feministdisney:

kissmyarsenic:

I’m a feminist, but I’ve never understood the argument about porn exploiting women. I think Kimota-sage and I had this argument once and I slapped him lololol. Yeah that was wrong…but he said he didn’t even feel it. XD Needless to say, I think he’s reformed his opinion on the subject. 

Anyway, if it is exploitative to women, it’s exploitative to men as well. But it doesn’t have to be. Plenty of porn stars love their career and what they do, and feel it is empowering. So why is this even an issue?

Prostitution on the other hand is a whole different issue and should never be lumped in with pornography. Unless of course these women are of age and consenting, which is rarely the case. 

sex slavery ≠ all prostitution… many prostitutes are of age and consenting, although yes, economic pressures might be the reason many of them chose that line of work, rather than an overwhelming love for sex work.   Do you have any citation for of age, consenting prostitutes (which are sometimes men, as well) being “rarely the case”?   Obviously sex slavery and that type of exploitation is a huge issue but it’s not a reason to decry all prostitution.  But both porn and prostitution are types of sex work so at some points they will be lumped together.   And to be honest, we could make the same generic statement about porn… not everyone gets into it because they are enthusiastic sex workers, although that is the case for many.   Not everyone you see in those videos really wants to be there… for some people, it is just a way to pay bills.   And if you look into the reality of “porn star life,” most of them do not make enough money from porn alone to live by (not everyone is a huge star), and some use porn as advertisement for other work they do- usually other varieties of sex work such as stripping or prostitution.

There’s a difference between saying all porn is exploitative, and some of it is.   Because some of it definitely is.   It’s not equally expoloitative of men because the exploitation occurs in how the porn is produced- it’s not a result of the porn simply existing.   In most porns, the camera is framed from a heterosexual male point of view, which continues to push “the male gaze” as the only gaze allowed in society.   If you watch mainstream- i.e., the average porn, not a specifically woman-friendly or queer-friendly etc. porn produced by consciousious companies- you will find that the camera is focused on the woman, and the woman’s body parts, the majority of the film.   It will often focus on the face of the woman but rarely on the man’s.    The majority of actresses will fit the societal ideal of “the perfect woman,” yet the actor rarely does.   The porn almost always concludes (in hetero porn, which is the majority of mainstream) when the man comes, rather than anything mutual, or the woman does.  

Showing porn from “The male gaze” isn’t an evil thing, but when sexuality is always posited as something we view through the male lens, it alters our perception of sexuality and of our own (women, if you are one) bodies and that of other women.   Think of how often you see a woman’s body part or silhouetted outline used to convey that a product is generically sexy; think of how often you’ve seen a man’s body used for marketing in the same way… even when we’re dealing with non-gendered products.   Other issues with porn include unrealistic portrayals of sex and sexuality, which can be a problem when people are exposed to porn on a daily basis (and from an early age, before they are sexually active with real people) and eventually come, subconsciously, to expect “porn behavior” from real relationships.   Men sometimes expect women to always want sex, to always have shaved parts, to always be okay with anal sex (which is pretty much standard in porn today, yet is something that should usually be first discussed and consented to in a real sexual relationship) as well as other acts, because these things are matter-of-course in porn.  And in this way it can be a disservice to anyone, not just women.   Idk.   I’m not like a porn expert and this is all just a brief overview, but if you google it there are a LOT of good sources for this topic as it relates to feminism… it’s definitely not a simple matter of “it has people having sex together consensually, so it is bad,” because that isn’t the problem- the way it tends to operate is.   And there definitely are very great porns out there that are non-exploitative, it just takes a little searching. 

And if someone finds their job or sexual act empowering, that’s great, but that doesn’t always equate to it necessarily being 100% good as something for everyone to view on a public stage.   What is empowering for you isn’t always empowering for the average viewer, or all women, or all men, simply because it is a consented to sexual act- and that’s okay.   It can still be self-empowering.   But that doesn’t make it holy and untouchable as a discussion topic.