claims that women are not human…”
Try “…SOME porn is filmed male sexual violence against women and SOME porn reinforces male supremacist claims that women are not human…”
There. I fixed it for you.
For your original statement to be true, you would have to ignore guy-on-guy pornography, and any pornography made by women, or for women. Blush Entertainment have been producing porn for lesbians and bisexual women since the 1980s, by feminists seeking to take hold of the sexist, misogynist industry and make something decent of it. Candida Royalle did her bit for heterosexual women with Femme Productions, whose pornography hit the mainstream in the late 80s, I believe.
I’m not saying that the misogynist pornographer is dead. I know that the whole industry is still flawed. But it’s certainly not all ignorant of gender equality. It would be remiss of you to silence the other side of the debate because it doesn’t fit in with your opinion.
And as a final wrap up point, if women “claim” that they enjoy pornography, I’m happy to take them at face value. 🙂