Misogyny, Porn, and Profit - How The Debasement of Women Makes Porn More Valuable

Pornography: harmless fun or threat to society? Celebration of sexuality or ruthless exploitation of women? Expression of natural urges or unnatural compulsion? Addiction, or...

You get the picture. The age-old debate rages on....and on, and on, and on....about porn.

But whatever you may think of it, there's one thing we can call agree on: the porn industry is doing just fine for itself. No matter what controversies, stigma, or other barriers are placed between the consumer and his (or occasionally, her) pornography, sex continues to sell at massive rates. It has done so for a very long time, and I don't think anyone with any grasp on reality seriously foresees this trend slowing down any time soon.

Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong, anything at all, with people enjoying their favorite bit of smutty media in private, whether you like pictures, videos, erotica, or something more interesting like interactive sex games. I am certainly not the first sex-positive feminist to point out to the rest of the movement that the question we should be asking is not, "is porn good or bad?" but "what is it that makes porn good or bad?"

For feminists, the simple answer to that question is, of course, misogyny, and the porn industry is rife with it. It's gotten so bad that in many cases, the two are inseparable and there's hardly a cliché to be found in adult entertainment that isn't based in a woman's subjugation, humiliation, degradation, infantalization or objectification. People rise to the defense of mainstream porn because they can't imagine it being any other way.

Well, I can, and so can other sex-positive feminists (to say nothing of actual feminist pornographers and sex workers). We look at porn and we see unnecessary messages, but the question is, why are they there? I don't think our society is so far gone that we are incapable of imagining sex without sexism, so why does our sexual entertainment seem to suggest otherwise?