thetuffmuff:

Back in my ignorant youth, I distinctly remember defending pornography.  My liberal tendency to protect women’s sexual empowerment interfered with the ability to think critically about porn. In reality, viewing porn at a young age left me feeling physically ill. What I saw being done to women’s bodies confused me, terrified me and at no point did I ever feel empowered. Since becoming a radical feminist,  I’ve learned many lessons about pornography. 

Lesson #1: Feminist pornography doesn’t matter. 

Back in the day, I argued that feminist pornography existed and that it was a positive step towards women’s sexual liberation. I argued that women in pornography were simply exercising their own choices and who was I to criticize that choice. I utilized any liberal excuse I could think of to justify the existence of the porn industry. Words like “agency” and “ individual choice” spewed from my mouth. Of course,  I acknowledged that there were indeed bad parts to pornography that were made by deranged individuals but I insisted that it wasn’t reflective of industry itself. When I entered into the world of radical feminism, the liberal rhetoric I would normally used was defeated by the stories women would tell me about pornography and how it had affected them.. When looking at the bigger picture of women’s lives, it doesn’t matter that feminist pornography exists. 

I’m sure out there in this vast society, there is porn that doesn’t degrade women. I’ve personally never seen it but sure, okay…it exists out there…. somewhere. The problem is not that it exists or that it’s even being labelled as “feminist”;  The problem is that feminist pornography is not the problem. Yet liberal feminists and men alike (surprise, surprise) are quick to run to the defense of the “not all that bad” pornography.  

I hate this assertion that “it’s not all that bad”. Not because I don’t believe the assertion but because it’s not the point. The point is that the BULK MAJORITY of porn is misogynistic and that is what men are watching. The market for feminist pornography is a teeny tiny niche of people who want to avoid the normal misogyny portrayed in porn but still want to  get off by being creepy voyeurs. 

In preparation for writing this post, I hesitantly researched feminist pornography and came across an informative website. And what I noticed is that there is no definitive difference between feminist porn and mainstream porn with the exception that feminist porn features more female directors as well as LGBTQ performers/themes. 

Otherwise, the language and images shown are more or less the same. Women (or MTF trans) are still submissive, holes are still “pounded” and women are still bitches and sluts. 

The reality is that words like bitch and slut are used relentlessly in all pornography as a way to humiliate and degrade women  much like they are used in real life by men to harass women in the streets when their advances are dismissed. These words are used by men when female co-workers are perhaps being overbearing or demanding or ya know..doing her job. In the eyes of men, these words make it easy to reduce a  woman, no matter their position in the world, into a thing to fuck. And this is reinforced by pornography. 

Calling something feminist doesn’t make it so. Especially porn. No matter who is behind the camera. 

Lesson #5: Being critical of porn does not make you a prude.

I’ve been anti-porn for about five years and so far, have been accused of being “fanatical”, “prudish”, “moralistic”, and “sex negative”. While most of the accusations are baseless, I’m always a bit dismayed by the notion that I’m “anti-sex” or “sex-negative”.

Let me set the record straight for anyone (ahem…men) who make these assumptions about people (cough…mostly women…cough) who speak out against the porn industry:  There is nothing to be prudish about rejecting porn ‘cause it got nothin’ to do with sex. What people fail to understand is that I am critical porn because I want to defend sex. I want to protect it. I want sex to be as fulfilling as it can be for those who want it. Whether its a one night stand or part of a long-term relationship, sex should be have some elements of respect, intimacy and connection.

Lesson #6: Men use pornography to attack women. 

Thank fuck I found radical feminism in my early twenties. Radfems, who picked up their pens and said what needed to be said, inspired me to reject the porn industry.  However, it wasn’t just the writings of Andrea Dworkin and Gail Dines that challenged my views on pornography. 

It was women calling the rape crisis line I volunteered at. It was the formerly prostituted women I worked with. It was women who had been forced to watch pornography with her boyfriend. It was prostituted women who were gang raped by johns as the cameras were rolling. It was women who were manipulated by their boyfriends to ‘act out’ scenes they had seen in pornography. It was women who were groomed by pornography as young children before being raped by male family members. 

It was women, survivors, who taught me that pornography is not empowerment and will not liberate us. 

What I do know is that liberation will come when we open our mouths, tell our truths and not give a fuck about the liberal excuses.