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The Forum > Article Comments > Pornography: The harm of discrimination > Comments

Pornography: The harm of discrimination : Comments

By Helen Pringle, published 10/10/2011

A very common use of pornography is as sexual discrimination.

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"The dark side of Altruism" (New Scientist sept 2011)

The article starts with the case of where a woman (Carole Arden) shoots and kills her husband, she had an elaborate plan to hide her crime.

She plays the victim, who shot her husband in the back. many of her voiferous supporters continue to back her version of events, letting their good intentions blind them to the facts. "Pathological Altruism."

"Many of us imagine that we would never be duped, but it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking one is doing good, when that is not the case."

A further thought that occurred to me, is that whilst authors such as helen , nina, et al; believe that they are doing good, in reality all they are doing is using the technique known as 'grooming' to recruit people for their causes.
Posted by JamesH, Monday, 10 October 2011 9:49:01 AM
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...And to shift the focus forward seventeen years from 1994 to the present, the rape of a female soldier on the front line in Afghanistan; what in Gods name are Women trying to achieve? Is it a case of equality or is the fact true, men are being subjected to a campaign by "certain" women to achieve an unrealistic form of equality which is, realistically, a revenge attack on the position of male dominance intended by an inclination of nature to be the true "way" and never to be otherwise, as it all should be girls!

...You may achieve a short sighted aim, as part of the campaign, to feminize boys and convert children into homosexuals by attempts to "normalize" abnormal sexual behavior (as an added example of quasi inequality of the sexes), but in the end it will all turn to "bite" you. Be happy and let the natural evolution of nature take its course; a world where women are women and men are men!
Posted by diver dan, Monday, 10 October 2011 10:59:20 AM
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Oh Helen not again!

"Not having to work in an unsought sexually permeated work environment" is very different from someone enjoying pornography in the privacy of their own home.

When people ask you about the harm that pornography does, they are not talking about blatantly inappropriate examples such as this, but about the harm it "allegedly" does to relationships, and to the way men treat women, and think about women. The issue has nothing to do with men behaving like pigs and using pornography in what arguably is expressly intended to constitute the empirical equivalent of rolling someone else in one's own filth (which is to say, even though these actions are unacceptable, think about these men's upbringings and the kinds of trauma and deprivation that would lead them to behave in that way in the first place).

Actually, if you do want a far more indicting example of the harm pornography can do, look no further than probably the best-known porn film, "one night in Paris", in which some nasty little piece of vermin exploits the then 19-year-old Paris Hilton's trust and vulnerability in a bad-taste, mainstream porn-inspired romp.

But bad examples are not enough to demonstrate a phenomenon. The fundamental question here is whether pornography is *necessarily* harmful or not. And I think it was your fellow publisher Meagan Tyler who said that "What many pornography researchers, like myself, are calling for is a more open and honest discussion about pornography, inequality, sexism and sexual desire. These claims are more reasonable than radical."
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3299836.html
Posted by Sam Jandwich, Monday, 10 October 2011 11:48:50 AM
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[cont]

I remember saying something like this in a comment somewhere else that I can't be bothered looking up, but basically I agree; I think that we need to be more open about pornography, and to develop a culture of critique of it, just as we have of non-pornographic films and photography, most importantly so that we can determine exactly what is exploitative and what is not - and we need to allow men like those who work a Digga Manufacturing to develop healthy attitudes to sexuality rather than to repress it (which I would say will inevitably lead to their fantasies becoming more and more violent/degrading/unrealistic, and more likely to be acted out).

This is something that will take a whole of society commitment, because we are so so far away from being able to do this that it's not funny. But you know, that's given me a great idea; make a website kind of like janesguide.com but which critiques porn not just for its quality but also for the extent of its exploitativeness, enlightenment, sophistication etc, just to give people a guide to responsible porn. I think you'll find that it's rare (in fact the only example I can think of is cleansheets.com though admittedly I haven't looked at that site for quite some time), but that it does exist, and that the more such material is exposed, the more people will cotton onto the fact that it's far more enjoyable than the woman-and-banana school of thought.
Posted by Sam Jandwich, Monday, 10 October 2011 11:49:58 AM
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I started in the workplace in 1975 and remember the wall-paper vividly on the factory walls. There was pornography everywhere and this was a place that employed male and females in roughly equal measure. Being an adolescent male at the time I was titilated, but young girls, and older women, were exposed to these displays and were power;less to do anything but try to ignore it. Any female who ventured into the place, whether as an employee or a visitor, was exposed to the lurid sexual gaze of seemingly sex-starved men--of course they did it more to impress each other.
It was like that for years, and then it was banned some time in the late 80's, I think, and sexual harassment in the workplace became increasingly less tolerated, and women gradually became less discriminated against in other ways.
But it's only gone underground. The porn industry is predicated almost exclusively on demeaning women in the grossest ways imaginable--this is what sells!
Porn is a kind of virtual substance abuse that can reduce voyeurs to pathetically twisted individuals.
I'm only critical that women as a class are not more vocal and concerned to get to the bottom of male depravity. It's time the subject was brought out into the open and tackled as a psychological disease. If depression is classified a disease, then so should the violent and demeaning fantasy lives of so many men.
I encourage all women to think about this issue deeply, and engage with it--most of their men are "infected" to some extent. Merely condemning them and it only keeps the problem shamefully hidden and denied.
Posted by Squeers, Monday, 10 October 2011 11:57:14 AM
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Yes squeers, what's needed is radical Wowserism.
Posted by Antiseptic, Monday, 10 October 2011 11:59:40 AM
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