In class last week, someone brought up the point that the porn industry is one of the only ones in which women consistently make more money than men. Someone on this blog also stated that feminists should be in support of the porn industry because it tilts the gender inequality in favor of women.
These statements, far from convincing me to support pornography, actually make me more adamant in my beliefs that the culture of porn is not only degrading to women, but actually supports the gender inequality I fight every day to overcome. I would not classify myself as a feminist, but I do despise with every bit of me the idea that I cannot do something because I am a female.The suggestion that I should congratulate those women who partake in an industry which allows and encourages men to see women as subordinate or as an object that they can merely get off to, is an absurd idea that I will never support. I do agree that women should have the freedom of choice one of the previous authors was referring to, but only when that freedom no longer supports the objectification of women.
The difference, in my opinion, between a sex scene in a romantic comedy and a pornographic film, is the connotation that comes along with it. I find it incredibly hard to believe that those who watch pornographic works that show women as subservient to men are able to separate the feelings of dominance they experience when watching porn from how they feel women should be treated in a professional work place environment.
I was the person who mentioned that pornography is the only industry in which women routinely out-earn their male counterparts, but that was absolutely not meant in favor of the porn industry! Quite the opposite. Having a field where women overcome marginalization to not only match their male peers' salaries but out-earn them suggests women must be of vital importance to the field. Considering the industry in question is porn, this means the one field where women are indispensable is one in which they are degraded and humiliated for the pleasure of the consumers.
ReplyDeleteI certainly didn't mean you should "congratulate" the porn industry, as you noted above. I agree with you about certain portrayals of women's sexuality, in this case on a mass scale, having dire consequences for society's treatment of us at large.
Though I did cite your comments in class, I would like to note that the majority of my post was in response to a previous post. I think, however, that the consequences that stem from porn are actually indicators that women are not overcoming marginalization at all. What good is it that women earn more money if it only furthers a culture of thought that is degrading to women?
ReplyDeleteAnd honestly, the only reason that women earn more money is to keep them doing degrading things. As stated in class, they are "acted upon" by the "actor" (men). As also mentioned, their salary is upped if they are willing to do more. The less likely they are to want to perform an action: the more they are paid.
ReplyDeleteI have very often heard men say that they would themselves pay rather than be paid to participate in these films. But I have never heard that from even the most liberated of my female friends (and trust me, they are high on the liberation scale). I think this is because women are objects in porn, and they routinely perform acts that live on only as fantasies for men.
I mean how many times have we heard of a sex act and had to ask "what is that?" or look it up on urban dictionary only to find that it is only something ever seen in porn. No one would think to do it in daily life, so women get paid more to do it on screen