Pornography
“Pornography comes from the Greek root porne (harlot, prostitute, or female captive) and graphos (writing about or description of)” (Buchwald 35). Already the word pornography has a negative connotation towards women condemning women of porn to a submissive or exploited role. The pornography industry is predominantly a male owned and run business, hence the male perspectives portrayed versus the female perspectives portrayed in pornography. There is a lack of women, in the controlling ranks of the porn industry, calling the shots; this could be one possible contributor to the majority of pornography having content that belittles women in subtle even in blatantly purposeful ways apparent to any audience member. “In short, pornography is not about sex. It’s about an imbalance of power that allows and even requires sex to be used as a form of aggression” (Buchwald 31).
These two sorts of images are as different as love is from rape, as dignity is from humiliation, as partnership is from slavery, as pleasure is from pain. Yet they are confused and lumped together as ‘pornography’ or ‘obscenity,’ ‘erotica’ or ‘explicit sex,’ because sex and violence are so dangerously intertwined and confused (Buchwald 33).
With such a mounting body of evidence that pornography harms – from the reams of scientific studies, the testimony of law enforcement and mental health officials, and the actual experiences of real, live women – the civil rights antipornography activists began to ask: Whose freedom, and whose speech, is being protected? (Buchwald 292).
I viewed several aspects of pornographic material. I viewed “erotic” stories online, pornographic websites, pornographic DVDs and pornographic magazines, to get a sense of ...
... middle of paper ...
...orming a Rape Culture. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions.
http://english.literotica.com/stories/stories_by_category.php?category=13&page=15
Lindgreen, J. Ralph; Taub ed., Nadine. “Pornography.” Law of Sex Discrimination: 508-521.
Penthouse: Holiday 2003 General Media Communications, Inc. Holiday 2003: 35: 3.
Steinem, Gloria. Erotica vs. Pornography. Buchwald, Emilie, Pamela Fletcher and Martha Roth. 1993. Transforming a Rape Culture. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions.
Try A Teen 6. Visual Images: 2001.
Wolf, Naomi. 2001. “The Beauty Myth.” (474-9) Race, Class and Gender: an Anthology.
Anderson, Margaret; Collins, Patricia Hill; eds.
X Babes. Cream Entertainment: 2000.
Zia, Helen. 2001. “Where Race and Gender Meet: Racism, Hate Crimes, and Pornography.” (527-30) Race, Class and Gender: an Anthology. Anderson, Margaret; Collins, Patricia Hill; eds.
To sufficiently take a side in the ever-growing debate of pornography, one must first define the concept around which this discourse surrounds itself. A working definition for pornography is a piece of material that has the object purpose of arousing erotic feelings. Radical feminists, however, strictly define it as “the act of sexual subordination of women” (Dworkin 1986).
Professor’s Comment: This powerful essay contrasts the views of two feminist, Catherine MacKinnon and Sallie Tisdale, each of which perceives pornography in widely divergent ways. While MacKinnon's 'Not A Moral Issue' explains the adverse impacts of pornography to women and society as a whole, Tisdale's 'Talk Dirty to Me: An Intimate Philosophy of Sex' is receptive to pornography despite these adverse impacts, suggesting in fact that the solution to the problems associated with pornography is a greater role of women in production of that pornography.
Wesley "Wes" Anderson - born on May 1, 1969 in Houston, Texas - is an American director and screenwriter. Anderson’s films are known for their extremely unique style seemingly quirky narratives. He graduated from St. John's School in Houston in 1987, where he later used as one of the many sets in his film Rushmore. He then moved on and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1990, where he met a future collaborator Owen Wilson who he frequently worked with. Anderson's first film, Bottle Rocket (1996), based on a short film that
Women have long been exploited through pornographic material, such as videos, photos and literature, these materials, more-so now, than ever, portray women purely as sexual objects. The evolution of the business? popularity has done nothing but help fuel a false impression, subjugating women in modern day culture and society, yet still, banning pornography in the US would be nearly impossible, due to complex issues dealing with the first amendment and obscenity laws. With instances of discrimination based on sexual orientation, race or sex being in most cases illegal, the practice of pornography should most definitely not be acceptable or perpetuated, especially in a country like the US where this said industry defies everything of which our country is founded upon. This rise [in popularity] looks as if it is related, almost in a hand by hand parallel, with growth of sexual violence against women in America.
Kristol’s article writes that pornography and the pornographic industry has always been dominated by men (491). Throughout the history of the United States, men have taken precedence over women in many aspects. Men were considered the workers of the family while women stayed home and acted as housewives or catered to the men. The idea of feminism and women’s equality, however, is growing throughout the nation. With feminism and women’s equality at large, society must progress toward eliminating male domination and allowing the extension for women's opportunities; therefore, pornography and the male-dominated industry should be limited by the government. Aside from men and the power statuses they hold in pornography, Gail Dines in her article “Facts and Figures” discloses information about the male tendencies after watching pornography. Men have been reported to support female rape, have aggressive behavior toward women, have a decreased sex drive toward wives or girlfriends, and desire forced sexual acts after viewing pornography (1). Despite America’s best effort to protect all citizens, in reality, females are typically victims of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, and pornography is a cause of such violence. Although it is a key factor that plays a role in causing violence and aggressive behavior toward women, Americans are able to easily access videos or films instantly because of modern technology and the lack of pornography censoring. Because of the tendency to cause abuse in the real world, pornography must be censored in order to ensure that women are granted equal amounts of safety and
It is important to define pornography, as well as Tolstoy and Dewey’s definitions of art, in order to set the groundwork for my argument. To begin, in this paper, the term “pornography” refers to anything that, “is sexually explicit material that is primarily designed to produce sexual arousal in viewers.” Furthermore, pornography comes in a variety of media, be that literary, photography or video. For this work, I will be analyzing pornography that comes in video and photographic format, as well as former workers of the pornography industry.
In addition, she contradicts her own stance on the position when she mentions that previous literature containing sexually explicit content should not be censored (Brownmiller 59). Brownmiller paints a very strong, emotional, and offensive picture when she claims that women are, “being stripped, bound, raped, tortured, mutilated, and murdered in the name of commercial entertainment” (59). However, this statement is fallacious and does not provide any factual evidence. Furthermore, she makes the hasty generalization that pornography can make people think that certain things, such as rape, are acceptable (Brownmiller 59). Once again, her claim lacks support and relies solely on a faulty pathos appeal.
...gument against pornography is claiming that intercourse is an act of rape, the argument immediately seems outlandish and almost laughable, and it surely seems that way to the average person. People see these examples of radical feminism and attribute those isolated incidents as representative of the entire feminist movement as a whole. Therefore through complexity, the feminist movement lost a substantial amount of its genuine credibility due to perceived extremist views on female sexuality. This, among many other incidents, seems to be the cause of this great reversal in female sexuality in our current day society. Instead of putting an end to pornography, it flourishes. Instead of bringing an end to female objectification, it is often nowadays encouraged. This reversal of feminist ideals is the main cause for the damage to female gender roles in the 21st century.
This unit's readings are about the body and how it has been treated and exploited in today’s culture. Annette Lynch's book, Porn Chic, focuses on the impact of modern day style on young women and young girls and what this means in terms of sexuality and gender construction. Focusing on Lynch's book we see how the actual term “porn chic” has become prevalent in the modern day. “Porn chic” refers to the fashions and related trend-based behaviors linked to the porn industry that have now become mainstreamed into the dress of women and girls today (Lynch, 3).
Laura Kipnis has described pornography as “an archive of data about...our history as a culture”. Therefore if, she described it as such, what can it tell us about the sexual history of the 20th century? Examining the history of the forms of archive from pornographic playing cards to blu-ray discs and the internet, this shows the ever changing form of how as a society we view pornography. From the forms of archive come the social implications of pornography. This will be examined through the 1986 Meese Commission in the United States of America into the pornographic industry. Finally, this exposition will also examine the differing views of Gay and Straight pornography and the changes that have taken over the 20th century. Overall, the 20th century was a fundamental shift in sexual attitudes towards pornography.
India sits in the middle of the scale and can be considered both individualistic and collective. There is great need for belonging to a bigger social framework. In Indian culture family is highly stressed. They strive to increase and preserve their family’s riches, by working hard in order to maintain the family’s dignity and insure the longevity of their offspring.. On the other hand the individualistic aspects of Indian culture are influenced by the major religion in India, which is Hinduism. Hindus believe in reincarnation where past lives are seen as affecting and determining the present life, as a result of this individuals are responsible for how they live their lives and how that will impact their next lives. Since aspects of both individualism and collectivism are present, India scores intermediately in this dimension. (Cultural tools, n.d.)
... sabotages the subject-object relationship. To display an autonomous, free willed being will dismantle the taken for granted passivity and vulnerability of the victim. Meanwhile, it is crucial for women to acknowledge the vulnerability of male genitalia. Yet this is not the final solution to rape, Marcus argues. Rather, individuals need to “frighten rape culture to death” (p. 379).
Pornography has been the topic of discussion in the court systems for years. Many would like to see legislation against it and software to filter it. The problem is it's not that easy and making laws against it would pose a problem against the first amendment. There have many issues brought up on the grounds that it is demoralizing to women and is filth for the eyes of children. But, is pornography really that harmful?
To some, pornography is nothing more than a few pictures of scantily clad Women in seductive poses. But pornography has become much more than just Photographs of nude women. Computer technology is providing child molesters and child pornographers with powerful new tools for victimizing children. Pornography as "the sexually explicit depiction of persons, in words or images, Sexual arousal on the part of the consumer of such materials. No one can prove those films with graphic sex or violence has a harmful effect on viewers. But there seems to be little doubt that films do have some effect on society and that all of us live with such effects.