Delaporte 1 Brian Delaporte 10/11/11 SMAD 301 Professor Flamiano Pornography: A Cultural Threat Imagine you are a woman

in a committed heterosexual relationship. You and your partner are sexually active, and have been for quite some time now. One night back at home, after a romantic dinner, your partner asks you to do something sexually you have never done before, nor have ever even thought of doing. You feel uneasy of his request, and quite frankly shocked that he would ever ask you to perform such an act. Yet at the same time he is the love of your life, has showed you a phenomenal evening, and the last thing you want to do is deny his request, make him upset, and ruin a perfect night. As a result, you play along and agree to do what has been asked of you, even though you are not tolerable of what is being done to you or your body. So, is he taking advantage of you? Yes. Are you correct to question what is going on? Absolutely. And is this type of practice acceptable? According to most if not all radical feminists, the answer is overwhelmingly no, not ever. The pornography industry has grown into a market based solely on profits, and has created an image that encourages our culture to disregard any moral, ethical, or humanist qualities of which women everywhere are entitled to. The modern day pornography industry has brainwashed the minds of countless men and women within todays society. One man, who shares the same sets of ideals with radical feminists who paved the way such as Andrea Dworkin and Gail Dines, is Dr. Robert Jensen, a Professor of Journalism at the University of Texas. According to Dr. Jensen, since the postWorld War II era, the pornography industry has grown into a type of paradox: Pornography has

Delaporte 2 become more accepted and normalized in pop-culture than ever before, yet at the same time the content of porn has grown to be more overtly condescending towards women and extremely racist (Jensen, Lecture). Although these two points are somewhat contradictory, they have grown together in our society and have established themselves as influential in todays culture. Yet why do we as citizens allow such a phenomenon to take place in our culture, even though we know it to be wrong and unethical? The answer, like many things in our society comes back to money. Whether we like it or not, pornography has become a mass-marketed industrial product, characterized by a directors artistic sense of content. Although we may not like to view it as such, some pornographic filmmakers and photographers consider their work art. This sense of art can range from the scripts they write for explicit films, the angles they shoot or film from, or even the way they interpret their pieces. Radical feminists, along with scholars such as Dr. Jensen, most certainly disagree with such a claim. Many and most non-pornographic forms of art can and often have been interpreted to convey a type of sexual theme or message. These pieces of art hold a sense of mystery to them, leaving them up to the interpretation of the audience. Jensen believes that sex is comparable to mystery, and porn is sex without mystery (Jensen, Lecture). Art has numerous sexual themes that the viewer must dissect and organize mentally and emotionally. Passionate sex for example, can be deemed a form of art. Pornography on the other hand, completely rules out any type of emotion or passion between two partners. Pornos such as feature films are scripted mini-movies that can be considered fake or staged sex. Other types of films, such as a gonzo, basically show two people having sex on tape and try to make the viewer feel as if they were filming the sex themselves. Jensens overarching point here is that within sex we find passion, desire, and in

Delaporte 3 many instances, love. Staged sex does not define love nor does it try to. All it does is degrade women in a way that is less than heartfelt. Pornography however, is not simply just staged sex. Jensen defines a deeper meaning of porn as being presented in the context of the domination by men and subordination of women (Jensen, Should I do it?). In pornography, men are seen as the enforcers and as having complete control and power over the woman and her body. Explicit films portray woman as cowardly, weak, and subservient to men. They are degraded and taken advantage of in these films often times by more than one male at a time, placing even more emphasis on the cultural gender roles already conveyed and put in place. For example, racism in pornographic material has increased dramatically, in particular something known as interracial porn. Jensen describes the idea originally conceived by Gail Dines, as a script where black stud men are paired with white women for sexual intercourse. The pairing of different races alludes to the idea that a white woman is being degraded by having to have sex with a black man. This notion is obviously extremely racist towards the man, and again depicts the women as being humiliated and frowned upon for having sex with someone of the opposite race. Despite the fact that we know pornography is degrading towards women and racist towards men, we still continue to subject ourselves to such nonsense and stereotypical material. Is there a reason why we continue to watch pornography, and have it beat these overtly inaccurate stereotypes into our heads? One obvious but important reason men in particular still continue to watch porn, is because porn is different than sex. According to Dr. Jensen, Pornography is primarily a masturbation-facilitator for men. Its one of the ways that men use women for sexual pleasure. Its a mediated form of prostituted sex (Savia and Jensen). In other words, men often times need to stimulate themselves in ways aside from sex, and pornography is

Delaporte 4 the easiest way to that. Explicit photos and films are easily accessible through the internet and are typically free. This in turn, creates a low-cost type of convenience that can be hard to ignore due to promotional and advertising tactics. It is estimated that 70 90 % of the pornography industry is directed exclusively to male viewers (Jensen, Lecture). The overall baseline of all pornography is simply the objectification of the female body, and this is ultimately what men are searching for. There is no sort of emotional attachment viewers feel when engaging themselves in pornographic material, because that simply is not the point. The point is for them to identify an object with pleasure, because that is what our culture has been desensitized to know and do. One negative outcome of pornography, relating to the future, that Jensen highlights in the article Should I do it? Women struggle with porn-driven sex, is that pornography can lead to a serious absence of empathy in men towards not only women, but to all human beings alike. Pornographic films particularly watching gonzo films, encourages men to see women as vehicles for their sexual pleasure, even depicting women as eager to participate in their own degradation (Jensen, Should I do it?). Jensens concern for a lack of empathy in men exposed to highly graphic material such as pornography spurs serious discussion for the direction our society is headed. Will men eventually reach a point in time where they will have no regard for any normal values, ethics, or morals? Will humanism eventually become non-existent, and will we ultimately be living in a culture unknowing of emotion or passion? Jensen brings up serious long term questions of consequence not just for our generation, but for the many generations of the future. Empathy is certainly a quality that we as human beings living amongst one another need to have in order to grow and develop as a functional society. In summary, pornography has become an extremely influential medium within our society since the end of World War II. Not only has pornography become more widely accepted

Delaporte 5 in popular culture than ever before, but it has also negatively influenced the way our culture thinks and acts towards women and other ethnically diverse groups. At its peak, the pornography industry produced roughly 13,000 films a year, whereas Hollywood only produced around 600 (Jensen, Lecture). Radical Feminist groups, along with journalists and scholars such as Dr. Robert Jensen, have fought to both inform and change the culture we have let ourselves grow up upon. The fact that we as a society have allocated the discrimination against women and other ethnic groups through pornographic material just proves how powerful the internet (along with other technological advances) and media have become within our culture and daily lives. All we as citizens can do is keep ourselves well informed and aware of the swirling stereotypes that surround our culture, and try to see past what is false and look towards the truth that lies ahead.

Delaporte 6 Works Cited Jensen, Robert. Lecture Jensen, Robert. "Should I Do It? To Women Who Struggle with Porn-Driven Sex." Web log post. Ms. Magazine Online | More Than A Magazine - A Movement. Web. 11 Oct. 2011. <http://msmagazine.com>. Savia, and Robert Jensen. "Pornography Undermines Our Humanity." Web log post. True Feminism. Web. 11 Oct. 2011. <http://true-feminism.blogspot.com/>.