Amateur porn - is it wrong from a feminist perspective?

[Bennifer]

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

[Bennifer]

If you decide to have sex with your DP/DH in the supermarket, people don't have a choice as to whether they see you. If however you post it on the internet on a site, the people watching have a choice. Unless porn is being broadcast in Sainsbury's, your analogy is flawed.

Several times you've tried to paint me as pro-porn and it won't stick. Most porn on the internet relies on some form of exploitation where women are abused. However, and this is the point I'm making, is whether watching sex is wrong. I don't think it is, that doesn't make me pro-porn.

It sounds like you don't like the use of term puritanical, but if your objection is to watching sex at all, that does sound quite puritanical.

Anyway, it's clear where your objection to porn comes from. I wonder if other people think that it's wrong to watch sex at all.

[Bennifer]

Dittany,

Sorry, the thread title isn't "has Bennifer seen some porn?". That's not what this thread is about

[Bennifer]

Dittany,

This isn't about me! Why does it matter? Dittany, you're still going further. You have a very certain concept of pornography that is by definition degrading. What term would you apply then to a film of a consensual couple having sex. Is that not pornography? Or would you call it eroticism? What would you call it?

Reality

Thanks for your answer. You're sort of saying that in theory, amateur porn is ok from a feminist perspective, but in practice it is.

[Bennifer]

Realty, that's my perspective. Porn is wrong, because in practice, many/most people in it are being abused and exploited in some sense, rather than the theoretical side

[Bennifer]

Yes, Dittany, I find that I'm generally in favour of consent when it comes to sex. I've generally found it makes things a whole lot better.

I'm not trying to find categories of porn that are ok, I'm trying to get to the bottom of what it is that makes porn wrong, and to build it up bit by bit. I agree with Reality that it's not about the sex per se that I have a problem with. You and I differ on this.

[Bennifer]

I'm deliberately not going to answer about whether I watch people having sex, because this thread is not about me. Take from that what you will.

I think I have a very good sense of privacy and boundaries. My boundaries just happen to be different from yours, that doesn't make them wrong.

[Bennifer]

Dittany, it seems to be you confusing sex and porn to be honest. What is porn, if not the depiction of sex (through videos and pictures) (I'm aware of the greek origins of the word)

You seem to suggest that sex is ok, but as soon as a camera gets switched on, it becomes exploitative.

[Bennifer]

The defence of voyeurism is that if the couple have consented to it, and have distributed it to people who they're happy to watch, then there's very little to defend. It's their free choice. What is wrong with it?

[Bennifer]

Because they want to and it's their choice. What's to justify?

By the way, I think asking ethical questions and thinking about ethics is a very positive thing to do

[Bennifer]

I'm taking a line from John Stuart Mill from his On Liberty here, on the idea that if it doesn't harm anyone, and someone wants to, why not?