Why I’m Not Scared Of Porn

Last week, Evan and I discussed the recent move by the Cameron administration in the UK to block pornography from British internet servers by default (it can be accessed through request). As Evan is currently on tour in the Mexican state of Sinaloa as his luchador alter-ego, “El Astronauta Más Sexy Y Famoso,” he’s asked me to write today’s post, and I’ve decided to pick up on last week’s talk.

We had blasted a few arguments back and forth (with me arguing that the ban did far more harm than good) but one line of reasoning that I didn’t get a chance to use was this:

There’s a lot worse stuff out there than porn.

Let me break it down for you.

I. Porn Isn’t As Widespread As ______

Now don’t get me wrong- porn is a major industry. Its yearly profits rival that of Hollywood and it easily outstrips the combined economies of many small nations (heck, probably medium ones as well). Even so, porn isn’t something that’s widely accepted or publicly distributed (barring the UK, where they call it The Sun). Porn is something that, even without a ban, has to be sought out by the individual- it’s not something typically plastered on billboards or inundating commercial airtime.

Not that it keeps ’em from trying…

Point is, I’m not exposed to pornography on a daily basis. I am however exposed to a near constant stream of voices, sounds, and images trying to convince me that life is empty and meaningless without a brand new Honda, a 12-inch sub, or a lawyer who is going to get me the compensation I deserve.

Or beer ads- the only ads that still try to be remotely entertaining…

Let me say it again- I’m not here to defend porn. Porn is objectifying and there’s really no way to argue against that. But what would I, if I were a parent, be more concerned with? My kid seeing a minute of pornography or my kid watching a minute of an ad telling her she’s not beautiful, fulfilled, or a whole person without ______ brand of lipstick? I really can’t offer an immediate answer to that.

Seriously, take an hour of television, and you’ll be told not only porn’s message that women are objects, but further that Africa is damned to endless despair, happiness is just a pill away, and all your life is meaningless without Doritos. Take away porn and I don’t think you’ll see that much of a change in society. Take away commercials, and I think you’ll see a freaking Renaissance.

Science is complicated.

And lest anyone call me a hypocrite, no, I make it a point of pride to not watch commercials. If I do, it’s only to talk back to the people on screen and point out the flaws in the product/life decisions while offering them the finger.

Because the manufacturers can see me through my computer screen…

II. Porn Can Only Do So Much Harm

Yet again, I don’t want this to be misconstrued as some sort of defense- even a backhanded one- of the pornographic industry. Still, I don’t think you can deny that there’s only so much harm- or rather, so many types of harm pornography can do. It presents a false image of women (and pool boys) and does reduce pretty much everyone involved into a base, disposable object performing a disposable parody for your fleeting amusement, but shy of some director trying to be actively malicious (splicing in pro-Fascist messages, for example) that’s really the extent of what it can do. I can’t say the same for most mainstream television.

There’s sexual objectification on TV as well- plenty of it. And on top of that, there’s racism, sexism, false representation, open deceit, and, well- you name it. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that porn didn’t contribute to the Iraq war- the fear mongering of Fox and CNN did. Again, if you were to put me on the spot and ask me to choose between eliminating pornography and preventing (heck, just possibly preventing) the deaths of roughly 175,000 civilians, I’d choose the later without a moment’s hesitation.

What causes more human suffering- porn or the content of your average TV channel? Again, I’m willing to bet it’s the latter.

Here, let me offer another example.

Right now, I’m seeing the birth of the latest moronic self-hate campaign. On the radio here in Vegas, they’re advertising that men over the age of 40 may be feeling sluggish or tired because of a “low T-count” (low testosterone). If you know anything about the human body, you know that you naturally lose testosterone as you grow older- it’s the equivalent of asking an 80-year old if he’s not moving as quickly as he used to.

Yeah, no ****.

Yet, these dirtbags are advocating testosterone injections. Let me say that again. They are taking a natural bodily function and making you feel guilty and inadequate as a man about it so they can make money (which is what women have to go through pretty much every day, for the record).

That’s not insanity, that’s not negligence- that’s malice. That is the action plan of evil men and women who can go…

Well, Evan doubtlessly won’t allow me to say just what, but it involves a recommendation from me that they enjoy a  romantic liaison with a cactus.

III. Porn Is A Symptom, Not A Disease

I guess that’ really the point, isn’t it? Exploitation is exploitation, whether it’s feeding into your sexual appetites or gluttony, vanity, fear, or anything else. Trying to single out porn as being somehow the pinnacle of all depravity is really just plain shortsighted. Personally, I’d cite Christian subculture for this particular view (in the US, at least). The religious community at large in the West doesn’t seem to know how to even approach the subject of sexuality (in spite of their protestations that they aren’t prudes) and as a result, the presentation of women as silicon-injected sex-crazed maniacs gets to be the national bogeyman while presenting women as worthless without Dove soap, GAP sweaters, and probiotic yogurt gets a free pass.

Self-hatred, perpetuated by a system that would sell you babies for target practice if it thought it could make the shareholders a profit, is the perpetrator here- not just one ugly arm of this octopus.

Seriously, the arm on the left is wrapped around “prostitution.” We’ve been telling you guys this for over a century now…

And before we leave, to any 3rd Wave “feminists,” porn is about as empowering to women as blackface is to African-Americans. Taking an actively role in the false presentation of your demographic doesn’t make it magically noble or heroic. It’s ****ing stupid.

But Wait! There’s More!

I don’t usually (ok, ever) do revisions to these posts, but the recent slew of misunderstandings of what I’m saying here has compelled me to do so.

Now normally, getting two complaints stemming from a shared source would lead me to conclude the error’s on my part. I screwed something up in my writing and utterly miscommunicated my message. But the fact that Kat seems to get what I’m saying changes that. No, I’m not going to talk about why I’m wrong, I’m going to talk about why you are.

Now at no point did I say “porn is not bad.” On the contrary, I called porn exploitative multiple times. This post is (as I said in the first few sentences) an addition to a conversation Evan and I had last week (where I also called porn exploitative). My key issue was not- as commenter Chris seems to have understood- that porn should be ignored. That’s my whole message getting inverted. The point is that the British government has essentially given approval to the equally harmful stuff on TV by not attempting to offer any “blocked-by-default” to the rampant greed, idiocy, and fear-mongering that dominates the media.

That’s the issue. We treat porn as being “special” or “magical.” It’s not. I said it above, and I’ll say it again- “exploitation is exploitation.” We might not have porn blocked by default in this country, but the unique outrage that it generates (as opposed to the equally bad stuff we’ve got more widely spread) functions the same. To howl at objectification one place but not another is not only hypocritical, it’s us giving the things we don’t get as mad about tacit approval. The knee-jerk emotional response this post got really just makes my case for me. I’m not the one treating evils unequally here…