In recent years the Left has styled itself as the embodiment of progressive politics, where women are encouraged to engage in “sex work” in an attempt to “smash the patriarchy”. It would only take a moment of critical thought and self-reflection to recognize that the rabid frothing of the Leftist commentators defending "sex work" is as far removed from the dismantling of power structures, such as patriarchy and capitalism, as it is possible to be.
The fact men are so eager to support the normalization and sanitation of the commercial sexual exploitation of women and young girls should set alarm bells ringing. It’s no skin off our nose if a woman believes herself to be “empowered” by the industry, and in fact, that just does the leg work for us. It is Barthes’s Death of the Author come to life: her empowerment lives and dies with her. She is viewed as the same dehumanized object that can be purchased on a whim whether she believes herself to be or not.
Leftist men are all too willing to sit around and navel gaze about issues such as “women’s rights”, but let’s be real for a moment: this is a paper-thin disguise for the continuation of patriarchy. When the paradigm of society is one in which women are already exploited by men, the exploitation of their sexuality being one example of this, then what privilege do websites such as OnlyFans and the wider commercial sex industry supposedly take away from men and bestow upon women?
There is a conspicuous silence on the part of Leftist men when it comes to criticizing the sex industry, perhaps because they so readily benefit from its continued existence.
T. Farr
This is another reminder to our fellow feminists on the left to remember that no man who supports the sexual exploitation industry is your friend. FUCK HIS POLITICS IF IT DOESN'T BENEFIT WOMEN
I'll always remember something my economics teacher told me one day
"if there's a seller it's because there's a buyer"
if western girls be selling $50 feet pics, it's because there's men willing to or looking to pay for feet pics
so, who's to blame? the girl looking to fill a market, or the men generating said market? because if nobody were looking ro buy feet pics nobody would sell feet pcs namsaying bro?
And hence it is needless to say that both sides are encouraging each other and bringing their own demise. Complementary suicide. I'll probably write my next article on this.
B Hey I’m a lit/philosophy student and I’m building an Anarchist Library of radical feminism and related topics! I looked through our book list and the books are mostly about dating and relationships . When I looked it up I was hoping to find more titles like
-Backlash, Susan Faludi -The Feminine Mystique, Betty Freidan -The Beauty Myth, Naomi Watts -Anarchism, Emma Goldman -Anything by Andrea Dworkin but particularly Pornography and Hating Women (these are both expensive out of print books for some reason???? Hating women is 100$ and you can’t get a digital copy, it’s crazy)
Most of these books I was originally recommended here on this sub.
I already bought and have started distributing most of the books above, all except Hating Women. looking for more books about radical feminist philosophy and related topics.
I know you guys have a wealth of knowledge about this, what else should we read?
r/PornHatesWomen is a brand new phoenix sub for the unfortunately now barely-moderated sub r/PornIsMisogyny, which was created last year to discuss porn through a feminist lens and call out the rampant misogyny in the industry.
Our sub is off to a great start and the community now has 1.6k members after only 7 weeks of existence!
Please join us in the fightback against porn and how it is used to spread misogynistic attitudes, rape culture and the exploitation of women throughout the world! We've started to see mainstream pushback against the evil that Pornhub and others profit from with both payment processors and major newspaper columns calling out Pornhub and the industry in general on their bullshit. There's also legislation being proposed in congress to stop porn companies from profitting from revenge porn and penalties for porn companies who don't take down revenge porn within 2 hours. Join us and help the fightback against misogyny in porn!
Also thank you to the mods of r/nametheproblem for agreeing to us raising awareness on your sub! :)
Hi. I was recently reading John Stoltenberg's "Refusing To Be a Man", and some chapters on the book are about porn and it's relation to patriarchy. I'm aware not all feminist currents are anti-porn, but what would be some good reads regarding opposition to pornography from a feminist perspective? I'm not a complete beginner, so "denser" texts are also ok.
And, on that note: most feminists I've seen who are opposed to porn are radical feminists (such as Stoltenberg). Are there other feminist currents, or authors in other currents, who also place some emphasis on opposition to porn?
There’s plenty to be found about live action pornography, but I’m trying to find resources for animated pornography. I’m looking for ethical, moral, feminist, sociological etc analysis of it.
Recently I’ve been wondering if all pornography in modern form is exploitative and objectifying as well as where and when erotica or artistic nudity crosses the line into pornography. My gut assumption is that it happens when the viewer becomes aroused and acts on arousal through masturbation.
I’ve been wondering if all pornography in society right now where the industry is so perverse and unrestricted is objectifying and harmful to women. Many women, myself included, can have periods in life where we feel that when a partner watches porn, even if animated, that it can be hurtful and harmful to the relationship. Not all women of course, but it’s common to see. It’s harder as we age as well while men our age continue the cookie cutter young girl porn. Or use it because it feels better when they come. Or when we aren’t in the mood and they want variety.
We get many arguments about why porn in various forms is okay and why men are justified in using it. It’s hard to find arguments from the other side, especially for non-live action media. I’m kinda grappling with how I feel about it and trying to analyze the situation as a whole in comparison to my internal reaction to it.
Personally, I just feel hopeless sometimes as a hétero woman that we have to deal with so many men who have been watching porn daily since they were 13 and get defensive of any critique of it. Growing numbers have porn induced erectile function or escalation into damaging content and sometimes content that borders on illegal, especially where animated is concerned.
We get the “testosterone-Rex” argument that men are visual and thats why they need it, even though men who have left porn behind speak out against this excuse. Even some biology and medical research is trying to crush this assumption that men are just visual and women are imaginative. So many men and women now conflate masturbation with pornography even though the can be mutually exclusive. People say they aren’t dependent on it and use it in moderation yet they can’t masturbate and orgasm without any pornographic reinforcement.
The high speed internet pornography today feels very damaging in various areas (mental, societal, legal, relationships, etc). I just want help analyzing it from a feminist perspective and trying to put
... keep reading on reddit ➡I've always wondered why feminist attack pornography with such animosity. Do they really think that someone's kinks have any affect on their worldview. They see a video with a woman being tied up and come to the conclusion that anyone who enjoys watching these videos believes that women are inferior or deserve to be "put in their place". They just can't consider the possibility sexual domination doesn't equal oppression. And on top of that they think that pornography is made for men only. They refuse to believe that women could enjoy being submissive during sex or that the roles are ever reversed in porn.
IDK just a small rant about feminism's view on porn.
"SWERFs" shouldn't be ostracised from the feminist movement, since they are the movement. On the pornograohy/prostitution front "sex-positive feminists" are stagnant.
"sex-positive feminists" say regulating prostitution will solve all the problems, but that wasn't the case with the porn industry.
It also hasn't worked in countries that have tried it, like Germany. The vast majority of prostitutes in Germany aren't even German! That screams the the obvious fact that if every woman was at least as comfortable economically as the average German woman then prostitution would likely not even exist!
"sex-positive feminists" will say porn is freedom of speech, but real people (usually the most economically vulnerable) are being exploited, abused & even raped, making the resulting recording not a exercise of free speech, but evidence of a crime!
