This statement on the surface sounds to be true and fair but when it is revaluated it does not. Christensen not argue that the major reason pornography exists is due to the fact that males want or need it as they are the primary consumers. It is through a result of a consumer driven society that it is made, the major problem with argument is that it is not only made for males. This notion within itself is harmful to women, it suggests that first off all men who watch porn essentially don’t care about them; secondly if they view pornography then there must be something wrong with them because they are ruining their chance for a self. It is easily then said if women choose to watch pornography then in fact she is developing an aspect of self. (Christensen, 81) Christensen would further explain that it is in fact natural for men to want to watch pornography and for women to be less interested in such a show. A significant portion of male arousal is visually cued; it focuses in on the female sexual organs, which has been consistently reported from all around the world. (Christensen, 3) Where as for female arousal is often is not often based on visual cues but often from touching or stimulation of sexual organs. Studies have shown that very few women are actually arouse by male genitals or buttocks, within these studies it has been shown that often females attention is to face or general build of the man. (Christensen, 5) Pornography is a natural turn on because it exposes men to the female form, it is not a way in which men try oppress women.
The roles given to women in pornography and the roles they play constantly uphold the idea of males holding physical power. Physical power to Dworkin is a power that is protected by law, customs, art, literature, history, and wealth. Within everyday life this is reinforced by men choosing weak women to be there wives as they are easier controlled, and those often with physical strength are often forced to act weak to fill a feminine role. Dworkin says this comes from the idea of feminine in capabilities created by male forces, one of which is wealth as a man’s should be able to make enough money to keep the women at home; which is meant to keep her useless outside the house, and ornamental. (Dworkin, Pornography 14) The way in which this is shown in pornography is by making the women seem like whores. This is done by saying women wanting sex whether their vocal language or body language says other wise; women always subconsciously want sex. Women in pornography are shown to say no but to either not to have the right to say no or to warrant male physical power to obtain it as they truly do want it but just aren’t saying. (Dworkin, Pornography 198) If this is what men are watching in video Dworkin’s fear is that this is how they believe they should act, will further allow men to view women as possessions, and increase the amount of violence against them. This leads to another form of power called the power to terrorize. This power is “the capacity to terrorize, to use self and strength to uncalculated fear, fear in a whole class of persons of a whole class of persons”. (Dworkin, Pornography 15) This can come through obvious forms of direct terror; knives, guns, or any other threat of violence. Dworkin refers to the ideas and methods of Nazi Germany, she says that they did not use such aforementioned techniques but used much more devious forms. They released letters, newspapers, and had speeches which suggested the devastating ideology which lead to the Holocaust. These tactics proved to be much more ‘useful’ than any other form of terror. What she deduces from this is that violent pornography in the hands of many men is much more threatening to women than a knife in one man’s hands. (Hawkins, 154)
Christensen would agree that in some, but very few occasions in main stream pornography that this sort of physical violence and force is depicted. First off though this violence is ‘portrayed’ any rational person knows that within pornography just like cartoons, it is not real. Christensen cites that it has been found among many studies that there is more gender violence shown among most ‘Hollywood’ films which are accepted among society than within the pornography industry. (Christensen, 61) “As a general rule, people resort to illegitimate means of persuasion when they sense that their honest arguments are weak. One can only suspect that many who present the issue this way realize the old ‘explicit sex is dirty’ charge would not sufficiently motivate the average person today, so they resort to fear and smear campaign”. (Christensen, 59) This is in regards to the idea that pornography is in part blamed violence against women, which he says there has not been any legitimate connection ever made. This idea comes from an old definition of what pornography was which included the idea of aggression but the suggestion of aggression in the definition has long been removed. (Christensen, 60) It must be said that Christensen does believe over violent films are not what he would consider main stream pornography and says that it is made far less and is less readily available than nonviolent pornography. He classifies violent pornography into three categories. The first consists of mild violence; scratching, biting, spanking and so on as well as mild coercion. The second only varies from the first with the introduction of sadomasochism which includes things like whips, bondage, and piercing. Christensen says that with these two it brings in an interest for a few of the unknown, a side that appeals to the link of minor pain as a turn on. The third consists of pretty much anything else that goes above and beyond this level. He says this often appeals to people on the basis of the guilt society has connected to it, as well as it appeals to a person on a different level, more of a sexual and physiological appeal. This type of pornography often draws viewers the same way in which horror films do, they want to see something that they never want to experience. (Christensen, 68) This is the type of pornography that most antipornography feminists are against but the problem with antipornographers is they classify it all as the same, this is counterproductive. (Christensen, 69)
“This power [of naming] enables men to define experience, to articulate boundaries and values, to designate to each things its realm and qualities, to determinewhat can and cannot be expressed, to control perception.” (Dworkin, Pornography 17) This power is one that most feminist are trying to recover, without this it is hard to move forward towards equality. If a man has the power to call a woman weak, he can do what he needs to in order to keep her weak. If a women says no; the power of naming allows a man to say that all women really do want it; and if a woman does want sex, he can name her a slut, gives man a fierce ability to keep women ‘in their place’. (Dworkin, Pornography 18) A man is able to justify a women deciding to be in pornography by naming it ‘free will’ (as men would call it) which eliminates all possibility of any sort of degradation or humiliation as it is her choice. In reality Dworkin says that a viewer of pornography doesn’t know if it was a women’s ‘free will’ or not as you do not know the women and her life. If she has been beaten and abused her whole life, been told she would never make something of herself, this could lead to some level of sexual indiscretion, which would often be with men that continue the cycle of abuse, and after all of this hell she winds up poor, uneducated, and without a man ‘to take care of her’ and some man offers her an extravagant lifestyle to make movies, that really isn’t free will, it is desperation. The power of naming allows men to turn this act of desperation of survival in a man’s world into something that sounds like it was her chosen profession. (Dworkin, Women 61)
Naming is a problem with society, calling something other than what it is, it creates confusion, chaos, and allows for deception. When it comes to pornography it is not the men that have the control over most naming, it is in fact women and more importantly antipornographers. It is these people that call certain acts within pornography as degrading, humiliating, or talk about the portrayal of women as sexual objects. (Christensen, 75) Christensen wonders how an antipornographer can ever solely talk about the objectification of women and not about that of men. Most antipornographers completely leave out a genre of pornography, male homoerotic films, which also depict men in what they would call degrading and humiliating scenes. Christensen argues that for anyone that would say power of naming is reinforced as a tool of man’s power by pornography they are completely misrepresenting the content that they are simply writing on. They are doing some of the most detrimental naming that can be done in pornography because women who enjoy their profession and possible enjoy some of the so called ‘humiliating acts’, are being made to feel weak and pathetic. “Many women within the pornography business are not just actors; they are directors, producers, entrepreneurs, spokeswomen and most importantly they are women making lots of money and doing something they enjoy”, they are strong, independent and powerful women. (Christensen, 82)
Men would assert that the power of sex lies in the hands of the women, as an erection is involuntary and is a reaction to a women’s body and actions, henceforth she is the one with sexual power. Dworkin says that this is simply away for in which man is able to further force women into their sexual structure and roles. Sex is truly defined by the action a man takes with his penis; a sexual act is an act by a man ownership, of conquering and of acquiring. The true power henceforth does not lie with women causing erections but within a man’s penis, “sex is the penis, the penis is sexual power, its use in sex defines manhood.” (Dworkin, Pornography 23) “Sexual power is an attribute of the male, something that inheres in him as the taker of what he wants and needs, and especially as one to use his penis to take women.” (Dworkin, Pornography 24) To Dworkin there is no doubt that within pornography it is obvious that this power is constantly reinforced, time and time again, as this is the primary purpose of pornography. A female in a weak womanly role comes in, scantly dressed and with way too much makeup on, the powerful man see the women and wants to conquer a new domain. Within most pornography this is the way in which sex is started as the women being the procures of sexual attention, falsely attempting to support the notion of sexual power lying within the female, this according to Dworkin us further making all women look like whores and as though they always want sex. (Dworkin, Intercourse 158)
The power of sex in some pornography does lie in the hands of males, in some it lies in the hands of two males, in some a woman’s hands or two women’s hands or maybe 10 women’s hands. An organ can not within itself represent power unless named as a tool of power. It is not inherent within it that it is power. Power of sex comes from other places not an organ, it is often shown by the dominate person engaging in the sexual act, based on the person who started the act, the position of the act and the one in control, and by general attitude towards the act. (Christensen, 105) Christensen suggests that there are several genres that specifically show men in subordinate roles to dominate females. As well in the more main stream pornography there are often females shown in dominant roles, he suggests the idea of a boss and employee. He recognizes that this fulfills a specific fantasy and that it would be easy to dismiss this on the basis that it isn’t truly a power role as it is only false power created for enjoyment. Also then it must be recognized that all roles within pornography are fake and are design for enjoyment and to fulfill a specific fantasy. (Christensen, 29)
Legal pornography consists of consenting adult(s) in the actions they are choosing to portray. The anitpornography feminist movement does nothing more than degrade women, it essentially says that females are not capable of making up there own minds on these issues, so the apparent morals of this movement should be forced upon all women in order to protect them from the evils of men. Pornography is a source of sexual enjoyment for anyone who chooses to watch it, if a person finds it to be offensive then it is there choice not to watch or act in it, they are free to choose that.
Both men and women possess inherent qualities of dominance, they however are often displayed in different ways depending on their socialization. Pornographic images and videos, do certainly show at different times a certain amount of dominance but both sexes are represented as dominant depending on the pornography that is being viewed. As aforementioned it is a natural part of sex that at least one person would have to be in a position of power simply based on who engaged, position, and attitude. It is unfair to claim that it is always the man, and it has become less true in the past years as pornography has become marketed much more towards the liberated female, and couples. (Edward, 139) Sex is natural, sexual fantasies are natural, sexual curiosity is natural, sexual experimentation is natural, just as pornography is natural.
Bibliography
Alan, Soble. Pornography Sex and Feminism. 1st ed. Amherst: Promotheseus Books, 2002.
Christensen, F M. Pornography. New York: Praeger, 1990.
Dworkin, Andrea. Intercource. New York: The Free P, 1991.
Dworkin, Andrea. Life and Death. Toronto: The Free P, 1997.
Dworkin, Andrea. Pornography. 3rd ed. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1989.
Dworkin, Andrea. Woman Hating. 1st ed. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co.,Inc, 1974.
Edward, Donnerstein, Daniel Linz, and Steven Penrod. The Question of Pornography. 1st ed. New York: The Free P, 1993.
Funder, David C. The Personality Puzzle. 3rd ed. Riverside: University of California, 2004.
Hawkins, Gordon, and Franklin E. Zimring. Pornography In A Free Society. 4th ed. New York: Cambridge UP, 1995.
Micheal, Agnes, ed. Dic Webster's New World Notebook and Thesaurus Dictionary. 11th ed. 1 Georgia: Macmillan General Reference, 2005.
Power and Pornography:
Male Supremacy or Antipornography Propaganda?
By:
Tyler Coghill
250147323
For:
Dr. J. Newman
Women in Politics
Power and Pornography:
Male Supremacy or Antipornography Propaganda?
By:
Tyler Coghill
250147323
For:
Dr. J. Newman
Women in Politics
