We all watch porn. We all like porn. And any way you look at it, porn's pretty degrading to women. (Or is it? I imagine this is an area that can be expanded). So are we claiming to be in support of gender equality while willingly participating in the degradation of one gender, just like we condemn the feminists for doing?

How do we get out of this? Is porn not degrading? Or is it equally degrading for both sexes? Or does porn not form part of what we would call socially acceptable or inscribed thinking and therefore not matter ? Does watching porn matter? Can I be accused of being a misogynist for watching porn? Does it necessarily shape how I view women/gender relations?

I know this isn't strictly an MR issue, but you guys always clear up social questions I have, so let's talk about this and maybe you can help me out of this little logical problem I'm having.

EDIT: guys, thanks so much for the great responses. I think what came out of this is a sense of "let's be grown-ups and let people make their own decisions. If someone has misogynistic tendencies, that's a separate issue completely from porn, which isn't inherently degrading to anyone one-sidedly."

I was asking mostly because I've had trouble in arguments with being accused of exposing myself to images of women being in [seemingly] exploitative situations, and not knowing how to answer. Now I see that those accusations are a form of circular reasoning - only if someone already sees porn as misogynistic, can they accuse me of degrading women, which is why porn is misogynistic... an invalid argument which takes agency away from the women they're trying to speak up for. So thanks for the thoughts and great responses everyone! (Now if only we had a counter-argument to the feminists' 'Yeah, but... but... PATRIARCHY).