to be surprised at how many Mumsnetters are fine with pornography?

[Elizabetth]

Particularly as porn has become so much more mainstream in the past few years, I'd have thought that people would be concerned about premature sexualisation of children. Also I'm surprised that so many women are fine with it given that the humiliation and degradation of women is the central theme of pornography. You only have to look at the titles to realise that.

I used to be fine with it dp watched it quite often but for some reason i really don't like him watching it any more

Has there been a thread on this recently then?

Oh I'm surprised too, just goes to show how normalised it's become, bloody depressing imo. I've more or less given up on mentioning it here though.

Oh and apparently any of us with dh's who don't use it must be deluded. Not married to men who don't like it/use it, no, deluded

But those women choose that career, do they not? They are responsible for thier own humiliation and degradation, or am I missing something, are thier women being pushed forced into this work?

dhs, apols for stray apostrophe

its a bit of fun - the women choose to be in those films and get paid handsomely for it in some cases - enjoy it if you want, ignore it if you don't. It has its uses and theres a time and a place for it - me and dh watch together sometimes, can liven up the bedroom.

My children don't watch it obviously so no concerns there......

Weeelll that's not really a definition of pornography Elizabeth. here is gay porn that has nothing to do with women and there is certainly plenty of porn that is about the humiliation and degradation of men by women. I'm not saying porn is fine - I don't like it - but it is very complex. There could be such a thing as "non-sexist" porn that shows people enjoying filthy sex but without it degrading women in articuar. And there definitely is porn that couples like to watch together.

IMO, if porn tends to degrade women, that is because society degrades women and it reflects that. It's not inherent in porn IYSWIM.

Am not trying to be argumentative btw, just dont know anything about the industry.

Sorry dodgy keyboard keeps missing letters.

Elizabetth, do you have a problem with home made porn. Would it be okay if dh & I filmed ourselves fucking and posted it on the internet?

I used to watch it with my hubby, it never has been that much of an issue. We don't do anymore because we now have children and we agreed its not a good thing to have in the house.

However I don't buy the argument that if women voluntarily take part in the production of porn, that makes it all OK. 1) women often collude in their oppression and degradation if they have been socialised into thinking of themselves as sex objects and degradable. 2) A woman may not want to do it, but be forced to be economics, as with prostitution - and the more widely sexist set-up of society may be partly responsible for the difficult economic situation some women find themselves in.

total and snwoleopard,
have to say that even if all women who are in porn industry 'choose' to be humiliated and degraded - which I doubt - it doesn't follow that it is not degrading and humiliating to those women in particular, and thence to women in general.

I'm with you Elizabetth and yes it astonishes and dismays me too.
I wonder if we are showing our age.
I'm in my early 40s and worked on a play about the effects of porn on one woman, called Masterpieces, by Sarah Daniels, when I was a student.
I honestly didn't know much about the porn industry before that project.
Like www, I am not married to a "typical man" either it seems

sorry snowleopard x post

i'm not that surprised. it's so much more accepted now. especially with the internet.

hmm. I'm not a great fan of porn myself, but not particularly concerned about it either.

IMO, there are many other factors in the sexualisation of children that are more significant than porn (if it is becoming more mainstream, does that mean children see more of it? really?)

and when it comes to degradation of women.. I don't know if porn is always degrading to women. I have a good friend who was a sex worker and who saw it as an economic decision, she felt able to segregate her work from the rest of her life. She is an incredibly strong and secure woman. When she made the money she needed (to start her own business), she decided to stop the escorting.. OF COURSE this is not the case for many women. But it was the case for her. She certainly didn't feel degraded, if anything she talks about it as an empowering time in her life.

well I'm not fine with porn and I often don't post on threads about it because I can't be bothered to fend off accusations of repression.

I also hate the normalisation of it, although I was pleased to see metal guards in front of the porn-is-fun mags (loaded etc) in Sainsbo's the other day. maybe it hasn't gone that far.

??????????????

so i shaved mine cos of porn?

Well they will still see sexist trash like Loaded in most newsagents spink, other posters have spoken about normalisation and that is exactly what has happened

I'm at the Clare Short end of Not Fine with it