Chris Hedges on Pornography, discussing Empire of Illusion on BookTV

[Warren DeMontague]

106. Agreed.

I also think you're dealing with a mentality- and this is the wellspring from which a lot of this noise arises- that honestly believes all hetero sex is inherently oppressive, that the act of, to be blunt, penetration of a woman by a man is inherently "degrading" and not only "harmful" to the woman in question, but ALL women, everywhere.

!

As an ideological goal -you know, the way some of us might hold up "universal health care" as a goal- in some of these circles the "total elimination of penis-in-vagina intercourse" is held up as something that needs to be worked toward, nay even fought for. (Against the wills of the people -men AND women- who like it, even)



I'm not making this crazy-sounding shit up. This is boilerplate basic Andrea Dworkin, for instance. You know, "Feminism 101*"

So it's important, as some 2nd wavers might remind us, to 'view these things through the proper paradigm'... "abuse in porn" isn't the problem, because ALL porn is abuse. All porn is abuse because it depicts, in many cases, a hetero sex act that has already been defined IN AND OF ITSELF as abuse. And because many men get off on it, so there MUST be something wrong with it.


*No this is not indicative of all feminism, certainly not the majority that is post 2nd wave, sex positive and generally not completely out to lunch.