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Ah, pornography. One of the holy grails for those seeking out the cause of social ills in America. How harmful is pornography? It’s pretty darn bad, if you judge by how we restrict access to it. You can’t buy or view any (theoretically) until you’re at least 18 years old. Even on the Internet, the ultimate land of anything goes, it is more jealously guarded than any other material. There are websites that freely display pictures of motorcyclists with half their faces sheared off, people eating babies, autopsy photos of decaptitated and burnt corpses - but will not allow access to their photographs of naked celebrities unless you are in possession of a valid form of I.D. that proves you are over 18. Heck, perhaps the most ridiculous consensual crime in this country is that of selling “obscene” materials. Yes, folks, in some places in this country, you can be arrested for selling pornography to adults, if the undercover cop you sold it to thinks it’s dirty enough. What’s so wrong with porn?
Argument the first: Pornography incites men to commit violent crimes against women. Heck, serial rapist and murderer Ted Bundy, in an interview done shortly before his execution, blamed his entire infamous career on soft porn. Riiiiight. Friends, this is what’s known as a “cop-out.” Crimes of this nature are not caused by pictures, however lurid. They are caused by individuals with severely damaged views of reality, women, morality and propriety. “Aha!” says the anti-porn crusader, and immediately ushers in argument number two: these damaged views are caused by pornography, which is demeaning to women. What, exactly, constitutes being demeaning to women? Heck, I think romantic comedies are demeaning to women. They’re insipid and predictable, and convey the message that women are easily manipulated, sentimental saps who can’t recognize the same plot rehashed countless times. Seriously. Barbie, the Miss America pageant, all those feminist stereotypes - they’re all equally offensive in their objectification of women. But six-year-olds play with Barbies, and anyone can turn on the TV and watch the pageant. (Heck, if you live in Gary, you can go see it live this year.) This is all legal, as it well should be. If pornography is so demeaning, why is it cute and funny to show women lusting and dominating over men? If “The Full Monty” had had its gender roles reversed, there’d have been an outcry not to be believed. I am not swayed by the “turnabout is fair play” argument, or the litany of historical misdeeds against women. The implication of this inequal status is that women simply cannot handle being leered at, that they are far too emotionally fragile to withstand ogling. Yes, women should have the right to clearly and loudly state that they are uncomfortable with being viewed as an object, and be able to take steps towards securing their own comfort. But the assumption that women automatically need protection and the assurance that they are more than a body is patronizing and insulting. Maybe if the objectification of others is no longer limited to being a “woman’s issue,” we can talk. I agree that there are problems with pornography, largely due to its demeaned status. Female workers in pornography often have to work in terrible conditions with low pay and are coerced into sexual actions and relations they do not want. Why? Because they are implicitly told - largely by the same individuals who wish to ban pornography to improve the status of women - that pornography is low and dirty, and any scum participating in it certainly doesn’t deserve anything as ennobling as a union or decent pay or self-respect. Ever wonder why all those strippers on Springer come out swearing at the audience? Because they’re sick and tired of hearing that by trying to improve their own lives, they are filthy gender traitors. Think of all the women you don’t see, who end up believing this about themselves and at the mercy of anyone who tells them they’re not trash. Another problem with pornography is that it’s incredibly racist. Porn featuring black, Asian, hispanic, or other minority women is usually classified as “fetish” porn. We agonize over the underrepresentation of minorities in the world of “acceptable” mainstream media, but nobody talks about the fact that only white women are appropriately sexual enough to provide sexual fantasies. The difficulties of the real women working in the industry and the further marginalization of minorities are indeed concrete problems. But they are problems which cannot be solved until pornography is legitimized and no longer the scapegoat for rape statistics. |
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