aquvarius, what you state is your opinion and it does not mean that I am wrong. You may think that by women making big bucks from participating in porn or prostitution this somehow empowers them. However, participation does not mean that they run the businesses, control all aspects of the businesses or achieve power and recognition in society. It is not the service providers that wield power, it is the customers and owners of the businesses. Businesses and markets are primarily owned by men. Women have achieved some inroads into this from the advent of feminism, but when you are talking about the kind of big businesses that exploit women and men sexually, these are owned by men and are used by men. If it looks like there is a woman in control, it is often a front in an attempt to appease people and gain legitimacy.

I think it's interesting that people harp on about pornography and prostitution. If we get over our Judeo-Christian hangovers for a second, we see that they're industries like any other. There may or may not be exploitation involved. To condemn them across the board, however, without condemning every business transaction across the board (ie. to be a Marxist) is a little odd I think. We're still terribly hung up about sex in our society.

aqvarivs, then dont find a man like mine - I have to pay his bills! Look, maybe its the circle of women that I acquaint with, but most that I know not only pay their own way, but also pay their fair share of joint expenses. There are some notable exceptions, but these seem to come from families that have taught them that the husband is the head of the household and has the casting vote on any issue - and so they perpetuate that, plus all the other old rot that goes with it, which includes "whats mine is mine and whats his is ours". I guess I do go out of my way to avoid these people, as they generally irritate me.

I agree, Melinda, we haven't come far at all. It's good to see this point of view being expressed at last and in such an articulate fashion too. Thank you very much.

Though emphasising the problems faced by younger women, this critique in no way lets older women off the hook either. We are all implicated. Even when breaking through that glass ceiling, most women are careful to ensure they look pretty goddamn good doing it.

At one stage in the seventies I thought for a while we might truly make it. There were women then who bravely blazed a trail for the rest of us to follow. They chose to dress for comfort and to leave the house without makeup. Unfortunately, these early attempts at liberation were never going to survive the corporate-led assault which crushed them.

Today, not only are we still working in high heels and pretending our aching legs don't exist, we're working to pay for the latest miracle procedure to bring us closer to conforming to that corporately-imposed norm of how we should look.

The irony is that while women are more shackled than ever to these superficial dictates, men too are now succumbing to the same pressures.

Lizzie4, Here are three links to articles on pornography and pornography and feminism. They cover the gambit. Might be some useful information there for you.
Judging from your last post your way behind the curve. Blaming men for female behavior is so last century. You've been liberated baby. Now own up and suck it up. You are responsible. When it comes to porn it's about a fifty fifty split on who owns and operates and with internet pornography live chats and live cam is almost exclusively female owner/operator. And Heidi Fleiss said in an interview that more women run and operate prostitutes now than men.

http://www.zetetics.com/mac/freeinqu.htm

http://caae.phil.cmu.edu/Cavalier/Forum/pornography/background/CMC_article.html

http://enlightenment.supersaturated.com/essays/text/davidward/pornographyfeminism.html

These links don't support any one side really but, are general discussion and information.

Country gal, I don't want a man like him I want a woman like you. :-)

Shorbe is right about us as a society being terribly hung up on sex.

More over it seems to stuggle with female sexuality, which seems to have been an ongoing struggle of understanding. Especially when it is heterosexual expression and not homosexual expression.

Sexual counselling has probably put more money in the pockets of Psychiatrists etc than anything else since Freud.

The porn market would not exist if there was not a demand for it. Almost since the first camera was invented there was what was labelled pornography.

There is the usual rhetoric about boys and men having their pleasure.

Is not, true liberation where a woman can choose to wrap her legs around a pole or not, rather than wrapping her legs around a pole because she has no choice?