Readers Write: Pornography, Patriarchy and Power

By Alex Jung, AlterNet. Posted September 29, 2007.

The comment thread on the article Pornography and the End of Masculinity is tipping the scales at 500+ comments. We already compiled one Readers Write, but because of the proliferation of responses, it seemed unfair to just do one.

Many commenters pointed out that pornography exists within a larger framework. Readers differed on what, exactly this framework was, but a unifying thread of patriarchy, misogyny, masculinity ran through them. Some also used a queer critique, noting the absence of queer porn from the larger discussion. Others commented on the media landscape and the larger system of capitalism. At the center of the discussion were questions about what it meant to be woman or a man in a society where everything, including sex, has been commodified, packaged, and sold.

Posters like athamandia just called out what they saw: "The answer is the same -- men don't like it when women share the power. So, porn that is degrading and humiliating to women solves that problem. Men are still in control and it's still about power and dominance. Love has left the arena." But athamandia was careful to nuance the statement by writing: "And you know, I don't even like saying "men" here. It's that the power structure supports the hyper-male view that dominates the world now. Women's voices are marginalized and ignored. This is just one more example. But it's not just women's voices. It's the voices of all (including some men) who don't share the dominant power structure view that are degraded and marginalized."

The reader bluebirdella was unsurprised and moved from discussing patriarchy to a societal misogyny that inherently saw women as objects. "It's no secret that the majority of men view women as receptacles to be used and tossed aside. It's no secret that we live in a culture that gets high on torture, degradation, and abuse. It's practically enshrined in this country, to treat people badly whenever you're in a position to get away with it. You don't have to watch porn to see that -- all you have to do is watch Reality TV, and the news. Being a woman means being viewed as less than human. This has been true for my entire life. I'm treated like I exist for no other purpose than to provide sexual release for males. I look forward to the day I will be too old to even look at -- although I realize, due to the rapes of elderly women, that day may never come. It seems it doesn't even matter how unattractive a woman is -- sexual harassment never ends.

The reader andiii sees pornography as a reflection "of the social circumstances its consumers are living in: dependence, exploration, abuse, humiliation are natural conditions of our industrial lives, because the structure of companies and administration we are working in and depending on isn't democratic at all." Furthermore, andiii connects the female experience with capitalism:

"My guess is that women appear as objects of abuse because their nature has never been fully compatible to "male" capitalism. Femininity though may be a main force of a dawning new era, but for now has to "suffer" symbolically for the currently dissatisfying circumstances. For this kind of humiliation, which place could be better than the shows of an industry which produces nothing but the pretension of satisfaction?

"Maybe it is the destiny of every upcoming social force, as long as they are not strong enough to rule themselves: Their first role is to play the scapegoat for the failure of those still in power, as at the same time they are constantly told by the old forces: See, you'll never make it!"

The system of patriarchy extends its reach and influence into areas beyond simply pornography, such as mass media in general. The poster thoughtcriminal points out: "In a word: advertising in a consumer society relies primarily on sex. What's really amazing to me is that neither the article nor a single one of the above comments mentions this basic fact." Thoughtcriminal then ends with the advice, "Don't let the advertisers push your buttons, in other words. In fact, you really ought to just notice when someone's trying to push your buttons, and not respond."

Poster daniel347x agreed that there was simply a larger systemic problem of media representation of women. "If we had a world ... in which women in the media were treated with their sexuality balanced with other aspects of being human -- we'd have a world without violent degrading porn. But keep the media culture as it is -- violent porn will be inevitable."

"... When you tell men (or women) lies about the sexual rewards they will obtain if they play by the rules, they will become diseased on the inside. They will want to degrade the women whose own degradation by the media culture -- devoid of balance with other aspects of being human -- has been held up as a shining spotlight of what is the only way to engage sexual desire in the public world, namely by being a responsible, successful citizen confronted constantly by hypersexualized images of women while behaving with them based on a forced illusion that they are exhibiting other aspects of being human besides sexuality. The images of women in the fashion industry and in the media at large strongly act to eliminate or hide every aspect of women's humanity besides their sexuality. I think this latter point is hard to deny."

See more stories tagged with: pornography, patriarchy, misogyny, media, capitalism, sex, dominance, power

Alex Jung is an editorial intern at AlterNet.

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