published in womyn's vertigo 2006.
by bina bhattacharya and rhiannon o'donoghue
Throughout my teen years I, like pretty much every other teenage girl on the planet, was obsessed with my physical appearance. I wanted desparately to be attractive and thin and measure my self-worth based on how much I conformed to pervading conventional standards of beauty. I made a conscious decision when I started university to stop caring too much about my appearance. I was determined to be valued on my true worth: my ideas, my creativity, my worth. And it’s largely worked. I get a whole lot more respect out of people, especially men, now that I don’t shave my armpits or legs and only wear jeans and a tshirt. I had to prove that I was no an object to be taken seriously.
So it might surprise you as to why I am vehemently opposed to the idea of censoring pornography. Isn’t this the sort of degrading, misogynistic practice that crystallises women as passive and brainless, mere receptacles of male conquest? Yes, but it needn’t be.
I’m the first to admit that a lot of porn makes me sick: watching a long-fingernailed woman masturbate gives me shivers and watching a man come all over a woman’s face makes me want to throw up my most recent meal. I know plenty of porn stars are abused, drug-dependant and self-loathing. I don’t, however, see abolition as the answer.
I’ve heard the arguments both ways round, and I think I may just have to go with the anti-porn feminists on this one. I want to point out that this basis doesn’t stem from me being prudish, or anti-sex, pr even from supporting censorship, but rather from an understanding of pornography as complicit with the patriarchal system which oppresses women. For me, the patriarchy is the modes of operating which are all around us, which say that women should be submissive to men, that women should place great importance on their physical looks, that says when we talk of our experiences we are being hysterical, and that we shouldn’t speak at all.
Patriarchy – what’s the link with porn? A lot of porn if women assuming roles of submission, and not infrequently depicts women in scenes of violence and rape. Women are more than their bodies, and while some may find porn liberating, I think that we have been tricked into thinking that we can achieve liberation through sexualising ourselves for the hetro male population. The sexualisation of women is a historical burden, and one that I don’t think a few pro-women porn films is going to lift. Even though some individual women may find porn liberating, I just can’t support the porn industry because the majority of the images the industry portrays continue to feed stereotypes of women that I, as a feminist, want to challenge.
Everytime I go to the Toolshed on Oxford St, I ask the congenial staff for some ‘girly’ porn – you know, ‘artistic’ stuff with more ‘natural’ looking women and the semblance of a story line. I get the same response from every staff member: “We had some, but it all sold out. There’s a huge market for it – we get young women, especially queer women, coming in and asking for female-friendly porn all the time. I tell them the only way we’re going to get more is if they start making it themselves.”
As both a feminist and a filmmaker, I encourage women to reclaim pornography, to make their own and set new standards of creativity within the genre. I’m going to quote one of my heroes here, Nina Hartley [yes, she is a porn star], a proud Marxist and feminist who once said “the most erogenous organ in your body is your brain”. Unlike other forms of filmmaking, pornography is low budget and with the accessibility of digital cameras and the Internet, amateur porn is gaining momentum. Women are precluded from mainstream filmmaking because the means of production are so limited. Pornography is actually a space where women can make a contribution and hopefully set new standards.
So maybe women should start making more women-friendly poen if this is lacking in whats currently on offer. But while some feminists argue that porn made and directed by women is liberating and affirm women’s sexualities, I am unable to reconcile the difference between body/sexuality affirming porn with that which exploits women through promoting certain body types for a predominantly male audience.
Presently the vast majority of porn which is consumed, is not by young queer women, but by a male audience which buy into the very stereotypes and presumptions of how women should act and look. I can’t see how this is empowering. I also think that pornography which portrays women being submissive contributes to men’s understanding of women as sexual objects. No more, no less. Women in porn don’t get to present anything other than their bodies: they have no chance of interacting with those that consume them, and certainly aren’t valued for their brains or ideas.
I really believe that men learn a lot from about women from how they are portrayed in society, through media and the structures women live and work in. as I see it, the fact that there are such high incidences of rape and sexual violence in this country means there is a problem in the way which women are portrayed where men feel it is appropriate to violate women, and I don’t think that porn is neutral in this problem.
Saying abolition is the solution to pornography denies women involved in the process any agency, and is, ironically, paternalistic. The first founding principle of feminism should be self-determination of women. I don’t see how implying that women who enjoy porn are self-loathing or disgusting is respectful to our autonomy.
While I may be vehemently anti-porn I would never suggest it was censored or abolished. I am also not suggesting that women who enjoy porn are self-loathing or disgusting and on the contrary think that sexuality is entirely natural, and people should explore their bodies in any way they want. I would never dream of telling people what to do, recognising that people are free to make choices based on their beliefs and life experiences. And finally, I do not consider women [or men] who make porn ‘victims’. I do however believe the porn industry normalises the stereotypes of women that are promulgated through the media and society more broadly.
Women [and queers, people with disabilities, all sorts of minorities really[ have traditionally been oppressed by being denied the right to an active, healthy sex life. We are made to feel guilty for enjoying our bodies. Until the 20th century, it wasn’t even believed that women could orgasm. Sex was merely about procreation which was used to justify our sole purpose as mothers and baby vending machines. Even in soap operas today, women who have sex either end up as teenage mothers or diseased or having to have grisly abortions. I find ti annoying enough that men are always telling me that I’m not allowed to enjoy sex – I don’t need women to do the same.
I totally agree that everyone should have the right to a healthy and active sex life. I am still unconvinced however that mainstream porn is the answer. I think that a lot of pornograph upholds stereotypes about how women should behave sexually, and it’s neither liberating nor does it necessarily equal a healthy and active sex life.
The crux of my argument is this: as a young adult, I had to distance myself from my sexuality to be respected for my brain. The onus should not have been on me to change the way I presented myself. Women should get as much respect in a miniskirt as in trousers, nude in a film or fully clothed in parliament. Our liberation should not be in us prohibiting and limiting our enjoyment and engagement with material that is purely sexual, purely constructed for the purpose of getting us off. You can be as much a feminist with shaved legs and a raging libido as without.
Anti-porn feminism isn’t [or shouldn’t be] about maintaining conservative arguments to force women to dress modestly or behave in a ‘ladylike’ manner. What it does achknowledge is that women at present are portrayed in very certain sexualised ways which inhibits our freedom, and it is this that needs to be challenged. I guess why I am an anti-porn feminist is because I see that pornography plays into an upholds the very stereotypes we need to challenge. I am not suggesting that porn should be abolished, but rather that it should be exposed for what it is: complicit with the patriarchy in constructing images of women as nothing more than sexual objects.
this post was produced on stolen land.
to your tourist mentality, we're still the natives
you're multicultural - but we're anti-racist!
your heart is a muscle the size of your fist.
keep loving. keep fighting.
an act of self-degradation.