It’s always about finding some “women” over their who are social dopes, blinded by patriarchy, women who know not what they do, women who perform for men, always the endless search for the bright line separating dressing “for us” and dressig “for men.”

I’m often frustrated by anti-porn arguments for several reasons, but not this one. This, I think, is mostly just throwing rocks at the anti-porn feminists. I’m sure there are some who are trying to fashion a reconstituted feminist “good girl” space for themselves, but it is unfair to paint broadly with that brush. Sure, it’s ugly to accuse women of having false consciousness, whether by that name or not, but most feminists also agree that not everything every women does is good for women. And few of us doubt that there are women doing porn who hate it and lack good options. Even Jenna Jameson concedes that she got into stripping and then porn after she was sexualized young and found herself in a bad spot without good options. See, e.g. Traci Lords.

As I said, I do get frustrated with some anti-porn arguments. For example, the rhetorical tactic of conflating prostitution with porn annoys me, Of course both are sex work and both in many instances involve penetration of a woman by a man for pay, so that the latter is a subset in a sense of the former. But the conditions they encompass are different enough that I think the conflation is merely a strategic attempt to tar porn with the far worse conditions present in other kinds of sex work. the argument goes, if modeling for a porn magazine is the same as filming a porn movie, and filming a porn movie is the same as working for an escort service, and working for an escort service is the same as being lured to a foreign country and held as a slave, then transitively sitting for a pornographic magazine shoot is the same as being kidnapped and forced into prostitution. While I think reasonable people may (and I do) think women are exploited some, most or even all of the time in each of those four circumstances, saying that they don’t differ in significant respects in in my view untenable.

As a feminist who likes some porn, I found the anti-porn essay interesting. I was surprised at her descriptions – I suppose some must be like that, but not the stuff I watch. ‘course, I use the reviews at Good Vibrations to pick most porn I rent, which might help.

I think it’s a difficult and thorny issue, and certainly one worth discussing.

They didn’t have an argument. They had a bunch of assertions, none of it supported by an explication of the evidence. The waved their hands at evidence, but they didn’t illustrate anything with specific references.

Personally, I couldn’t care less about watching porn. I’ve seen enough of it, though, to know that their description of what’s out there and what is typically viewed by het men? Well, it was dubious at best.

What annoys me is precisely what Tim at The Wrong Side of Capitalism said about this kind of analysis.Which is what I say about Levy: it’s a reappropriation of the very madonna/whore complex that vexes us interminably. It’s always about finding some “women” over their who are social dopes, blinded by patriarchy, women who know not what they do, women who perform for men, always the endless search for the bright line separating dressing “for us” and dressig “for men.”

It’s quite annoying.

The knee-jerk reactions effectively stop debate

It’s tough to find common ground about porn, partly because so many folks may make arguments that allow for nuanced approaches, but what they really want it either outright absence or total freedom. There are a few of us, however, that think that some sexually explicit material is okay and some isn’t, and that we ought to be able to do something about the bad stuff.

I don’t like that some folks call feminists who oppose porn anti-sex. Sure, some folks really are anti-sex, but that conclusion does not follow from even the most sweeping opposition to porn. It’s just a dismissive accusation.

I think it’s a difficult and thorny issue, and certainly one worth discussing.