Does pornography empower women?

Question

Does pornography empower women? Or does it degrade women?

I find that people either believe that pornography is an expression of male culture through which women are exploited OR that pornography actually empowers women (ex: Jenna Jameson and her "empire", the show the girls next door are a huge hit with female audiences, etc ..)

What do you think?

Answer 1

I agree with the answerer with the panda pic: it's a woman's body and she can do anything she wants with it, including sell it or appear in pornography. BUT - and this is a big 'but' - female performers often get treated as chatel, and a lot of pornography does encourage views that are not exactly what we'd call liberated. Jenna Jameson may have been able to turn porn to her advantage, but thousands of women are not so lucky.

Your question is really about chauvinism. Does pornography defeat it? It can. Witness the amazing Annie Sprinkle! She's been through the worst that the porn industry has to throw at a woman, but she's made it work to her benefit, and she's turned it into a mode of activism to boot. Porn (like church) is an institution that is mostly produced by men for men, and in this way it is an important contributor to the way that men view women.

Porn is a big, fat opportunity for the advancement of liberated views towards gender and sex, but it is largely untapped by feminists. Too, too bad.

edit: (It's also worth mentioning that you have to be discerning. A lot of chicks were into Suicide Girls as some kind of liberated porn factory. B-Word magazine - you know the one - blew that myth up. Buyer beware!)

Answer 2

2

Answer 3

Depends on what side of the dime you are on, it's a love/hate situation. There is no real in-between. First of all face the fact the Sex Sells, there is no substitute for the natural high it brings to a person. The question is what one is taught to believe and enforced on.

It doesn't matter, man or woman. Men and Women are both either exploited or empowered.

Empowering? Not sure, but I would not doubt the possibility, It can have an empowering sense of excitement and the financial gain from it can be tremendous.

Exploitation? That possibility, while feesable does not seem as likely as the concept of "FREE WILL" in this society has become so prominent, and that anyone can do what they want, when they want, if they truly want it.

What holds people back, or propels them is what is in their minds already, what they are taught to believe, raised to live by,what has been left to question, and what is and has been enforced in their lives from the time they are able comprehend and distinguish what is in their lives and point of view as empowering or exploitative to themselves, not by everyone else, whose standards are different, not better or worse.

Answer 4

Pornography can empower women. Like other people said, there are movies where the woman doesn't seem to enjoy herself.
It's so hard sometimes to accept that women are not degraded because many things that are sexual are also deemed "filthy" or "unnatural" but I think that is more of a societal issue. What goes on in porn also goes on behind closed doors, but because it's labeled negatively many people can't see it as anything else.

However, I see more and more women who have complete control of what they do and who they work with. We also see a lot more women becoming heads of production companies. We also can't ignore the fact that in this industry women get paid a lot more than men (especially the big names).

Answer 5

It depends on the pornography genre and the targeted audience. Sex sells - always has always will. Women are becoming more actively involved in the adult film industry through the likes of Jenna Jameson & her ilk. By doing so it may enable porn stars both male and female to enjoy a better and more prolonged life as too many die early through suicide or drug addiction.

Answer 6

Where do you think the term cheap slut originated from? Pornography degrades women and poisons the minds of men. The most wonderful lovers I've ever had were also the most naive.

Answer 7

Neither, it's a job. That's all it is, a job.
A woman can use her body for anything else and that is ok.
She can be a dancer, and athlete, in construction, use her body anyway she wants and that is fine.
That is until it has to do with sex and then people lose it.

Sex is the most basic part of life, with out it you would not be here. So why is it such a bad thing? The answer is that it's not bad, it's just the silly way people think.

Answer 8

No, I think it has potential to make men less powerful to the point it can cause sexual dysfunction and hurt real relationships. I'll reference a Psychology Today article: "The brain can become desensitized to dopamine, the neurotransmitter that activates the body’s reaction to sexual pleasure, through the kind of over-stimulation readily available via the internet’s porn culture. The result is that users fall into a chemical dependency, requiring larger doses to achieve the same effect. This phenomenon drives the market for “extreme genres” of porn and decreases an addict’s ability to respond to real life sexual encounters. “It’s all free, easy to access, available within seconds, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Overstimulation of the reward circuitry in the brain is a very real possibility today,” Robinson explains. “Many men don’t realize their brain’s sensitivity is declining toward normal sex because Internet erotica delivers endless dopamine hits.” She adds: “There is almost total ignorance about the significance for porn users of the recent discoveries of addiction science.”

Answer 9

Source and Destination both are in center of Pornography. It depends upon the mind of an individual.

Answer 10

It's hard to say. I, personally, am ambivalent toward most porn.

Pornography where the actors truly seem to be enjoying themselves is empowering, I think--especially to those actors, as they have the opportunity to follow a career they love.

Pornography that seems forced, where the actors don't really seem to enjoy it, is degrading--again, especially to the actors.