Feminist arguments

From Seenoevil

Pornography has proved itself to be one of the key issues that divides contemporary feminists.

Anti-porn Feminism

"There’s no feminist issue that isn’t rooted in the porn problem" – Paige Mellish, Feminists Fighting Pornography

The "porn problem", according to Susan Brownmiller, is rooted back to Neanderthal times and acts of heterosexual rape (Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape). Penises become weapons. Rape has played a critical function, she says, because it is used as a conscious method to intimidate women, and pornography, particularly violent pornography, is a demonstration of what is simply men’s right, because female submission to male dominance is such an old hierarchy. Violent porn is particularly abhorrent because it is a perfect representation of patriarchal male dominance. Catharine MacKinnon says that porn of any kind itself becomes an act of sexual violence, not represented in words or images.^{[source needed]}

The post-structuralist queer theorist, Michel Foucault, also argues that women have been sexually constructed by men^{[source needed]}. Anti-porn feminists have taken hold of this argument and used it to demonstrate why porn amplifies an acceptance of patriarchy, commercialising this male vision of women’s sexuality and marketing it in the form of pornography, manipulated under the male gaze.

As regards the UK legislation for the prohibition of violent porn, anti-porn feminists believe that extreme porn glorifies sexually violent acts or sexual acts that contain elements of violence. In the recent Jane Longhurst case, these feminists believe her death was a direct consequence of her killer's taste for violent pornography^{[source needed]}. They do not believe any evidence or justification is necessary to instate the proposed law, as it simply disables any possibility for the destruction of patriarchy. They believe the women involved in making porn are coerced and bribed into their roles

Pro-porn Feminism

"Pornography benefits women, both personally and politically." – Wendy McElroy, XXX: A Woman’s Right to Pornography

Pro-porn feminism was a term first coined in the early 1980s, mainly as a response to the anti-porn texts that were predominant in feminist writing and thought over the same period, such as Andrea Dworkin’s ‘’Pornography’’ and the work of Catharine MacKinnon. Both these authors state that anyone who defends pornography cannot be a feminist.^{[source needed]}

However, writers such as Wendy McElroy, Camille Paglia and Nadine Strossen defend pornography, centring their argument around the notion that sexual freedom is part of women’s freedom. They reject the anti-porn stance of vilifying male sexuality and instead celebrate a wider range of sexual choices as a right for all humans. They believe porn, in particular watching women experience sexual pleasure, can prove a valuable source for women to gain a panoramic view of sexual possibilities and actually prevent them leading the polite sexual lives that place them further under a patriarchal sexual gaze. They believe porn allows women to interpret sex for themselves, rather than adopt an anti-porn attitude of shame to their desires.

Pro-porn feminists – groups such as Feminists Against Censorship in the UK, and the Feminists for Free Expression in the USA – oppose any legal or social constraints upon sexual acts between consenting adults, and the production and market for any pornography is therefore supported by these critics. In the Jane Longhurst case, a petition vouching for laws for prosecuting the ownership of violent pornography in support of ending violence against women, which prompted the Home Office to put forward their proposals, has been firmly rejected by these feminists. There is no evidence to support the claim that violent pornography may promote sexual violence, and it is well known that women are not the only victims of violence. Increasingly men have taken a subordinate role to women in pornography. In short, they do not believe that this is primarily a feminist issue, nor is it right to disrespect men by promoting it entirely as an issue for women.

There is evidence to suggest that Jane Longhurst’s cause of death, asphyxiation, was simply a tragic accident, and even that she had participated in similar activities previously.^{[source needed]} They therefore oppose these laws as part of a wider resistance to censorship that may prevent women’s sexual liberation.

Women as agents of moral reform

Some argue [1] that the anti-pornography movement is part of the larger “moral reform” movement, which is comprised mainly of women and religious individuals.