Women and Pornography
For some women pornography has long been a feminist issue, for others the position is new or still unclear Below is a short article on women and pornography. It is followed by a few resources — groups involved in fighting pornography, and books which explore, in greater detail than is possible here, the arguments against pornography
Pornography is no longer restricted to seedy backstreet movie houses. No longer to be found only in unobtrusive 'adult' bookstores. Men now make films such as Dressed to Kill (in which a woman invites/seeks her graphically depicted rape/ murder) intended for, and indeed shown in, 'serious' and even 'family' theaters. Men put it on display in corner drugstore magazine racks, where magazine covers show women going into meat grinders. Men use it in ads for slick-paged magazines, where a woman in seductive clothing and pose coos 'hit me with a club'. Men call it 'art' when the cover of a European photography magazine is a crotch shot of a woman with the muzzle of a revolver (cocked!) an inch or two into her vagina
And there's more, no less dangerous because less blatant. Television programs, movies, and advertising use the female body for decoration, to 'attract the viewer's attention', and to sell products. This objectification of women too is violence against women. Pornography, at the risk of oversimplifying, is the dehumanization of women, the presentation of women as objects of male 'pleasure' and male violence (the two are often indistinguishable). The message of pornography is, as Adrienne Rich puts it, "This is what you are; this is what I can do to you " .
The latter part of the message Is all too true, and should therefore be taken seriously as the warning it is intended to be. The former, because it is untrue, cannot be dismissed either. It instead needs to be examined for what it tells us about how men view women, and how in turn we can expect to be treated by them.
Andrea Dworkin has said "Pornography is not a genre of expression separate and different from the rest of life, it is... fully in harmony with any culture in which it flourishes."
Thus we can see connections between violence in the media against us and the violence aimed toward us in everyday life, between violence towards us and the propaganda that we are no more than objects.
Thus it is, too, that to question pornography is to question male attitudes toward women. That to examine pornography is to realize that it both glorifies the forms that male domination over women takes (even speaking cross-culturally) — rape, wife beating, incest, genital mutilation, enforced prostitution, and enforced heterosexuality — and expresses the underlying value system of those societies in which it is found
It is not therefore something that we can close our eyes to and remain unaffected by. As the women from Forum Against Oppression in India stated in their newsletter: "What is the good of protesting (against rape) if at the same time we turn a blind eye to the daily barrage of propaganda against women — in so many films, magazines, pornographic advertisements — propaganda which builds up a mass culture and mass psychology which is rapist through and through? So long as such a culture exists, atrocities against women and girls will continue to occur. To fight against the oppression of women must include fighting against this culture." One other aspect of pornography needs to be addressed, although because of space considerations I will limit myself to two brief observations. One thorny question in the area of pornography is pornography versus free speech. The question seems to be largely rhetorical. First, I do not believe we can rely on any law to control or ban pornography. Laws are administered according to the " discretion " of male lawyers and judges. How effective have laws against rape and battery been? In addition , we should note that while the First Amendment (to take an example in the U.S.) ultimately protected James Joyce and Henry Miller in their exercise of 'freedom of speech,' the same cannot be said for Margaret Sanger in her attempt to distribute birth control information.
" Violent Pornography: Degradation of Women versus Right of Free Speech" Volume VIII , No. 2 of New York University Review of Law and Social Change
Secondly, a lecture against impeding the free flow of information and against making pre-determined value judgements on what news is ' fit ' for the public, coming from corporate controlled media, whose primary concern is profit , and only seldom the public's " right to know " , is nothing short of the highest sort of hypocrisy. Speech is free nowhere. It costs money — money which,the4 billion dollar a year pornography industry has — and which women, notorious victims of economic d i s c r i m i n a t i o n , do not have. This is a fact which the media, themselves responsible for the distortion and erasure of women and women's issues, have certainly been aware of, and indeed have " capitalized " on.
Roxanne Claire
" Violent Pornography: Degradation of Women versus Right of Free Speech" Volume VIII , No. 2 of New York University Review of Law and Social Change1978-79. New York University 249 Sullivan Street NY, NY 10012 USA.
A number of the statements of lawyers participating in this conference clearly reveal why the legal system doesn't protect women's rights (they aren't taken seriously). However, many important points are brought out concerning women's images in porn and the media; effects, and meaning of porn ; the 1st Amendment, and the myth of free speech.
Sinister Wisdom, No. 15 P.O. Box 660 Amherst, M A 01004, USA.
Theme of this issue is violence — rape, woman battering, incest, and pornography. Especially relevant articles are " Violence, Victimization , Violation " and "The Lesbian in Pornography: A Tribute to Male Power".
Take Back the Night. Women on Pornography Laura Lederer, ed. Morrow Quill 105 Madison Ave NY NY 10016 USA $7.95 paperback; $ 1 4 . 9 5 handbound.
Probably the most important book available on women and pornography; it contains examinations of the political content of pornography; reports on the latest research on harmful effects of pornography; discussion on the First Amendment, freedom of speech, and pornography. Articles entitled "What is Pornography" has a good definition of pornography (at least for 'hardcore' porn ) . Also an excellent bibliography. However, perhaps the best description of the book is found within the book itself, in the afterword written by Adrlenne Rich : that Take Back the Night deepens one's "perception not only of pornography itself and its omnipresence in our lives, but of the dynamics among racism, woman-hating, and compulsory heterosexuallty; of the powerful economic interests which comprise the pornography empire and which are ranged against even the most moderate demands of women; of the institutional misogyny that underlies apparent permissiveness or tolerance towards feminism ."
Women Against Violence in Pornography & Media P.O. Box 14614 San Francisco, OA 94114 USA