Yes, women are sexual beings who get turned on watching people fuck. This is news, apparently.
A new Toronto Sun article says:
According to a 2006 survey by Nielsen NetRatings, women are among the fastest growing users of cyber porn with the number of women downloading X-rated material skyrocketing to 1.4 million.
The article spends a lot of time with the usual "He looks at porn so he must not love me" trope, but does include some quotes from Chanelle Gallant, organizer of the annual Feminist Porn Awards.
[Via Ms. Naughty Porn for Women Blog]
""He was watching a porno and pleasuring himself!" she recalls. "We just had a huge fight and he's watching porn!""
ReplyDeleteOkay, I don't doubt this was a particularly fucked up situation and she had every right to be upset...
...but does the way that's worded make anyone else think of soap operas or something?
and "pleasuring himself..." there's just something about the anger and THOSE words that well bugs me.
OH NO OH NO HE WAS PLEASURING HIMSELF.
anyone else see it or am I just weird from lack of sleep?
" Chanelle Gallant, 33, understands this well. Until about 12 years ago, she was vehemently opposed to porn.
ReplyDelete"I was an anti-porn feminist," admits Gallant. "The thing is while I was anti-pornography, I still found I was turned on by it, but was opposed to it politically." "
Also: Interesting.
And I went through a period kinda like that. I liked porn, found feminism, worried about it, limited my use, felt worse, stopped using it, worried about any and all images of sex, finally just exploded from the endless worrying, and like it again now.
I wonder who else that's true for. *shrug*
""Some consider it emotional infidelity," she explains."
ReplyDeleteAnd that term worries me. I think when we start saying "X FEELS LIKE Y" we start getting onto shaky ground.
it's the same phenomenon as "these people raped my email"
y'know I FEEL BAD, therefore someone cheated.
rather than "hey, serious boundary: I can't date a porn user. You stop or we don't date" and the emotional strength to follow through on dumping.
no, i'm being EEEEEEMOTIONALLY CHEEEEEEEEEETED ONNNNNNNNNNN and it couldn't possibly have anything to do with me not making my limits clear oh no oh no!
Oh, I see...so if the tables were turned and she was in an argument with him, and she decided to retreat to her romance novels or soaps (or he to his sports videos), it wouldn't be as grave an issue, right??? Right??
ReplyDeleteBut of course....women who like porn are simply either selfish traitors, enablers of rapists, or mere brainless sexbots serving Teh Cock. Nothing to see here...move along, please.
As for Trin's second comment: sounds to me like many of those who talk the most smack about being so vehemetly anti-porn turn out to be simply those who have never even bothered to see what they are criticizing, but just quote from antipornradicalfeminist boilerplate. When they are actually exposed to porn that doesn't follow the template thrown at them, it tends to turn the light on in their brains that something is just not right about what they have been spoonfed.
A great many now sex-pos women were actually quite anti-porn at the beginning; right up to the day where they actually saw some porn for themselves. Lisa Palac and Veronica Monet are the most prominent examples of this.
Anthony
"sounds to me like many of those who talk the most smack about being so vehemetly anti-porn turn out to be simply those who have never even bothered to see what they are criticizing, but just quote from antipornradicalfeminist boilerplate."
ReplyDeleteYeah. I remember one time in college, I'd met with this radfem professor who spent a half hour telling me I was an antifeminist because I didn't much think about what happens to women at frat parties until she brought it up, and liked some fashion magazine ads.
I was mystified so I asked a friend I knew to be a big feminist activist on campus "okaysowhatwasTHATshit?"
Her: well, feminism is relevant. Like take porn...
Me: what about it?
Her: OMG ew it's so gross and it never even shows female pleasure at all. There's not even any cunnilingus!
Me: Um, yeah, there is...
Her: O.o
Me: What were you watching exactly?
Her: .......!!!!!!!!!!!!
*flabbergastedness*
Well, um, but the focus is on the male's pelasure...
Me: Yeah, that's a fair criticism.
Her: That professor is awesome. You should give her a second chance.
Me: Yeah, okay. *backing away slowly*