Pornography

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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.

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