Quote:
Originally posted by Ariel
I would have to agree and disagree. Of course, pornography in and of itself is neither rape nor oppression. Nudity and sexuality should be celebrated instead of turned into things that are viewed puritanically as dirty and/or shameful. Since the current overriding cultural view IS puritinical the women in the porn industry bear the burdens of the notion that sexuality = immorality. They are seen (through mainstream eyes) as inferior. It is to their credit that many have overcome this and found power through the financial benefits. However there are at least as many who have not found the strength of their position (understandably) and thus I feel their is a good deal of eploitation still involved. Particularly when the choice involved in influenced by feelings of inferiority that are encouraged by society at large. That said, I think the ultimate solution is to destroy the negative views we (collectively) seem to have towards that which is the essence of life - sex. Equality through embracing sexuality.
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When will the feminists understand that exploitation is an ambiguous word that can mean either to "to use" or "to use to the used party's detriment"? We are all exploited. My talent is exploited by those who buy photography from me. A model's beauty is exploited by the photographer. This is not exploitation in a bad way. On the other hand, if I take a picture of a girl that makes her look, not beautiful, sexy, and alluring, but like some kind of human Kleenex who is being merely used for sex, only to be thrown away (a good deal of the hard-core material is this way)...THAT does exploit in the bad sense.
One could say that the model is exploiting her own beauty and the business contact and acumen of the photographer to make a lot of money in a relatively short time. A lot of the girls I work with are students, and how many other ways are there where they could make $50/hr. They can make as much with me in three hours as they would make in about 20 hours working in a Starbucks, thus giving them 17 hours of study time.
If we all assume that women have a brain in their head, can weigh alternatives, and actually make the choices they want to make, then we can stop thinking of women as quasi-children incapable of thinking for themselves and therefore needing the government and feminists to protect them from themselves.