Heart, over at womens space Has this - a report by Britta who recently attended the anti-pornography conference at Wheelock college
I was at the [Pornography and Pop Culture — Reframing Theory, Rethinking Activism] conference from 9 am to 9 pm on Saturday, and 9 am to 3 pm on Sunday, and it was such an intense experience.
At the beginning of the conference, I was very interested but had no idea what I was getting into. Although I’ve been studying and living feminism for 10 years now, pornography was one feminist issue I had not studied much or thought much about. I naively thought it didn’t affect my life and therefore wasn’t relevant or necessary of my attention. I have been anti-porn for a while now, but only intuitively and mostly secretly. Most feminists I had come across, especially the ones close to my age (20s) are pro-porn (or at least, “pro free speech” to the point of being indifferent to porn) and are condescending to those of us who are against pornography – *especially* when someone, like me, is against porn because of her emotions and gut and has no educated, rational, research-backed reasons to give. Mostly I thought I’d better keep my mouth shut on the issue until I could defend my stance logically and intelligently. And yet, I never really got around to studying pornography, because I was too focused on what I thought were more pressing and relevant feminist issues.
Being at the conference was an amazing experience and I learned so much. For starters, I realized porn *is* relevant to my life – the industry is much bigger, and more connected to mainstream media, than I had realized. Also, the conference helped me understand and re-frame events from my childhood and adolescence. There were boys and men who sexually abused me, and debased women in general, and I now see that their attitudes, thoughts, and actions towards women were heavily influenced by pornography.
The conference *did* give me rational, intelligent, research-backed arguments against pornography, but it also showed me that it’s also perfectly valid to oppose pornography because it makes my stomach hurt to see it, and that I’m not the only one who feels that way. After one particularly graphic, brutal, and disturbing slideshow presentation, the presenters invited anyone who felt so inclined to come up to a microphone and state how they were feeling. Dozens and dozens of women got up and spoke about how they were feeling deeply sad, full of rage, stupid, depressed, scared, and pained. Some women simply cried. I looked around, and plenty of women weren’t getting up to speak, but were sitting and crying, or clenching their fists, or holding onto each other tightly, or grimacing in pain. Before, I had worried that my emotional reaction to pornography was not a “good enough” reason to oppose it, but it was eye-opening to see *hundreds* of women having the same emotional response that I did… And our collective pain and trauma is certainly a good reason to oppose pornography. It’s even *enough* of a reason, regardless of those other rational, theory-based, research-backed reasons. How can anyone honestly believe/say that pornography is not harmful to women? We women, there in that room – and representing many, many other women who weren’t physically present with us – are clear proof that it DOES hurt women. It hurts US.What was perhaps most shocking and eye-opening for me to learn was that violence in pornography is the norm, not the exception to the rule – previously, I had naively thought/hoped it was the latter. Robert Wosnitzer, Ana Bridges, and Michelle Chang gave a presentation on the research project they had done – analyzing the violence/aggression in 50 pornography films (selected randomly from a pool of the 275 most popular). Their research hasn’t yet been published so I’m not clear on whether or not I’m allowed to post the results of it here, the notes I took from their slides… but in summary, they counted over 3,000 acts of verbal and physical aggression in these 50 films, which averaged about 11 acts of aggression per scene. And 95% of the time, the recipient of the aggression (who was female 94% of the time) responded with neutrality or pleasure. They also searched for/analyzed *positive* behaviors in these 50 films, and found that positive behaviors were only present in 9.9% of scenes. There were about 2 caresses, 2 or 3 kisses, and about 5 compliments from a man to a woman. That is, they found that the most popular pornography films were overwhelmingly full of male aggression against women, and that positive behaviors from men were very, very rare.
I saw pornographic photos of women crying, grimacing in pain, screaming, wincing, and gritting their teeth in what’s supposed to be a smile but isn’t. I saw a naked woman on the floor, crying, with a toilet seat framing her face. Women tied, gagged, bound, hung up on walls, hanging from chains, bruised, and drenched in semen. What possible argument could anyone give in defense of this???
Even if it IS true that a very few women truly consent to allow men to do such things to them (in a patriarchal culture that offers constrained and fixed choices), Robert Jensen pointed out, it’s usually not possible to know *which* of the women a man is viewing has freely consented. And even if the specific woman he’s looking at freely consented, when he adds fuel to the pornography industry by buying/renting *any* porn DVD, it guarantees that more women will be hurt in the future.
And even IF (big hypothetical) the woman on the screen has consented to having 3 men simultaneously penetrate her vaginally, anally, and orally and then ejaculate into her eyes, even if she, herself, does not feel exploited, many, many women who see it DO feel violated, exploited, angry, and in pain. Do their/our feelings not count? There was a woman from the audience who stood at that microphone, crying, and spoke about feeling deep pain because she’ll never know if the man she’s having sex with loves her for who she is, or if he’s imagining her as a porn actress, wanting her to act like the women in his DVDs, and how *robbed* she feels because of that. Do her feelings and experiences not matter? What of the woman who stood in front of me, looked at me through tear-filled eyes, and told me that when a man raped her 5 years ago, gagging her with a pair of underwear and saying “I’ve always wanted to live out this fantasy,” she didn’t really understand it – until she saw that scene that day in the slideshow presentation? Does her experience not count?
Rebecca Whisnant gave a great presentation, comparing 2nd and 3rd wave feminists – 3rd wave feminism largely promotes individualism and choice, a “willful myopia to the effects of one’s choices in a broader culture of sexual dominance,” or, in the words of Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards in their book Manifesta, “Feminism isn’t about the choice you make, it’s about your freedom to make that choice.” This contrasts with the prevalent 2nd wave feminist knowledge that “women are a class, sharing a common condition,” and that the fate of one woman is tied to the fate of all women, whether she likes it or not. Thus, the question is not so much “Did she choose X?” as it is “Does X further the oppression of women as a whole?” In general, 2nd wave feminists embraced responsibility for the broader results of their personal choices…whereas 3rd wave feminists are so afraid of being seen as essentialist, and are “reluctant to speak in an assumed and potentially false solidarity.” But it’s not as simple as saying any choice a woman makes is a feminist choice, so long as she freely chooses it, for that ignores the effects our choices can have on *each other*.
Rachel Lloyd, herself a survivor of commercial sexual exploitation (her self-identifying words), and who has now worked with hundreds of domestically trafficked girls and women, spoke eloquently about the issue of consent. The average age of entry into the sex trade in the US is 13, and mostly girls of color, and girls growing up in poverty. MTV, and the pornified pop culture of today, primes girls, to the point where they start to objectify themselves and each other, to the point where it’s relatively easy for pimps and pornographers to approach a young girl and flatter her by telling her he “really sees something” in her and invite her to be in a video or photo shoot… That’s how it happened to Rachel. She went for what she thought was a straight modeling shoot, at age 14, and was taken an hour away, alone, to a man’s apartment, where he pulled out a collection of violent photos of naked women.
Many women who are prostituted, or do pornography, were sexually abused as children, are survivors of racism and/or poverty, were neglected or abandoned, ran away from oppressive situations and had no other options. Jenna Jameson, gang-raped as a teenager, was so desparate that when the pornographer she auditioned for told her she looked too young, she ran into the bathroom to take her braces off with a pair of pliers. Often women consent to do one specific sex act and the men coerce them into doing more, or they are tricked into it, or filmed secretly and against their will as they get undressed or go to the bathroom.
For all of these reasons, the issue of whether or not the women in porn “consent” to it is rather irrelevant to me. Marilyn Frye’s essay, “In and Out of Harm’s Way,” (The Politics of Reality: essays in feminist theory, 1983) is a powerful analysis of how women come to a place of seeming to consent to men controlling and abusing them, through being systematically broken. For example, if a man brutally and ceaselessly tortures and humiliates you for a period of time then varies the torture slightly, decreasing its frequency or intensity, the woman is now in a world of “distorted moral proportion” where simply a lack of torture, or something like being allowed to pee when she needs to, can be interpreted by the woman as kindness. Melissa Farley describes this as “protective denial” – it’s common for women who are prostituted to say that they enjoy it and freely choose it and it’s going well, when what they mean is, “I haven’t been beat up today,” or “I haven’t lost all my money today.” You have to keep saying you love it, or you’ll die (spiritually, if not literally). Most women don’t fully realize the emotional impact of it all until they’re out of the industry. And of the 854 women, men, and transgendered people that she interviewed, who were involved in prostitution, 68% of them had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Those who had pornography made of them while being prostituted had significantly more severe symptoms of PTSD than those who had not had pornography made of them. Pornography is worse in the sense that it stays forever – there’s no way to ever close the door to that traumatic experience.
Could anyone honestly say there’s no connection between the messages men absorb (as well as create and promote) through pornography, and the way men treat the women in their daily lives? As Gail Dines and others pointed out, progressive, leftist people argue *all the time* that media influences people and that “mass media is one site where the dominant class attempts to create and impose definitions and explanations of the world.” (Pornography is a left issue, by Gail Dines and Robert Jensen, ZNet Dec. 2005). So why the insistence that pornography is exempt from that analysis, and that it doesn’t (or even, might not) promote violence and sexism??
Patriarchy makes loads more sense to me now. The pornography industry makes $12 billion dollars a year, which is $3 billion more than mainstream movies earn annually, so it’s clearly a HUGE industry – e.g. just ONE child porn site, recently shut down, had 70,000 men who paid $29.95 a month for it. With that many men, consuming that much pornography – pornography that includes an average of 11 male acts of aggression against women per scene, with the women acting like they enjoy it 95% of the time… Is it any WONDER that men, as a whole, treat women like shit?? Why do progressive leftists accept that advertising influences people to act, but deny that pornography does (or that it’s advertising)?? PLEASE.
GodDAMN. I can’t think of a single damn pro-pornography argument that could possibly make any sense. Even if a tiny percentage of women consent… it doesn’t change the fact that many, many women do NOT, and it doesn’t change the fact that many, many women who see it feel horribly violated and degraded. Even if a tiny percentage of pornography is non-violent, it doesn’t change the fact that the vast majority of it is violent and degrading, and that by supporting the porn industry at ALL, one is ensuring the future pain and degradation of more women. I don’t give a rat’s ass about men’s “right” to “free speech,” because as Robert Jensen re-iterated, free speech can’t exist without equality. How is men collecting $12 billion a year to literally choke and gag women and stuff their sorryass dicks down their throats “free speech”??? It’s quite literally PREVENTING *WOMEN’S* “free speech.”
–Britta
I will not approve any pro-pornography comments.
This anti-porn movement is snowballing – hooray!
It’s about time… damn it.
Excellent report by Britta, even though I know the content is so depressing, it needs to be told. Yes, violent porn is the norm NOT the exception and yes, because it needs repeating time and again that mutual consenting sexual acts within porn are rare and almost non-existent. That porn is solely about the cruel and callous abuse of women by men. The myth of individualism must be debunked because one person’s choice does affect another person. Real freedom will not happen until such time as both men and women accept that women too are fully human and not just disposable commodities. There are many forms of slavery and pornography is one of the primary ones because it is so subtle in how it negatively
impacts on all womens, mens, girls and boys lives.
The ‘consent’ argument is surely the most nonsensical one advanced in defence of porn. ‘It’s ok because the women who made it consented, and oh – they got paid too’.
Leaving aside the very obvious consideration that it is impossible to know when viewing a piece of porn whether the people in it consented, unless you yourself are the only person in it, what does ‘consent’ actually mean in terms of justification? You can say that five year olds working in Nike factories for a pittance consent and that if they didn’t work there their families would starve. Both may be true. But that doesn’t justify exploitation of five year olds.
I consented to go to work this morning – nobody made me. But if I hadn’t gone I wouldn’t have risked losing my job and having no money. As it happens I like my job, like my workmates and had fun at work today, like I do most days. I’m very lucky. But I was in the same position in my previous job which I hated and where I was sexually harassed. I had to keep going to pay the bills, I had no choice, until I got another job.
Consent is only consent if the person ‘consenting’ has a range of equally viable choices and the complete physical and psychological freedom to exercise that choice. Now if there actually are women out there who have never experienced any kind of abuse in their lives, and decided completely off their own bat with no coercion that they would rather be a porn star than an accountant, or a lawyer, or a doctor, or a teacher then good luck to them. But I bet there aren’t.
Wow…. This is a lot to think about. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about where I stand on the censorship issue. This only confirms to me that pornography itself is censorship – of women’s voices, experiences, emotions, relationships and worth. Classify it hate speech. When the working practices are so horrific there is no point in arguing for the right to see what you want – it’s the actress who suffers, the women, always the women and that’s much more real than any seedy orgasm. I’m not convinced that porn creates misogyny from nothing- it is the culmination of all the misogyny that lies around packaged in a shiny plastic wrap, the ultimate reinforcement and pat on the back for the patriarchal system. People don’t watch it in a vacuum – there is a reason violence against women turns them on.
Hi Linda and welcome. Yes, I think that the word ‘consent’ needs to go with it’s cousin ‘choice’ as two of the most over used words in this £free speech£ land of ours – more so when you wear a penis.
Newt – I agree porn does not create (though it does perpetuate) misogyny – which is merely a symptom of women hatred that has existed for thousand of years. Think the burning times, a holocaust on the female just for being female and orchestrated by the church.
The Church invented the crime of witchcraft, established the process by which to prosecute it, and then insisted that witches be prosecuted. The nut? – they hated women. Even made a manual for it – the Malleus Maleficarum.
Heh get this dip shit that I have in mod – hmm never heard this one before
“Okay I’m getting really frustrated at the stereotyping of men and mens’ desires
[…]But a lot of you are man-hating…Grouping men into one large category that is apparently oppressing women for the continuation of a patriarchal society? Stop looking for what’s not there…that’s my two cents”
Thanks for publishing this report. I, at the moment, am feeling quite overwhelmed with the after- effects of being forced to view hard-core porn when I was young. I was deeply moved by Bitta’s response to the conference.
I find it easy to write, but often feel silenced when in a room with pro-porners. This is because I am flooded with emotions, and cannot remember how to be rational. I feel a massive grief, that paralyses my voice. I want to be angry, but I just want to cry. Only, I have lose tears inside the memories of the pain that I experienced.
This conference show how porn must framed into women-hating, and likely to encourage violence to women and children. I know, though bitter experience, that hard-core porn can give permission to rape, mentally abuse, and treat women as pieces of rubbish.
For me, this seem a logical reaction to hard-core porn, for it is designed to deadened the viewer. I think hard-core porn is designed to say women do not feel pain, therefore do what you like to.
In my experience, being forced to view hard-porn put terror into me. I view things that even now, I wish I could imagine that humans were incapable of doing such tortures.
The major of harm of viewing hard-core porn for me, is that the trauma is carried with me even now. I still feel that confusion, grief and pain of seeing such shit. Also, for much of my life I thought all I deserved was violent sex. So, it took far to long to see it as sexual violence, not just me being a bad woman.
Sorry this so long, I just felt I wanted express why it can so hard speak out, Your with respect, Rebecca.
.Thank you Rebecca – and I know that we have talked before. I’m finding difficulty in conveying how much I appreciate your honesty and determination.
you inspire me – and thanks again
Thanks so much Sparkle, for posting reports on this conference, which I wish i could have gone to, and the work of which we can hopefully take forward in the nascent antiporn network some of us are trying to form in London. Our next meeting is 14/4 and it would be great to see you there. (Knowing it’s a long way to travel!)
la lutta continua,
Elizabeth
To the shriveldick who set up a blog called daisypuke -wow I’m honoured – that’s great – you are perpetuating the reason I chose the name daisy puke – as a finger up to the character in the film – thanks for the advertising – oh and those stupid whiney insults – heard ‘em all before – you pornpigs are not very articulate are you? oh yeah forgot, you look at pics, not words. Go play with your tinydick now, there’s a good wanker.
Hello and welcome from me, Rebecca. You do express yourself beautifully, even through these memories that must be so painful. Don’t worry about being rational. It’s not required here or I wouldn’t be posting either.
The daisypuke blogger is just showing how men really feel about women….probably a nuts/fhm/zoo reader and feels threatened – they don’t like women with voices who call them out on the truth do they? So, like the brave boys they are, they “beat up women” by technology, and try to silence them – same old story.
Hello Elizabeth and welcome – I would love to come to the next meeting! We’ll have to see
Yeah Daisy – looks like you hit the big time.
” 3rd wave feminism largely promotes individualism and choice, a “willful myopia to the effects of one’s choices in a broader culture of sexual dominance,” or, in the words of Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards in their book Manifesta, “Feminism isn’t about the choice you make, it’s about your freedom to make that choice.” This contrasts with the prevalent 2nd wave feminist knowledge that “women are a class, sharing a common condition,” and that the fate of one woman is tied to the fate of all women, whether she likes it or not. Thus, the question is not so much “Did she choose X?” as it is “Does X further the oppression of women as a whole?””
Hear hear!
If a woman does make a willing, free choice to appear in woman hating material such as pornography, she’s still participating in the degredation, and oppression of women as a whole.
By supporting “freedom of speech” you’re supporting the freedom to continue the oppression of the oppressed, against supporting the freedom of opressed peoples not to be oppressed anymore.
(I’m sure there’s a more eloquent way I could have said that.)
The RealDP, sorry to hear of your woes with “the imposter troll”. A similar issue of impersonation and imposter sites happened last year, Biting Beaver was the main target then.
Consider it some sort of backhanded compliment, you really must have said some [even more] brilliant feminist commentary that hit home with that troll, to be singled out so. Although, the troll does not realise why he is so angry with your words!
But we must not feel sorry for lloydbradford@hotmail.co.uk with NTL as his ISP.
Ooops! was I a naughty Trollbuster publishing his email address for the Spambots to pick up? *shucks*
[advice to the feminists here, do NOT email him, do NOT comment at the imposter blog -- unless you are using a disposable email address and know what you are doing to cover your tracks]
FauxDP, be a good little troll and implode.
I’m a little tired of the “porn is not the problem” argument as well. It’s true that in most cases someone is already predisposed to abusing women and so porn may simply give him the playbook by which to do so. But recently I ran into some IRL experience where a man raped his girlfriend after she asked him to turn the volume down while he was watching porn on the computer. He had absolutely no history of violence. His girlfriend said that he was a great guy. Until he started watching internet porn.
He raped and beat her. And after two days in the hospital she killed herself.
Porn is EXACTLY the problem in this case. I’m sick of it’s defenders pretending that there’s no casual link.
Thanks everyone for your kind support. Sparkle, you are a great inspiration to me, and other women. I find living with my past is very hard, but it does make more determine to be part of the movement against hatred of women. I find it physically quite hard, as the violence in my past give me many body memories.
I must say, that I find unbelievable that pro-porners think that hard-core porn does no harm. I would say the mental violence I was expose to was highly damaging. As I said in earlier email, it lead to me accepting violent sex and other forms of abuse. I do have the data to prove that hard-core lead to further violence. Only, everything in my guts, said it does.
I think, women who have experienced violence though men who copy hard-core, feel silenced. When it is in the past, many women wish to live as it never happened, for the grief and pain of seeing it clearly is so hard. Also, images of sexual torture can be trivailise, it hard to express how much it hurts.
Thank you all again, especially Pony, I feel I can write here and not hide the emotions. Yours with respect, Rebecca.
Porn does precisely that – group all women into one category – namely dehumanised beings who can be sexually, degraded, tortured and murdered all in order to satisfy many men’s belief in their right of orgasm and the thrill of having power over what they believe is a dehumanised piece of trash. That is misogny. Which reminds me why do so many men want to put their dirty little penises into women’s bodies when women are constantly told we are the dirty slags etc. Surely men would not want to contaminate their little penises by coming into contact with diseased, dirty female bodies. Very odd!!
Hi vera – thanks for your post yesterday, it was very moving.
A major theme in pornography is that women are different from men and we enjoy being de-humanised, we enjoy pain, humiliation and degradation, it says that we do not warrant humanity because we are ‘other’ Is it any wonder that this is absorbed to a lesser or greater degree by the dominant class? It’s advertising misogany – this is the product – hating women, how can it be harmless? When men objectify women they dehumanise women and the destruction of women’s bodies (as you have just so painfully experienced) becomes no real big deal. Because we are not fully human.
Ha! yes Jennifer – indeed “Surely men would not want to contaminate their little penises by coming into contact with diseased, dirty female bodies. Very odd!!”
This often strikes me as bizarre – but of course pornography embodies a lot of themes of christian history- woman hating being one of them. But of course we are the ones accused of right wing religious bigotry…Oh Gawd!!
This makes me want to cry. When will men stop hating women? I don’t really have anything new to add to the above comments, except that everything else I worry about in life seems irrlevant when I read posts like this.
I was extrememly angry yesterday (and am still, in all honesty). I blame myself for what happened. I didn’t know her, and was not there when she called for help, but I blame myself anyway. Should have been there.
It took quite a bit to hold back what I really wanted to say in that last post, but I didn’t want the focus to shift away from the very clear fact that porn was exactly the problem in that case.
~~~
“A major theme in pornography is that women are different from men and we enjoy being de-humanised, we enjoy pain, humiliation and degradation, it says that we do not warrant humanity because we are ‘other’ Is it any wonder that this is absorbed to a lesser or greater degree by the dominant class?”
I geniunely don’t understand why anyone has trouble understanding an accepting the fact that what we see does have an affect on us. Advertizing companies spend billions of dollars a year banking on that exact premise, but suddenly we’re supposed to believe that porn doesn’t have the same effect?
Bullshit.
Vera – I know that when you are a caring person working in close proximity to peoples pain and things go wrong – it is tempting to think that there MUST have been something that we could have done different to prevent something as final as suicide. However, the only person who can carry any blame is the man who attacked and raped her. He is responsible for his hatred of women, and he is responisble for raping and battering her because he could. Re porn as advertising for misogyny and how advertising spends billions of pounds, promoting a product that is overwhelmingly successful – but porn has no effect? except the advocates would say on a tiny minority who were pre disposed anyway.
Advertising works and porn sells woman hate.
Yes, Sparkle it is so true that when caring individuals work so closely with women and no I am not going to include men, because it is primarily women who are the victims of men’s sexual violence.
When something like this happens there can be a tendency to blame oneself and think ‘I should have done something.’ Vera you did everything possible but sometimes women survivors decide they cannot fight any more in a world which is at best indifferent and more commonly dismisses women’s pain by saying she deserved it or just she was responsible. The person responsible for Maya’s suffering and sad death is the man who raped and battered her because he had so much hatred of women that he believed he was entitled to abuse her and then deny his accountability by claiming Maya wanted to be raped. Such is this man’s hypocrisy and he is not the only male.
‘But a lot of you are man-hating’ – Did he (or she? let’s not jump to conclusions here) not mention your hairy legs, lesbianism and that you probably can’t get a boyfriend cos you’re all frigid and ugly…i bet that shut you up. you see! we men are known for our intellectual powers while you are known for your little fluffy heads.
while it is of course a bucket of malodorous shite, patriarchy must have something going for it if it can keep such creatures as us men in charge (dr evil-type cackle). i would love to keep thinking ‘we’re not all like that’, but when the people (oh alright men) who post hackneyed arguments like that, i really don’t have a leg to stand on. out of our own mouths, we condemn ourselves.
and as a pedantic tool of the patriarchy, let me apologise for the hopeless sentence which should have read:
i would love to keep thinking ‘we’re not all like that’, but when people (oh alright men) post hackneyed arguments like that, i really don’t have a leg to stand on.
Sorry Sparkle – can I post this here? Just like to say a thank you to the “Trollbuster” for outing my imposter publicly – I had no idea that I was having such an impact so that’s good – getting such a strong reaction from someone who is obviously infested with porn is really really good. Thank you for saying the word “repsected” – had no idea – I usually just let the anger and injustice drive my rants and if anyone is listening then that’s a bonus – anyway – thanks – and to the pathetic imposter – YOU shut the fuck up, ( I certainly won’t) oh and….and go clean your sticky icky keyboard.
Daisy, aka The Real DP! You are welcome. *kissies*
Trollbuster has always enjoyed reading your comments here.
It struck me as very odd that he would single you out when you do not have a blog of your own, the only conclusion that can be reached is that your frequent wisdom touched a raw nerve in this misogynist troll. He has, inadvertently, given you a compliment.
Feminism, but more so radical feminism, only angers the misogynists because it shatters their world view that males are superior to females, and threatens their male privilege and domination.
Their own stupidity shows that we are speaking the truth, particularly about male violence against women (and children), because of the way in which they choose to show their displeasure–with threats of rape and death. Really, how is that a logical way to prove that “not all/most men are violent/rapists/hate women/think women are inferior” by using threats of rape/torture/death? It actually strengthens our points/case.
There is proportional rule at work here, the more correct a feminist is, the more hatemail/threats she will attract from misogynists.
And radical, anti-porn feminists attract the most threats.
Pornography is ‘hate speech’ against females, and frequently racist as well. Radfems also know what the most popular varieties of pornography are, by the search engine terms coming into their blogs. I doubt that any radfem has ever seen a SE term of “mutually consensual sex”. The most frequent ones are “rape porn”, “real rape porn”, “teens” (which in reality is ‘paedophilia’ because it certainly isn’t 16 year old boys searching for “teen porn”, it is ADULT MALES).
When the (visionary) second wave radical feminists started speaking out against pornography, it was no where near as violent and degrading towards women as it is today. The causal link was more difficult to prove. Maya’s tragic circumstances testify to the direct causal link between pornography and the rape and violence done to women on a daily basis. This is nothing to do with “what consenting adults do in the privacy of their own bedrooms”.
One in four, now rapidly becoming one in three, females have or will be raped within their lifetimes. One in four females have or will experience domestic violence within their lifetimes. These statistics are not in decline, but on the rise, as is violent pornography. The connection is clear.
I understand how mammoth and tiring the radfem fight against violence and pornography is, and know that breaks away are needed, but I hope that bloggers such as Vera return to blogging to speak for those now silenced by the effects of pornography, now mainstreamed within the culture, before we are all raped/beaten/dead.
Pornography is the modern-day picture-book edition of the Malleus Maleficarum. The Burning Times has been updated to The Beating/Raping Times.
[…]not mention your hairy legs, lesbianism and that you probably can’t get a boyfriend cos you’re all frigid and ugly…i bet that shut you up. you see! we men are known for our intellectual powers while you are known for your little fluffy heads”
SW all of the above have been mentioned but of course they remain locked away in the Matrix dungeon hovering precariously near to the trap door of doom. The recent round of 6 y/o type inability to formulate any discourse which does not result in name calling and the assault on our physical appearance (even though they don’t know us) reminds me of the intellect of the trolls. That is why I refuse to clutter up my parlour with naughty infants. “if mummy doesn’t listen to me I will tell her how horrid and and ugly she is—there that has flummoxed her!”
“Oh – but no? then I will poop on the floor and show her!”
They also seem to think that I have a problem with them looking at porn–wrong–it is the thought of them masturbating that sends me into a shudder.
Hey, maybe I should start a blog called LloydBradford and just spit anti-porn venom of the sort he loves so much. He’d love that.
Nah, that’s a boring name anyway – he has made it clear that he has no imagination, even when it comes to woman-hating insults – same old same old. Lloyd, you’re only talent lies in moving your wrist up and down gripping your dick – oh and visualising raping women.
(Even though you weren’t serious daisy)
lloydbradfordisalonelyloser.wordpress.com
Has a kind of ring to it!
while it’s hardly a fitting comment after your previous one, i would like to opine that the real pukemeister rocks, as surely as the fake one errr doesn’t rock.
ok sparks – you want me to take the male discourse up to the next level ‘ner ner nee ner ner’. hah beat that you smelly poo.
was i imagining it or was there a comment somewhere that the anti-porn conference lacked balance because there were no pro-porn voices represented? (!) do you suppose the organisers showed them the posters with the conference’s name on when they went to ask for their money back?
Hey Daisy Pukedy puke puke – enough pukes warrants authenticity you see.
Good idea – I’ll get back to you at the secret Pornsucksville hideout and we can go to great length (Oops did I say such a naughty word – for a prude) conjuring up plans for counter attack. Of course, we may prefer to talk of lesbianism and hirsuteness – or as the case may be – lack of it. Oh, I don’t know – once in the safety of our porn/masturbating trolls ::quick bleach:: proof bunker where remember Male ~en(tit)le(men)t~
does not exist. Of which I am reminded – is indeed the fore runner of the whinging and wailing.
Remember the secret formula Daisy: en(tit)le(men)t = elevated levels of W&W + unresponsiveness = meltdown with eventual disintegration
I call for a PIE CHART!
Stormy – we need a pie chart hinny x
SW – indeed, anti-anything conferences do tend to be bias. Strange but true.
did someone mention a pie????? i’m in.
Pornography is the modern-day picture-book edition of the Malleus Maleficarum. The Burning Times has been updated to The Beating/Raping Times.
Good one TB – I’ve always advocated that that porn was the modern day MM but I like the “Beating/Raping Times”
Not that I would buy it of course – though it would probably be ’stickerchicked’
Well, by such popular demand, perhaps not a pie chart on this occasion.
I can show the inversely proportional nature of male sexual performance (or rather lack of satisfactory performance) and exposure to porn.
The line chart has a kind of droop effect going on.
Certainly, from the female partner’s point of view.
Tagline:
Wanna be an absolute LOSER in bed guys?
Watch heaps of porn.
Guilted; and by popular demand…
enjoy!
Stormy – that is fabby! It will indeed we awarded pride of place at some stage (back home tomorrow)
To sw – thanks for the heads up and the “rocks” comment – I always knew I was a rock chick!
Keep up the good anti-porn work Sparkle – I’ll keep blasting the bastards too. I love it lol.
I really want Stormy to give us some special occasion options here. You know, Father’s Day, birthday, a goodbye pie chart.
We just need to set Stomy up in a locked room, with her laptop and a couple bottles of best wine, maybe some tacos mid shift, and not let her out no matter how she pleads until we have a set of six or so
Yes. #1: The Droop Effect Chart.
“Wanna be an absolute LOSER in bed guys?
Watch heaps of porn.”
And eat lots of pies (or pizza and big macs).
BTW, I once had a guy I saw now and again who watched a lot of porn, he thought it was part of the wonderful new age of enlightened “sexuality” …. his wife became the dutiful ann summers party provider (yes of course he was married – whatever they’re getting, they’ll always want more) , and his sexual “technique” was just that – technique – there was no passion, no chemistry, it was just a set of strategic techniques used in the same order, every time – really clinical – and he thought women’s orgasms were carbon copies of the male pattern of orgasm and were exactly the same every time- he did not realise at the time, but he was part of my “eye-opening” of what porn does to men.
There are a lot of men out there who are the same – women are a series of buttons to push to get a specific reaction, rather like programming a robot.
Arrrgh Daisy! *horrible flashbacks*
Ex-partner with the attitude of “it worked last time, same again”.
Yeah, tell me guys, do YOU really like it EXACTLY the fucking same each time? Nope. Didn’t think so.
Oh, that’s right, forgot we wimms were thinking, feeling human beings, unlike you menz of course…. *puke*
Pony, not fond of the laptops because I’m a touch typist, and like de moose.
But yeah, if you want to lock me in a little room with some tacos (suggesting here some tequila to wash it down…)
Distinct possibility!
(Although, pie chart output may be, errr, a little ‘unreliable’ – but fun!)
“Oh, that’s right, forgot we wimms were thinking, feeling human beings, unlike you menz of course…. *puke*”
Anyone who wishes to take my name in vain in the context of fighting misygony please feel free – as many times as you like lol.
Did someone say tacos and tequila? do I get to eat the worm? Forget all the salt and lime ritual that goes with tequila drinking (got really pukey-drunk once doing that – we were all trying to out-lime and out-salt each other before I knew it I was puking and passing out – luckily puked before passed out – I’m sure you all want to know that- there is more than one reason for calling myself “puke”).
AS for the tacos, jack-in-the-box used to do awesome tacos – is there still the chain jack-in-the-box and if so, do they still do amazing tacos? If so, may have to consider a trip across the pond……
Jack-in-the-box tacos with chains? BDSM? sorry lost me…
and we’re surprised she calls herself ‘puke’???
NoPornNorthampton.org is a new anti-porn site that critiques porn and the porn industry from a variety of angles. Our 250,000+ words of content and extensive FAQ section can help counter even the most creative pro-porn arguments.
Hi NPN – I remember you from last year but haven’t seen you around for a while – welcome and thanks.