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| verte |
Well, I thought I'd write my blog in this vein, because it relates to what I've been researching. And I'm also a day late.
Robin Morgan, anti-porn feminist: "Pornography is the theory; rape is the practice."
I do not understand why the two statements above are linked by a semi-colon. I do not understand why the two statements above have anything to do with one another.
The proposed legislation for the ban of the ownership violent internet pornography is not just a women's issue, yet the opposing petitioners have manipulated people into signing by suggesting that removing the right to watch and own porn will somehow protect women from a similar fate to Jane Longhurst.
There is no consistent scientific evidence that focus groups who watched violent, heterosexual pornography were more likely to rape. It was found that men listed violence as the least titillating aspect of the pornography they watched. Of those that did enjoy the violent material, it was discovered that a greater percentage identified with the female victim than the male agressor.
Pornography is NOT the reason for women's oppression, as Andrea Dworkin has suggested. The representation of sexuality (rather than sexuality itself) did not somehow catapult patriarchy into existence. To point the finger at erotic images, film and literature is delusional. It gives society an excuse as to why women have been subordinate to men in all contexts. It excuses companies that consistently promote men above women; it excuses those who disallowed women from the right to vote until 1918; it excuses the right a son to inherit above a daughter;it excuses unhappy marriages, where a woman had no right to divorce; it excuses abusers who have beaten women in domestic settings; it excuses rapists. Why should they have such an easy excuse? How are women somehow protected from the risk of sexual abuse if the right to enjoy sexual violence through its representation is simply made illegal?
When I was in my early teens, I was involved in a number of groups for young feminists. I wrote for 'zines, I went to riot grrrl gigs, and played the guitar (incredibly badly) in a riot grrrl band. I wore no make up and, if I could get away with it, no bra. When I came of age and quickly realised, much to the distaste of my 'comrades', that I was not a lesbian and thoroughly enjoyed being fucked by a man, I had a small identity crisis. On the one hand, there was everything I had learnt from the feminists I knew, who had taught me that sex would signal my oppression as a woman, who had somehow made me believe that it wasn't something I should enjoy. On the other hand, there was cock. Cock and orgasms.
Shortly after this I discovered Anais Nin and realised that what they believed simply had no relevance to me. I discovered internet pornography and it suddenly gave me a kind of freedom and release. I realised there was a veritable banquet of sexual experiences were mine for the taking if I wanted them. I quickly discovered that I was most turned on by watching people enjoy pain and humiliation in a sexual context, or reading about their experiences. Fortunately, so was my first boyfriend.
Now, in what is a kind of lifestyle D/s, I get to have that banquet. I get to have my cake and my cock, and I get to eat them both. I also have the total control of the one I trust more than myself over me, to encourage me into being more ambitious and to fight for what I want. Why does it matter so much that the person I love and trust is a man and that I am a woman?
There is much I have to thank the porn I watched as a teenager for, and the porn that encouraged my partner to embrace his sexual interests and understand that he was not a potential abuser. We take our own photos, many of them explicit and many of them depicting violence, and I think they're beautiful. The enormous bruises, the marks on my neck and the tears in my eyes are symbolic of a sexual journey I am still just embarking upon, but hope to follow for the rest of my life. Each photograph is a startling, loving memory of real and beautiful intimacy.
Why should a government, the majority of which consists of men, dictate what a woman should do in the privacy of her bedroom, what she chooses to make as her career, what she browses on the internet? Why should that government prevent her having those choices and furthermore make those choices a prosecutable offence? How is that promoting women's rights and choices? And furthermore, why is this an issue that gives cause to feminists to suddenly seek support from the Moral Right, who have generally always been appalled by the idea of a woman who is sexually assertive and understands what she wants and needs?
There is no excuse for the oppression of women and if the legislation were passed, the women these 'feminists' seek to protect from violence will simply find themselves more violently oppressed.
In my eyes, if this law comes to fruition, censorship is the theory; oppression is the practice. I can see the link all too easily.
Edited Tue 10 Oct 06, 9:34 PM by verte
| 10 Oct 06, 8:35 PM budgiebird UK, 7 yrs  |
Excellent post. Good points, well made. *Not an official Backlash Representative* |
| 10 Oct 06, 9:10 PM Rosalee UK, 7 yrs |
Well said. My own feeling is that if this law is passed, it will tend to be men who are most affected by it in terms of being arrested. If the law is intended to 'protect' women from 'beastly' men, it would look rather odd for its proponents if it is then used to prosecute women. However, I think it will affect women too, in a perhaps less obvious way. The implication in the proposals is that women are weak and in need of protection, incapable of giving informed consent. Patriarchy has traditionally denied women the right to own our own bodies and to make our own sexual decisions. I think the assumptions to be found in the proposals are symptomatic of this. |
| 10 Oct 06, 10:36 PM EricStanton UK(BD), 11 yrs |
As always - worth reading twice  If you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you've always had. |
| 11 Oct 06, 10:06 AM ThedaVamp UK, 6 yrs |
Don't forget to put a link to your blog http://bloggingforbacklash.blogspot.com/ in the comments. |
