Is porn feminist?
Is watching porn feminist?
Is making porn feminist?
These are conversations I hear all the time in feminist and sex-related circles, so I
just wanted to throw my two cents out there.
I think the first thing we always need to ask when talking about porn is what IS porn?
If we go with the basic Wikipedia definition, porn is any “portrayal of sexual subject
matter for the purpose of sexual arousal.”
So porn can be a hardcore film from a major production company.
It can be an indie company of three people shooting artsy queer sex.
It can be independent performers selling clips, cam shows, or photos.
Or a married couple sharing their sex tapes online.
Or Tumblr users writing smutty Doctor Who fanfiction.
I feel like it’s a weirdly controversial statement to say that I don’t think porn
is inherently anything.
It’s not a monolith.
When these discussions come up about if porn is degrading, or empowering, or feminist,
or oppressive, I just find it so strange…
Because it can absolutely be all of those things!
I don’t know why as soon as the topic of porn comes up any concept of nuance seems
to go straight out the window.
Imagine trying to apply those conversations to any other entertainment genre.
"Is comedy feminist?"
Well, no…
There are feminist comedians, and there are very-not-feminist comedians, but comedy as
a concept has no political, social, or ideological associations.
"Is cinema degrading?"
Of course not.
Certainly there are degrading movies, and people can have demeaning and abusive experiences
on film sets and within the film industry.
But the art form of cinema is objectively neutral.
Porn is no different.
It encompasses a million different kinds of depictions and experiences, and I think putting
all of that in the same box — be it negative or positive — is not particularly useful.
As people insist on maintaining a one-dimensional view of this multi-dimensional industry, it
can be difficult to move past these conversations to what I consider to be more important ones.
Conversations like how to best support porn performers, fight stigma, and ensure their
fundamental labor rights and how to teach the public to think critically about porn
like they do other forms of media.
But I also can’t really blame people for having a reductive view of porn when in all
likelihood they've only been exposed to a very narrow sampling of what porn is and can
be.
In 2017, when most people think of porn, they think of the ubiquitous “free” porn tube
sites like PornHub, YouPorn, RedTube, etc.
But what most people don’t realize is that most of the top free porn sites are owned
by one company called MindGeek (and the ones that aren’t are for the most part just cloning
MindGeek’s model).
So when you do a general search for porn, the top results you get aren’t going to
be a fair representation of a vast and diverse industry, they’re going to be a homogenized
selection of what a single corporation believes its target audience — i.e. straight men
— want.
Imagine only getting one TV channel and thinking that, say, Fox News is representative of all
television.
I’m going to link a really fantastic article in the description about how the MindGeek
porn monopoly influences the types of porn we see and the types of porn we seek out.
But suffice it to say, whatever your view of porn is, I guarantee that if you really
look you will always be able to find porn that subverts those expectations.
And that’s why I’ll never be comfortable painting it all with the same brush.
What are your thoughts?
Let me know down in the comments.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time!