not sure if I can post this here?

[misshardbroom]

I was asked a few months ago if I would give a lecture to a local women's group about feminism & porn / feminism & the sex industry / feminism & glamour modelling.... etc etc.

Rashly, I agreed.

Due to deliver said lecture this weekend and I have done less than zero research of the topic, planned nothing... having the nightmare week from hell for a number of other, unrelated reasons, and now have the mother of all headaches.

So please please please, you're an opinionated bunch, help me out here.

Is the sex industry anti-feminist?
Is it possible to enjoy porn and call yourself a feminist?
Are we, as empowered women, suspicious of all male sexual desire? Where is the line between 'normal, healthy male' and 'dangerous deviant'?
Women who act in porn movies, or page 3 girls, or high class escorts - are they selling out other women?

I'd really welcome your views, anything I include I promise I will attribute to having canvassed the views of other women, rather than passing them off as my own very educated opinions!

Also, anything you can advise I read (especially if it's very very short ) would be gratefully received.

Oh, and I promise I'm not a journalist secretly writing an article about the secret porn fantasies of yummy mummies.

There must be LOADS of studies to show that women who gravitate towards the sex industry are either past victims of some sort of abuse, have no self-estemm based on anything other than their looks, OR, in need of money.

I know people will argue they're adults, it's their choice, blah, blah, but what woman from a happy stable background dreams of being a porn star when she's choosing her subjects. Maybe she dreams of being an actress, and some stumbles into porn.

SHOW me a woman with the world at her feet who chooses the porn industry.

Lots choose it, but what, really, were their other options.

You can see my stance!! I'm not one to sit on the fence.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/relationships/713860-Being-a-quot-high-end-quot-sex-worker-and-what

This thread should help you. There is another that I will try and find for you.

Have a look at this for anti-censorship feminist arguments.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/relationships/714677-Being-a-sex-worker-39-of-whatever-end-39-and?rnd=123608322 7586

really really helpful stuff, thank you!

[grovelling with gratitude emoticon]

Good luck missHB. I would recommend you somebooks as well but you probably won't have time to get them (Nadine Strossen, Avedon Carol etc) and ify ou have any specific questions for the anti-censorship side you're welcome to ask me.

Message withdrawn

this always happens when I'm asked to do a talk.

1. Rashly agree
2. Forget all about it
3. Remember with 3 days to go and have blind panic
4. Start researching it and find it's so interesting that I wish I'd spent the last 3 months reading up on it properly.