i think i'm becoming an anti-porn feminist...

believe me, i haven't always been this highly evolved. (har har)

i haven't even truly been a feminist for all that long either. for my first twenty-nine years i walked around in a daze of, "oh, it's not that bad. things aren't as pleasant or fair as i'd like them, but if you can't fight 'em you might as well join 'em." and then i pulled my head out of my ass.

phew! the view is much different out here!

anyway, i have gradually been defining and redefining my feminist perspective over these last few years and i think i've done a 180.

where i used to think of porn and sex work as some version of "grrl power" and women's liberation and sexual freedom and rah-rah-rah, i'm starting to feel much differently about it now. part of it comes with living in a neighborhood where the majority of sex work in this city takes place. and i don't mean strip clubs, i mean real, live women, in urine soaked alleys, sucking some nasty guy's dick for a dollar or a rock or whatever they need for their next fix. and it doesn't look so empowering from this angle.

i've also been reading a lot more on the subject and deciding for myself, from my own moral compass, what i think is beneficial to the well-being and advancement of all women, and pornography and sex work don't seem to fit into that picture.

so with that, here are some links to some fascinating reads i've had lately, depressing though they may be. and remember, what you don't know can hurt you so don't remain ignorant to things just because they're ugly or scary. find out for yourself and come to your own conclusions about what's really going on out there.

Rape as control:

So, what do we have so far?

* A culture in which men punish other men for not being masculine
* A culture which says that power is the key to masculinity
* A culture which says that women are acceptable targets for anger
* A culture which says that having sex with women will make you powerful
* A culture which says that women are after your power at all times

Sounds pretty scary huh?

Enter pornography. The one medium which encompasses all of these things on one, easy to consume, orgasm fest. In pornography men see that not only are women acceptable targets, but that they LIKE it that way. In pornography men get to see that women actually enjoy the degrading things that they would hate.

Because see, even though the other things in the list above are scary on their own there is one thing that MUST be present in each and every single rapist. I daresay that rape would go extinct completely if not for this one little thing.

For a man to rape he must see his victim as an object less worthy of emotion and empathy than himself.

And pornography provides that ability to each and every single man who clicks on it. Pornography infuses each and every single category from above in one abusive package. Pornography is a medium of power and of control and it shatters any and all reservations that a man who has fallen prey to the other aspects, may have in raping. In porn he is told that not only are women acceptable targets for his abuse, but also that they like it. They enjoy it, they beg for more of it.

In pornography women not only become objects, they become animals and the men looking at porn not only don’t respect the women but they also come to feel anger towards them. Even progressing to outright hostility. They see men acting in horrific, derogatory ways and they see that the women like it and even deserve it.

How can you defend porn?

When faced with stories like this? Can you honestly sit there and throw away all the women hurt by pornography and sex work so you can kiss the ass of the patriarchy? Don't give me the "but I'm a feminist too" bullshit. It happened to her because she's a woman, no other reason. If you can't see her and see the misogyny rampant in an industry that makes it's money by exploiting women?

[...]

Yep porn is victim free and you should be cheerleading it so that men don't mistake you for a hairy legged prude with sexual hangups because she doesn't acquiesce to men's dehumanisation of women. Sure, fine, go flame away at me, but when you defend porn make sure you know what you're defending. (Note: It's not women's right to be human, it's men's "right" to exploit women.)

Student politics update and a bit on terrorism:

Because it is terrorism. The government is wetting it's pants over jihad loving Muslim fanatics, while everyday, all over the world, women are being raped and abused simply because they are WOMEN. Where is the discussion on incitement to gender hatred? Where are the angry newspaper articles on the crimes of sexist hate, the misogyny motivated attacks, the systematic abuse of one group of people by another based solely on their biological difference? We are shocked and appalled, and rightly so, every time we hear of an anti-semitic or other racially or religiously motivated attack, yet attacks against women are NEVER described as being motivated by gender. She'd been nagging him for years, she slept with another man, she was drunk and abusive, she was asking for it. NEVER do we hear 'she was attacked/abused because she was female'.

i'll admit it's not a lot of lighthearted, happy friday information, but it's something you should think about anyway. and happy friday.

update: i thought i should bring the link to le lyon's post out of the comments and into the discussion.