Wackin’ it

13Aug08

XXBlaze has recently written an interesting post on sex positivism

“But let’s pretend that stripping, porn, and prostitution does not have such a grim legacy and doesn’t exist today in a largely inhumane fashion. Is sex work an act of feminism, or can it be?

“The answer is still no.

“The consumers of a message determine its validity. If I draw a really cool poster that I think depicts the idiocy of my political opponents’ racism and it winds up really pissing off both the people I’m defending and my allies, then my poster is not an act of rebellion, but an act of racism.

“Likewise, if I take off my clothes and say to myself, “I am expressing my sexuality and my empowerment”, but the men in the audience say “woo, titties!” and masturbate with a furious glee indistinguishable from their reaction to the disgusting rape porn stockpiled at home, then by taking off my clothes I am not the fueling the revolution, but just crafting another expression of the same old objectification.”

Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes! It doesn’t matter if you are a cool, feminist-minded lady whose intention in getting naked for others’ entertainment is to shirk restrictions against female sexuality, to show yourself as an empowered woman who has control over her body and her sexuality in the face of a patriarchy that wants too control it for her. What you are doing to show this control you have takes the exact form of what the patriarchy does to control women; aside from the intentions and the styling, they are indistinguishable, and some douchebag who comes across a “feminist” porn site featuring hot ladiez is going to have the same reaction as when he comes across a mainstream porn site. He is not going to be thinking about how empowered and in control the models are, but that they are hot and that they are sluts and that if he had a chance, he would insert foul sexual activity here them.

Can porn be feminist? I really don’t think so. Can it be feminist friendly? Mm, kind of. I am a woman who likes to look at pictures of naked people doing naked things to each other. I remember, as a wee little crankosaurus, doodling anatomically incorrect pictures while I humped a Looney Toons throw pillow; once I was given access to the Internet, this evolved into a love-hate relationship with porn. It made me feel bad about myself, about men, for the models; but oh! How I wanked! I don’t really look at it anymore, but it is nice to know that if I do ever want to, I can do so without feeling like I have contributed to the rape of an underaged, Eastern-European girl.

It’s a bit like free-range meat. It’s nice to know that the animal was able to turn around and not fed a cannibalistic diet while it was alive, but it’s still a dead animal, and eating it does very little to combat the factory farming system. It’s the same way with “feminist” porn–not as socially harmful, but it does very little to combat mainstream porn or the culture in which it flourishes. If you can’t live without meat, eat free-range. If you can’t live without porn, “feminist” porn is your best shot. But don’t act like you’re doing something political or important by wacking off to a woman with stretch marks.

Filed under: feminism, porn, sex   |  7 Comments