Don’t Blame Pornography; Blame The Pornographer! or: Why Women are Fighting Back Against Mainstream Sex Films

Pornographic imagery is among the earliest forms of art (or at least, entertainment) known to man. Neolithic stone carvings of curvy female forms, while in later periods the Greeks, Romans, Mesopotamians and others depicted more and more explicit scenes of human sexuality, and, though later generations might ignore it, such images have been with us ever since. Even today many try to campaign against them, but the likelihood is humanity will never stop producing pornography, and why should we? There’s nothing inherently wrong with sex; if there was, we would not exist. The problem comes not with the existence of pornography itself but with the sort of pornography widely available.

Note: Though the nature of this article will mean frequent sexual allusions. If you’re easily offended by the concept of pornography itself, don’t read. If you’re wondering why I haven’t mentioned certain things in much detail, I’m afraid this site has certain strict submission guidelines that I’m probably already stretching. Any unsuitable comments will be removed.

Mainstream Pornography and Women

For years many feminists have rallied against mainstream pornography for a number of reasons. The first, and perhaps most disturbing, is due to the harm caused during production, as more extreme and uncomfortable acts are coaxed out of female performers either for money or simply to further their career. One famous example of these production methods came in 1972 with the “porn chic” film Deep Throat in which star Linda Boreman, known as Linda Lovelace, claims she was raped and forcibly coerced at gunpoint. Other cases are less extreme but still present to this day.

Though direct harm is certainly worrying, indirect harm through cultural and social acceptance is more prevalent. It has been frequently argued that mainstream pornography reduces female performers to sex objects and there seems to be some real truth in that. The female star will be promoted as the main reason for a viewer to watch a film, in which she is often a passive vessel that performs solely for the pleasure of the male “star”, who is often barely seen and hardly advertised. What’s more, mainstream pornography focuses, for the most part, on extreme, supposedly “perfect” body types. Most of us, even those who have never seen a pornographic film, are familiar with the stereotype of the porn star with large breast implants and long, dyed hair. Add to that the degrading manner in which women are referred to and treated: in many films it is deemed acceptable to refer to a woman as a “slut”, a “whore” or a “b*tch” to suggest she is sexually available, and an unpleasant majority of such films will include a so-called “money shot”, designed to satisfy male viewers at the expense of the unfortunate female performer.