Cheers!
Posted on 12/18/2010 8:01:19 AM PST by IbJensen
Pornography has invaded the world’s imagination. It is everywhere: On the Internet, in films, in movies, in rap music videos. Five-year-old girls dress and are taught to behave like pornography stars in order to win beauty contests. Ten- to twelve-year-old girls both dress and behave like the pornographic images that surround them—and they provide sexual services to young boys.
Opera—high culture—has also been increasingly “sexed up.” I have seen productions of “Carmen” and “Lulu” in which the lead diva was half-naked and in which she, too, sang the role as if she was a contemporary pornography star and prostitute.
No, I do not like any of this.
Yes, I take it all very seriously—as many Second Wave feminists and our Christian and conservative allies once did.
No, I do not think that hiding women beneath burqas is, therefore, any kind of solution. In fact, both pornography and prostitution are booming businesses in most Muslim countries.
Before we go any further, let’s play twenty questions. I really want your answers.
1. Is pornography “work” or is it a violent crime?
2. Is pornography “free speech” in action or is it a violent, often murderous crime?
3. Is pornography really a “victimless” crime?
4. Are pimps, johns, traffickers, and landlords being victimized? If so, why are they not complaining?
5. Are the people, mainly men, who buy and watch pornography being victimized? If so, why are they not complaining? Is anyone forcing them to consume pornography?
6. Are the seductive, taunting, smiling, naked girls and women who are being paid “good” money–victims? If so, why don’t they complain, leave, find some other job?
7. Isn’t working in pornography a job just like any other job–like any other acting job?
8. Aren’t pornography actors there of their own free will—for the easy money, the attention, the “stardom?”
9. Isn’t our right to see and read whatever interests us essential to our fundamental liberty?
10. Doesn’t the First Amendment guarantee us this right? If we criminalize one kind of “free speech,” where will it end? Who will decide what information or images we are allowed to see? Won’t state or religious censorship chill our rights, even our very thoughts?
11. On behalf of “free speech,” and privacy rights, didn’t Second Wave feminists avidly collaborate with pornographers to ensure that pornography remained a civil right?
12. Didn’t Second Wave feminists launch the battle against violence against women, which included sexual harassment, rape, incest, domestic battering—as well as the most serious battle against pornography and prostitution? Weren’t they vilified for collaborating with Christians and conservatives on the issue of pornography and prostitution?
13. How many women from wealthy and prominent families, or with advanced educations, “choose” to work in pornography or as prostitutes?
14. Did you know that, by definition, pornography is that which has to do with “prostitutes.” “Porne” in Greek is a “prostitute.” The so-called actresses in pornography are treated as if they are–and usually soon are–also “working” as prostitutes.
15. How different is being a prostitute from being a stripper, massage therapist, or a nurse?
16. How many prostituted girls and women are actually free to leave, walk out, give it all up?
17. Where might they go? Where might they call “home?” Who will help them get off drugs and alcohol, restore their ravaged health, support them as they deal with the sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS, with which johns have infected them?
18. Do you have any idea of what the average age of a pornography actress/prostitute is?
19. How long a shelf-life does a “working girl” (prostitute, pornography actress) actually have?
20. Why does pornography “turn” people on?
I lived through the great feminist Sex Wars. I was both a participant and an eye-witness, as well as a confidante to feminists who were on both sides of this War. But before I share memories and analysis, I really want to hear from you. Your answers will help me understand how to share a vast body of knowledge and history with you in the most productive way. Here’s a hint to help you think through these questions.
Pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry, right up there with guns and drugs. It is enormously profitable but not to the “workers,” most of whom are girls and women who have been sold by their parents, captured in war, kidnapped off the street, forced by their husbands, or who have been driven by poverty, racism, incest, and the most violent sexism into the arms of pimps, traffickers, landlords, advertisers, law enforcement officers, and johns.
Phyllis Chesler, Ph.D is an Emerita Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies at City University of New York. She is an author, psychotherapist and an expert courtroom witness. She has lectured and organized political, legal, religious and human rights campaigns in the United States and in Canada, Europe, the Middle East and the Far East. A popular guest on campuses and in national and international print, television, radio and online media, she has been an expert commentator on the major events of our time. She has lived in Kabul, Afghanistan, and in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. She currently resides in Manhattan.
So, when is the feminist going to stop hating men and make sex a moral issue?
Cheers!
I think we are saying the same thing.
Point the finger at parents on this one.
I have a 12 year old g/daughter who lives with me, who happens to be beautiful and that's not just grandpa prejudice either. She wears T shirts, in appropriate weather, to public school mind you, that have Jesus themes, she has one that she particularly likes that says simply. "I love Jesus", she's old enough to pick out her own clothes and always chooses well.
Adult parents need to get their minds right and quit dressing their little girls like whores, or allowing those little girls to talk them into letting them wear inappropriate clothing.
Just my 2¢ worth.
Cheers!
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Here ya go.....
http://www.irs.gov/taxpros/index.html
I wonder what their stance is on how women are treated in muslim societies?
We are.
The concept that boys are too weak to say no is really just apologizing for bad behaviour and condoning it.
It’s the the base that the Taliban operates on. Men are not responsible for their actions, so stone/whip the woman.
This is one thing that irks me about many conservatives.
You either believe in personal responsibiltity or you don’t. When it comes to men, many of them clearly believe they are exempt from personal responsibility.
If you’re really intersted, you could read her writing.
How consenting adults choose to exercise that freedom should be their choice, and they should live with the consequences.
“And wonder where the Christian Freepers are on threads like this? Pornography , I guess is just oky doky with Christian conservative men and their wives.NOT.”
Here I am. I post against prostitution and porn regularly. I just get a little tired of saying the same things over and over again.
I am a Conservative, not a Libertarian. There is a big difference.
There is a constraint on every civil liberty. Our rights are not unlimited. You can’t say anything you want anywhere, anytime; you can’t worship any way you want; you can’t let off nuclear bombs in the backyard due to your right to bear arms; etc. I oppose pornography and want it illegal, enforced by juries using the community standards approach.
It is not victimless. That is an absolute lie. It destroys people.
Porn is not “freedom.” It is slavery, and it gets you right where your enemy wants you. The pornier America is, the weaker it is.
And it would not require a bloody civil war to get contain it. That is hogwash.
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That's easy...just take three minutes to check her site. Chessler is way out in front of everybody on that issue...and I mean everybody. I'm surprised she's still alive.
I agree, but its not just parents.
The message that girls get from larger culture, even if they were to read FR regularly, is that they will be rewarded with male attention and acceptance if they dress/look like sluts.
Yelling fire can be harmful to the person’s physical person if panic ensues. The harmful you speak of is spiritual and emotional, which doesnt hurt a person physically.
Cable television. Without a cheap and expansive media to move it, it is hard for something to become mainstream. But, there were paintings and Victorian decorations long before the 60’s. Just now, the internet, dvds, and pay per view tv makes it easier to distribute.
The fact that she equates guns with drugs and porn tell me all I need to know about who she is and what she “fights” for.
The message that girls get from larger culture, even if they were to read FR regularly, is that they will be rewarded with male attention and acceptance if they dress/look like sluts.
Let's hear it for introducing proper culture to young people.
Cotillion might seem like an awfully old-fashioned idea to the larger TV-watching culture, but I am glad to see it is still alive and well and being practiced somewhere in this country.
Whats wrong with the premise of two consenting adults?
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