The myth the legend feminist porn

1. The myththe legendfeminist porn Rosie Alig PSE 2011 Intro

2. PORN WARS vs.

3. This isn’t just about women • “I’m sure I don’t have to work too hard to convince you that for as many limited, limiting, stereotypical, heterosexist notions in porn that exist for women, there are just as many that exist for men. Men are portrayed as the domineering, dominant, in charge, virile, muscular, top character in virtually every way in the porn industry, a depiction that hurts and polices the vast range of male sexualities—just as depicting women as the receptive, passive counterparts is hurtful to women. And while there is a huge world of queer porn out there, most of the ethical, thoughtful, gender-aware is trans or female, and there hasn’t been many explorations of masculinity through video and porn.”-Sinclair Sexsmith • “[F]or queers, there’s very little representation (or authenticity) of our sexuality. So being a part of pornography for me is a radical thing. Bringing our sexuality to the screen is a chance to share with one another, to educate, to validate our life! For so many of us it is terrifying to come to terms with our sexuality. It’s not well-documented, it’s not reflected in media, it’s not taught in schools, it’s often shamed and hidden and criminalized. So to have visible pleasure is an extremely empowering thing.”-Jiz Lee • “For some transmen, typical porn with cis people can leave them somewhat dysphoric or simply disconnected, because they don’t see themselves or their sex lives or fantasies reflected.” xxboy

4. The haterz • Harm to women during production • “My own sense…is that consuming for one’s own pleasure a product made out of a stanger’s need to exchange his or her sexuality for money - as opposed to enjoying a sexual image made out of someone’s free desire to express herself and create communication out of her erotic life - causes an indefinable but palpable abrasion of the soul. If we consume material whose conditions of manufacture are unknown to us, but that might be unsafe or painful for those involved in it, we hurt ourselves; we throw off our ethical equilibrium in some unquantifiable way.”-Naomi Wolf • Women reduced to sex objects • “Sex in advertising is pornographic because it dehumanizes and objectifies people, especially women, and because it fetishizes products, imbues them with an erotic charge - which dooms us to disappointment since products never can fulfill our sexual desires or meet our emotional needs”-Jean Kilbourne • Enticement to sexual violence • “Pornography is the theory, and rape the practice.” - Robin Morgan • “When pornography is… normal, a whole population of men is primed to dehumanise women and to enjoy inflicting assault sexually… Pornography is the perfect preparation - motivator and instruction manual in one - for… sexual atrocities.” - Catharine MacKinnon • Rape of children • Distorted view of sexuality

5. The haterz • 2000s Anti Porn • 60s Anti Porn • “A woman reading Playboy feels a little like a Jew reading a Nazi manual.”-Gloria Steinem • “There can be no equality in porn, no female equivalent, no turning of the tables in the name of bawdy fun. Pornography, like rape, is a male invention, desgined to dehumanize women… Pornography is the undiluted essence of anti-female propoganda.” - Susan Brownmiller • “People who believe that porn is liberating for women…should call themselves ‘pornists’ or some other word. They are not feminists. Period.” -Krista Matthews

6. On the fence • “Pornography hurts because we feel powerless to prevent real abuse; if we could consume it in an equal environment, would it frighten us in the same way?”- Natasha Walter • Women and men who oppose pornography for its normalisation of violence will have to fight hard if we’re going to avoid the suffragists’ fate of being recorded in history as boring, asexual bluestockings…Depictions of mutual pleasure and the sexualisation of equlaity are so rare that pornographers seem to have the franchise on sex.” –Gloria Steinem • “In the end, though, I think the only logical stance to take with regards to it is to talk about it and to encourage people to think critically about it… I think the days of being able to restrict access to porn are long gone – if it was ever successful in the first place. The only reasonable remedy to the possible problems caused by misreading porn are pre-emptive education. Honest discussion about porn’s place in society and encouraging critical thinking as to what it all means.”-Ms. Naughty (blogger) “This country does have a problem with porn, but that problem is that so much of it is so stupid. “-Anon blogger

7. Hellz yeah • “…there is a difference between feeling and action that MacKinnon fails to see: namely, the difference betwen getting turned on by images of domination, and getting turned on by such images and then raping people…. although I may have similar sexual responses, I am not going to rape or brutalise anyone.” - Donna Minkowitz • “We don’t have a problem with pornography, unless, of course, it doesn’t turn us on…So, rather than trying to rid the world of sexual images we think are negative, as some of our sisters have done, we’re far more interested in encouraging women to explore porn, to find out whether it gets them hot or merely bothered.”-Marcelle Karp and Debbie Stoller

8. Hellz Yeah • “I think that porn can normalize sex. It can make sex seem more familiar, and less scary. It can remind people that sex is a natural desire, one that all or most of us share. It can remind us that, no matter what our sexual thoughts and desires are, chances are someone else is having them, too. It can make us feel more comfortable with our sexuality. It can make us feel like we have permission to explore our sexuality, in fantasy or in the flesh or both. It can expand our sexual horizons: exposing us to possibilities we might never have considered, and making our own sex lives richer. It can make people with fairly standard sexual desires feel more connection and understanding for those of us whose desires are on the fringe. It can make people with fringe desires feel like we’re not alone.” -Greta Christina

9. before

10. after

11. resources • Jane’s Guide • Center for Sex and Culture • No Fauxxx • Sex is Not the Enemy • Tristan Taormino • Feminist Porn Awards

12. El fin