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Original poster

Amateur porn - is it wrong from a feminist perspective?

88 replies

Bennifer · 08/06/2011 13:46

Just a general question. There's obviously porn that is "professional" in a sense, and it relies on the exploitation of women. What about amateur porn that's done between consenting couples who put stuff on the internet (or couples we assume are consenting)

PS, I don't want to include amateur looking porn that is professional in this category

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StewieGriffinsMom · 08/06/2011 14:38

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Original poster
Bennifer · 08/06/2011 14:38

I think you're taking a more what I would call theoretical approach. You say porn objectifies women turning them into fuck objects. What's so bad with that? Football turns men into football objects. Pop music turns singers into song objects? What is it about sex that makes it worse?

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dittany · 08/06/2011 14:26

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Original poster
Bennifer · 08/06/2011 14:24

My opinion on porn is that I'm not particularly concerned with it either way, I can only worry about so many things, and war and poverty and higher on my agenda.

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Original poster
Bennifer · 08/06/2011 14:23

I suppose I'm trying to deconstruct from first principles what it is that makes porn wrong.

I see a distinction between the two main anti-porn arguments

  1. That the people in it (usually the women but not always) are in some way being abused and therefore the performer is damaged.
  2. That it is somehow intrinsically wrong to watch people having sex in that it objectifies them. It could be said that this then damages the user and his family.

The first seems quite empirical whereas the second argument is more theoretical, (and I'm not sure I buy the second argument). However the problem with the former is that if the empirical anti-porn case is important, then it's impossible to know either way whether someone is or is not being abused

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dittany · 08/06/2011 14:18

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celadon · 08/06/2011 14:18

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dittany · 08/06/2011 14:17

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MillyR · 08/06/2011 14:17

I would say that it isn't wrong to watch two people having sex if you know them both well and so can be certain that they have consented to both having sex and to you watching it.

I would also say that there are some simulated sex scenes on TV, such as in Sex and the City, where I would feel that the mainstream TV/movie industry offers those actors a degree of protection from exploitation. I am not saying it that there aren't problems with mainstream viewing, but I do not think it is comparable to pornography.

I also think that porn actors simulating sex scenes as part of the porn industry, and such actors are vulnerable to exploitation as it is part of a career that also involves hardcore pornography, and that this is then not okay to watch, even if the level of sex shown is similar to that in mainstream TV programmes.

Original poster
Bennifer · 08/06/2011 14:13

I don't use porn (though I've seen it). I think you're making assumptions there that go beyond the orginal (ok, second) premise

Is it wrong to watch two people having sex (not a performance), and why assume the viewer is male. Is it wrong per se to watch two people having sex if they're happy for you to watch?

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dittany · 08/06/2011 14:11

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Original poster
Bennifer · 08/06/2011 14:08

I suppose I'm trying to get at is whether porn is wrong if women aren't being exploted? Is it intrinsically wrong to watch two people having sex?

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dittany · 08/06/2011 13:58

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