Friday, November 13, 2009

Porn... Not for women?


I bring your attention to Wendy McElroy's book, XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography. When the sexual revolution hit, and many women turned to porn for jobs there was an outrage. Porn was not following the social norms of the role of a woman. So I guess this helps us tie into Foucault's piece that we read earlier in the week about society's created so-called "normalcy." Even now, I think men are always looked as being a lot more accepted in anything in the sex industry while women are looked down upon. But why do you think there is such a difference? When a girl sleeps with a two guys in a night she's a slut but if a guy does, he's patted on the back and congragulated. Is that fair? Does it really even matter? Should men and woman be regarded differently because they are different sexes or no?

Take a look at the book. The website below has the whole book and its really interesting. How do you think this ties into the flaws of our society in the past and present? Have we created a social norm for both sexes that might be progressing faster for the male sex? Do you think woman in pornography are still regarded in the way that McElroy says they were in the past? Thoughts?????

5 comments:

  1. It'd be interesting to think about all of this in terms of Mulvey, too.

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  2. I think that the question "Should men and woman be regarded differently because they are different sexes or no?" is too simple. Just like when we were discussing racial stereotypes, the important thing for us is to not let our preconceived notions about a person's immediate appearance/speech/mannerisms/what have you adversely influence the way we treat that person. So even if, in private, and generally speaking, we presume certain things about either sex, we cannot share those thoughts with others as if they're empirical truths, and we can't act on those presumptions (unless of course the presumption proves true).

    This is a side note, but have you ever read/listened to Dan Savage's sex advice column/podcast? He is very porn-positive and has lots of wise thoughts on the subject. If any detractors of pornography are reading this blog, I recommend Savage Love.

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  3. I agree with Carolyn. I feel as though as we move towards a more "progressive" (whatever that means) society, these preconceived notions shouldn't be such dominant forces in our minds. Even today, I feel as though porn is not as scandalous as it once used to be, or maybe it just feels that way because of our college environment and through Hollywood interpretations. We see movies that in some way reference porn, and it's not longer a tabooed term. I still remember a Friends episode where Joey and Chandler were getting free porn and the entire episode was centered around it comedicly. Granted, I'm sure in the back of our heads we're thinking "it's one thing for guys to watch porn, and another for girls.." but the underlying principle from both perspectives is the same, regardless of gender.

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  4. I think that this really touches on the normalcy aspect of gender relations. The roles of men and women are defined by hundreds of years of precedent. Men are supposed to be the providers and the dominators, meaning that the more they provide and the more they dominate the better of a man they are, and women are supposed to be the passive recipients. Having said that, women are not supposed to participate in activities that may make them less appealing towards men, i.e. having sex with multiple people. As tradition tells us, this is a departure from the role of the women. Therefore, multiple sexual partners or participation in porn is a departure form the norm.

    This distinction also goes into the Mulvey arguments regarding the male's active role and the female's passive role. By beign filmed in pornographic movies, the female is taking an active role even if in the movie she is being passive. The female is earning money from the film and is in control of the situation. This is a strong departure from the normalcy of the women gaining much less than the man and the man controlling the situation.

    Something that I think would be very interesting to explore is whether women in pornographic films are paid less or more than their male counterparts.

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  5. All of these are interesting considerations, but I think one other important one is what Harleen touched on with mentioning the Friends episode, that societal norms of "right" and "wrong", in the case of what's sexually related "obscene" or just "what everyone does", also shift over time. Whether or not this relates to or is concurrent with shifts in gender roles would also be a significant area of investigation. For instance, has society tolerated porn more with increased sexual and social empowerment for women in making its portrayal of female sexual pleasure for the first time acceptable?

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