Blog post 5

Savanna Wingard

Money and Ucker

WMS 2000-92

20 March 2015

View the recording of the lecture "Pornland" in the library course reserves and answer the following:

(Note: you must download Quicktime or use a campus computer to watch the video.)

1. What is Dines' view of porn?

2. Go back to chapters 5 and 6 and relate Dines' discussion to any of the readings.

3. How does this discussion play into feminism? How can Dines be against porn but still be viewed as a feminist?

Watching the documentary Pornland, I was very appalled by what I saw. I have never seen porn. I assumed that it was just people having sex like on Game of Thrones (which according to the video is soft-core porn, so I guess technically I have seen porn) and women dressed in revealing plumber costumes. I had no idea what porn was really like; so obviously, it came as a huge shock to me that the porn industry is what it is.

Dine’s view of pornography is that it is a grotesque interpretation of sex and that it has hijacked women’s sexuality. It has done so by making porn increasingly violent and by basically making women in porn purely an orifice for men to put their genitals into instead of an actual human being. I think this is pretty true from what I saw in that video; however, I was talking about this video with a male friend of mine and he watched it and told me that not all porn was like the pornography in the video, so it may not be completely true. I have no interest in exploring porn further than that video to form my own opinion on the porn industry though.

I think the video and this discussion play into feminism because certain things in the porn industry objectify women. Things that were shown that were extremely violent, and calling the female pornstar things like “slut,” “whore,” and “bitch” while having violent sex with her is demeaning and objectifies her so that people watching do not really think of her as a person. In Vampires and Vixens by Alison Happel and Jennifer Esposito, they discuss sexualized violence as empowerment as analyzed in the movie Twilight. During the movie, whenever something violent occurs, Bella (played by Kristen Stewart) is seen trying to look sexy (and failing. I always thought she was having menstrual cramps or something). When she is mouth breathing, I always thought she just couldn’t breathe… Dines can be against porn and still call herself a feminist because she looks at the porn industry and how it objectified women to support her arguments about why the porn industry is not good for women and hijacks their sexuality. The thing is, on one hand you have the porn industry objectifying women and hijacking their sexuality, but on the other, women have the choice to go into the porn industry. Yes, some of them may be there because they are used to it and were abused or assaulted, but many of them are not there because of that. They are there to make money. I knew a girl in high school who wanted to be a pornstar. She dropped out of high school when she turned 18 to be a stripper. I do not know what she is doing now, but that was my point. To make porn for a living is a choice. They have auditions like any other actors would have, and are cast into a movie based upon their skills and the skills required for the film. Not only that, but I have seen internet memes where pornstar Sasha Grey jokes about porn and being a pornstar. She seems to enjoy what she does, and that is her choice.

Esposito, Jennifer and Alison Happel. Vampires and Vixens. 2010. Print.

Pornland: How the Porn Industry Has Hijacked Our Sexuality. Media Education Foundation. Web. 20 March 2015.