“Pornography: A Human Rights Issue” - Professor Gail Dines on the Betrayal Trauma Recovery Podcast

TikiTikiTata-chalala · 2021-12-07T16:58:52+00:00

We've been pushed so far into a 'freedom of choice' fallacy: on the left it's free to choose bc in a future utopia there will be no consequences, and on the right (libertarian really) it's free to choose bc no one has the right to govern the choices of another. So we're left in a society of false promises and you made your choice- that's that.

This common train of thought to willfully glossing over how no choice is made in a vacuum and no choice you make will only affect yourself. Comes from a foundational lack of empathy, and the main source of training for this lack of empathy comes to us in the form of porn.

*If you live in a cabin in the woods and have no internet and don't interact with other people at all- THEN your choices won't affect others. But once you link up with other people, a social order/society is formed

samedinuitmort · 2021-12-07T13:55:44+00:00

Excerpt: Women who support pornography

Anne: Why do some feminists or some women who call themselves feminists support pornography?

Gail: I used to teach a whole 14-week course on this so let me try and get it into a couple of minutes. So, when you think about the feminism that grew out of the 1960, 70, and 80’s it was a given that if you called yourself a feminist you were anti-pornography. There was no question. Then what happened around the 90’s is that there was a sort of new movement which we often sometimes call the 3rd wave, where really what we called feminism right or foe-feminism was the idea that somehow if you embraced pornography (because the argument was we’re never going to get rid of it so let’s embrace it) and use it in ways that empower us. I would argue it really was a capitulation to male power and to the porn industry and what’s happened is over the years this view that somehow pornography can be empowering has taken hold. Especially in academic circles. I really think I need to say this, that the more privileged a woman is and the further away she is from ever having to be in pornography in order to put food on the table for her kids, the easier it is to endorse it as empowering. It’s a very privileged white position to say pornography, and I have to add in there prostitution because a lot of the same women who are pro-porn argue that they’re pro-prostitution, it’s a privilege white position because most of those women who have the argument are so far away from ever having to be in porn or ever having to be in prostitution. The first rule of feminism is to do no harm to women and pornography is one of the most harmful forms of visual representation that we have that delivers to men’s brains, via the penis, a very clear image of misogyny.

Anne: Absolutely. Why do you think they don’t realize they’re hurting other women?

Gail: I think for a lot of them, when I would teach an upper-level feminist theories course, a lot of the students would come in with kind of pro-porn views but it didn’t take very long to really get them to see the violence that was going on in porn, the impact on the women in porn, the impact on women who were not in porn but were having to date or hook up with men who had been watching porn and got their sex-ed from porn. So, I have to refer to this whole pro-porn 3rd wave ideology of feminism as a house of cards. It doesn’t take much to knock it down. Really when you think about it, who for a living really wants to be penetrated on camera by any number of men in ways that are violent, brutal, and in ways where you lose rights to your image, to your bodily integrity, to your bodily privacy? So, you know I asked my students to just think about it would be like if this is what you had to do in order to survive financially? Often, I think what happens is we can theorize and theorize but there is something to be said for just plain, simple empathy. Put yourself in that position and say would I want that for me? Would I want it for my friends? Would I want if for my daughter? My sister? My mother? The chances are that the answer is no.

vforvendetta87 · 2021-12-08T00:00:58+00:00

I was turning 16 in 2004 and my first-ever sexual encounter, the moment I would lose my virginity with a boy 1 year younger than me, never happened because apparently, he was disgusted with parts of my body that didn’t resemble the bodies in porn. I’m 33 and never recovered. It is taking YEARS to heal and understand that my body is 100% normal. So for those that think it’s harmless, consider the thousands if not millions of young girls (and boys) who grew up so emotionally and mentally traumatized by it.

Miserable-Grass-3290 · 2021-12-07T21:09:38+00:00

Ive been thinking about this a lot recently because a young woman I know (a friend of my cousin's), who is very attractive and comes from a very decent upper class family (small business owners) decided to go into porn. She was super feminist before and yet she stands by her choice (mind you she doesn't do "feminist porn"). She actually emigrated to the US to pursue what she calls "her dream".

Idk, something feels so odd about it. She's clearly there willingly, and it was clearly her choice, but she had every opportunity, to study, work, she even lived in Europe for a while on her parents money.

I know in most cases it's a desperate choice of women who need money, or who are being exploited, or who have mental health/drug issues, but this girl is there FULLY WILLINGLY. It just feels like a betrayal to all women.

Idk.

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Title	“Pornography: A Human Rights Issue” - Professor Gail Dines on the Betrayal Trauma Recovery Podcast
Author	samedinuitmort
Upvotes	324
Comments	9
Date	December 7, 2021 1:52 PM UTC (4 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/FemaleDatingStrategy
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/FemaleDatingStrategy/comments/raznq8/pornography_a_human_rights_issue_professor_gail/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/FemaleDatingStrategy/pornography-a-human-rights-issue-professor-gail.1088163 https://theredarchive.com/post/1088163

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