I’ve been having some really interesting discussions about pornography recently. They have left me worried and confused. As a rebel-anarchist-feminist-liberal-radical-free market-anti-capitalist you can see how it *might* be problematic. Woolly notions of free speech, the evils of censorship and state (intervention) are warring with the oppression, violence, sexism and racism that can’t possibly ever be ok.
My dictionary tells me two stories. First it defines:
“Pornography: noun: books, pictures, films, etc designed to be sexually arousing, often offensive owing to their explicit nature”
Well it doesn’t really sound that bad does it? I’m mean where is the harm in sexually arousing material? I’m sure a lot of us have raced ahead to the naughty bits in books and have been turned on by sex scenes in films or on TV? All fine and dandy, if you don’t see sex as an Issue, it seems like we may be making too much fuss. I’m certainly no prude, bodies is bodies, and whilst there are many things I’d rather not see, hey I’m prepared to admit not everyone is me. Explicitness is certainly not what offends me.
But wait, story number two – the etymology or where this word ACTUALLY comes from:
19c: from Greek pornographos writing about prostitutes, from porne prostitute + graphein to write
This seems a bit closer to the current reality. Prostitutes my dictionary says are mostly women selling sex (it notes the term can be modified –with male or child). The reality is that pornography is overwhelmingly images of women, made by and sold to men and boys. The reality is a massive commercial industry, which is growing, a lot. But still, why is this worrying? If its only sex…
To me there are two issues: the first is the incredibly overt racism and sexism which in pornography. For those who question this, well I have a simple test for sexism – flip the gender roles, and see whether the result makes sense. So can you imagine our world where men dressed as sexually available rabbits is absolutely normal? Where little boys wear this rabbit branding on their t-shirts and underwear, and where majority of 11 year old boys aspire to pose naked for glossy magazines. I can’t. This is sexist. This is looking at the ‘softcore’ end of things. I’m not going to explain why graphic depictions of rape, abuse and violence overwhelmingly against women is problematic.
Racism – well can you imagine images in nuts and zoo, “the sport” etc. of black women? latina women? asian women? Okay now if you can – tell me, are they wearing leopard print? Or in the vicinity of palm leaves? Are they hot asian babes? Exotic huh? This is racist. Again, I’m not going to explain why hard core porn which uses terms like ‘nigger’ still, “black bitches” or “asian gang bangs” is racism.
Okay, but if we got rid of the racism and sexism – and we are so far away from that- is there a problem with porn still? Some draw a distinction between erotica and pornography. Erotica is defined by Diana Russell here as: “sexually suggestive or arousing material that is free of sexism, racism, and homophobia and is respectful of all human beings and animals portrayed”
Of course, I have no problem with this kind of material – freely produced and distributed. But what about when money gets involved? Money offen eds up in coercion and I have this niggling doubt that selling sex in any form is never going to end up in a great place. But then I think cookies are best when home-made and freely distributed, but still buy them sometimes. So maybe this one will have to wait until after the (r)evolution?
Whilst I like to contemplate my anarcha-paradise of freely exchanged love, sex and cookies, what do we do about the reality now? My overwhelming problem is that the racist and sexist, and plain unrealistic images of soft-core and Lads mags have spread, invading all of our spaces. Why are air-brushed, provocatively positioned buxom white women selling me toothpaste for heavens sake? Why are our young girls shaving their pubic hair before they’ve barely grown it? The images face me in every newsagents, in the windows of shops, on bill boards: – Music videos. Just watch a music video. Where are the images of strong healthy, happy, real human bodies? Where are the celebrations of human sexuality – in its diversity, not as imagined by a few rich white men. Where are the women dancing without poles and high heels? I saw women break dancing for the first time in my life this week and it was a revelation: women using their bodies to show other emotions, other sides of themselves, and their power, as well as their *own* sexuality. Why is that unusual?
I still have more questions than answers. I worry that critising the racism and sexism in pornography will be mistaken as critising women’s bodies, sexuality, that i might open the way to a repressive approach to sex by raising it. But pornography occurs in the context of a society where 1 in 4 women experience sexual violence. Whether sexist pornography is a symptom or cause, or some mix of both, can we fight back now please?
