Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!aero!hombre.masa.com!gcf%mydog From: gcf%mydog@hombre.masa.com Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: Re: Pornography (was: A Moral Question) Message-ID: <89327@aerospace.AERO.ORG> Date: 22 Oct 90 20:23:18 GMT References: <16098@s.ms.uky.edu> Sender: news@aerospace.aero.org Lines: 39 Approved: nadel@aerospace.aero.org kaveh@ms.uky.edu (Kaveh Baharestan): | ... Porn is basically | anti-feminist and promotes the objectification, humiliation, control, | and hate of women. There is no pornagrafy that does not promote one | or more of these ideas in its viewer-readers. So the fight agianst | Porn is the fight for equality. ... The writer is not clear on what, exactly, is meant by "porno- graphy." Are the qualities of promoting "objectification, humiliation, control, and hate of women" attributive or definitive? That is, do they define pornography, or does pornography have another definition, not mentioned here? If the latter, what is it? Secondly, how does the author know that "there is no pornography that does not promote one or more of these ideas in its viewer- readers"? This is an extremely broad statement implying very extensive research with thousands of subjects and a great variety of material. I am unaware of any such study, and I think the statement should be supported with references. Finally, it's not clear what is meant by "the fight against porn." Some of the fight against porn, as the author later notes, is manifestly carried out as part of a program to subject Americans to the beliefs of a particular religious group. This is not equality. So we need to know whether the writer believes in the suppression of pornography by force, or only public criticism of it, and if the former, who will determine what is to be called "pornography." The church groups are clear on this: they themselves will determine what pornography is, and will use state or private violence to suppress it. The position of anti- pornography feminists on this is not as well-defined. As the moderator implies, the author should also handle the fact that some undoubted feminists enjoy what others describe as pornography. Are they bad feminists? How does the author know? -- Gordon Fitch | uunet!hombre!mydog!gcf