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From: mapjilg@gdr.bath.ac.uk (J I L Gold)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Pornography AGAIN (was Re: Posting re. Andrea Dworkin)
Message-ID: <1990Nov26.154324.14633@gdr.bath.ac.uk>
Date: 26 Nov 90 17:46:39 GMT
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>No, all kidding aside. I do NOT agree with much of what Dworkin says.
>*I* think the problem is as stated above: "porn" teaches men and women
>how they are to be sexually, and those ways happen to degrade people.
>Somehow, violence has been sexualized, degradation has been
>sexualized, racism has been sexualized.  We need to rethink our
>sexuality outside of oppressive ways of being.  One way to do this is
>to stop producing material that teaches oppression. Likewise, I think
>that TV should be less violent.  I am NOT proposing that we outlaw TV
>either....

I wouldn't quite say that pornography "teaches" men and women about
their sexualities. That smacks of being educational, and I don't
really think porn is consumed for enlightenment in the erudite
sense! Rather, it presents a set of values and modes of behaviour
that are (supposed to be) socially acceptable. Yet at the same time
it is supposed to be a source of fantasy, escapism, or choose your
own euphemism. In that sense there is a contradiction, namely that
(a) this is the way that men and women behave, but (b) presumably
if you are using this as a fantasy you are not behaving that way!
(but perhaps you wish to). I think it is this contradiction, the
loss of distinction between reality and fantasy that is the real
source of harm in pornography.

--
#  J.Gold                            |    mapjilg@uk.ac.bath.gdr             #
#  University of Bath , UK           |    jilg@uk.ac.bath.maths              #
#  The more improbable an event is, the more likely it is to happen :-)      #