Clearing the Eye said:
Is pornography sexist in nature? Does explicit material encourage or condone a social norm of female objectification and submission? I'm interested to hear (read) your opinions on anything you may feel after reading this.
Yeah, most porn is. It's made for men, sold to men, and built around what men (are perceived to) want. In fact, there are many sub-genres of porn that specifically center on the humiliation and degradation of women. (To be fair, there are others that focus on the humiliation and degradation of men, too, but not nearly as many. And even those are designed to arouse
men who like that sort of thing.)
- the (fictionally) taking advantage of drunk women.
- the "female student sleeps with authority figure for leniency/etc."
- the "see (fictionally) random women on the street become prostitutes when we dangle money."
- outright (fictional) rape.
- sexual acts specifically focused on degradation or "ownership rituals" (see: facials)
"Explicit material" itself doesn't encourage this stuff, but many, many
examples of explicit material do.
There's also the unfortunate myth that, hey, these are just fantasies, which means they have no real-world consequence. To go one further, some even opine that these provide an
outlet for those fantasies, which keeps people from performing them in the real world. This is a ridiculous claim, usually made by people with no understanding as to how the mind works.
The reason these appeal to some men is because they strike a chord with our more "animal" roots -- a lot of mating in the animal kingdom isn't exactly "female friendly." But just because something is "natural" doesn't mean it's preferable, to be encouraged, or even acceptable.
Indulging these fantasies doesn't quell them. It feeds them, or at the very least perpetuates them. Now, will it necessarily feed them to the point that a person tosses aside fear of consequences and acts them out in real life? No. But it definitely contributes in subtle (or not) ways to a person's view of women, sex, and a woman's role in sex.
So yeah, plenty of porn does, in fact, work to perpetuate and inflate many negative views of women. Not every person that watches an example of it turns into a sadistic woman hater or rapist, just like not every bullet fired kills someone. The only reason it happens is money, because people out there are perfectly willing to exploit (and thus abet) current social problems to make a buck.
There's also porn out there that is far less male-centric. The women are not objectified (and neither are the men, you dude that's about to hit Reply). While both the men and women are perhaps idealized examples of the gender, which may display preference for particular aspects of body image, that's an entirely separate matter from gender equality in sex.
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ASIDE: Where some of the worst degradation has been known to happen is
behind the scenes. There are plenty of women in the "sex trade" who felt forced by their circumstances to do whatever they could for money... and in the age of The Internet Never Forgets, there's really no way for them to get out once their faces are known. We, the Public, look down on them for being in the industry, while at the same time we shut any doors that could lead out, for those that really want to.
