Big Porn Inc: Exposing the Harms of the Global Pornography Industry (43 page)
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Authors: Melinda Tankard Reist,Abigail Bray
Tags: #General, #Social Science, #Sociology, #Media Studies, #Pornography
BOOK: Big Porn Inc: Exposing the Harms of the Global Pornography Industry
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Challenges
Challenging the sex industries which groom society into accepting the objectification and commercial sexual exploitation of women as normal, is threatening to those who profit and/or benefit from this multi-billion pound system and the sex-object culture that it promotes. It is therefore not surprising that there is widespread and structural opposition to feminist activism on this issue. An important part of the OBJECT campaign has been to provide arguments to counter the claims and accusations used by those who defend sex-object culture and seek to silence anti-porn activists.
This involves exposing the truth about the sex industry to challenge claims that it is ‘harmless fun’ or glamorous. It involves moving beyond arguments centred on ‘individual choice’ to provide analysis of the power imbalances and structural inequalities which influence our choices; refuting accusations of being ‘anti-sex’ by demonstrating that sex-object culture is more related to sexism than sex; challenging charges of censorship by making it clear that objecting to an
industry which normalises sexual violence and discrimination against women is taking a political stand against sexism; and revealing the harms of representing women as sexual objects who are always sexually available in a society in which sexual violence is endemic and inequality between women and men is rife.
Grassroots anti-porn activism provides a powerful vehicle with which to take on and win these arguments.
Conclusion
Feminist activism means challenging the institutions, mechanisms and attitudes which promote, legitimise, and keep sexist practices and beliefs in place. The intensification of the sex industries represents a vicious backlash against gains made by the women’s movement. As anti-porn activists, we refuse to stay silent whilst women are objectified, sexualised and dehumanised.
There are important battles to be won, but our experience is that the tide is turning in favour of feminist activism. Standing united as women is vital to achieving the changes we are fighting for. This unity requires facing and challenging the oppressions which can divide us so that our diversity, as women, becomes our strength. It will be our ability as a movement to continue to grow in strength, diversity, and numbers as we continue to speak out and take action against sexism that will resoundingly put to rest the notion that feminism is dead. Our wins demonstrate the power of collective action. They show that treating women like sexual objects is neither inevitable nor unstoppable, and that there are growing numbers of women and men who are willing to stand up and object.
Get involved!
Bibliography
British Crime Survey (2005/2006).
Prevalence of intimate violence by category among adults aged 16 to 59, Homicides, Firearm Offences and Intimate Violence
. Supplementary Volume 1 to Crime in England and Wales.
Farley, Melissa, Ann Cotton, Lynne Jacqueline, Sybil Zumbeck, Frida Spiwak, Maria E. Reyes, Dinorah Alvarez, Ufuk Sezgin (2003) ‘Prostitution and Trafficking in 9 Countries: Update on Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder’
Journal of Trauma Practice
2 (3/4), pp. 33–74.
Frank, Katherine (2003) ‘Just Trying to Relax: Masculinity, Masculinizing Practices, and Strip Club Regulars’
The Journal of Sex Research
40 (1) pp. 61–75.
Home Office (2004b)
Solutions and Strategies: Drug Problems and Street Sex Markets
. UK Government, London.
Povey, D. (Ed) (2005)
Crime in England and Wales 2003/2004: Supplementary Volume 1: Homicide and Gun Crime
. Home Office Statistical Bulletin No. 02/05. Home Office, London.
___________________________
1
This is an excerpt from a longer article; for the full version contact the author at
[email protected]
Do not quote from this article without permission from the author.
2
<
www.fawcettsociety.org.uk
>
3
<
www.eaves4women.co.uk
>
4
<
http://www.parliament.uk/education/online-resources/parliament-explained/women-in-politics/
>
5
Prevalence of intimate violence by category among adults aged 16 to 59, Homicides, Firearm Offences and Intimate Violence 2005/2006.
6
<
http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk
>
Challenging the sex industries which groom society into accepting the objectification and commercial sexual exploitation of women as normal, is threatening to those who profit and/or benefit from this multi-billion pound system and the sex-object culture that it promotes. It is therefore not surprising that there is widespread and structural opposition to feminist activism on this issue. An important part of the OBJECT campaign has been to provide arguments to counter the claims and accusations used by those who defend sex-object culture and seek to silence anti-porn activists.
This involves exposing the truth about the sex industry to challenge claims that it is ‘harmless fun’ or glamorous. It involves moving beyond arguments centred on ‘individual choice’ to provide analysis of the power imbalances and structural inequalities which influence our choices; refuting accusations of being ‘anti-sex’ by demonstrating that sex-object culture is more related to sexism than sex; challenging charges of censorship by making it clear that objecting to an
industry which normalises sexual violence and discrimination against women is taking a political stand against sexism; and revealing the harms of representing women as sexual objects who are always sexually available in a society in which sexual violence is endemic and inequality between women and men is rife.
Grassroots anti-porn activism provides a powerful vehicle with which to take on and win these arguments.
Conclusion
Feminist activism means challenging the institutions, mechanisms and attitudes which promote, legitimise, and keep sexist practices and beliefs in place. The intensification of the sex industries represents a vicious backlash against gains made by the women’s movement. As anti-porn activists, we refuse to stay silent whilst women are objectified, sexualised and dehumanised.
There are important battles to be won, but our experience is that the tide is turning in favour of feminist activism. Standing united as women is vital to achieving the changes we are fighting for. This unity requires facing and challenging the oppressions which can divide us so that our diversity, as women, becomes our strength. It will be our ability as a movement to continue to grow in strength, diversity, and numbers as we continue to speak out and take action against sexism that will resoundingly put to rest the notion that feminism is dead. Our wins demonstrate the power of collective action. They show that treating women like sexual objects is neither inevitable nor unstoppable, and that there are growing numbers of women and men who are willing to stand up and object.
Get involved!
Bibliography
British Crime Survey (2005/2006).
Prevalence of intimate violence by category among adults aged 16 to 59, Homicides, Firearm Offences and Intimate Violence
. Supplementary Volume 1 to Crime in England and Wales.
Farley, Melissa, Ann Cotton, Lynne Jacqueline, Sybil Zumbeck, Frida Spiwak, Maria E. Reyes, Dinorah Alvarez, Ufuk Sezgin (2003) ‘Prostitution and Trafficking in 9 Countries: Update on Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder’
Journal of Trauma Practice
2 (3/4), pp. 33–74.
Frank, Katherine (2003) ‘Just Trying to Relax: Masculinity, Masculinizing Practices, and Strip Club Regulars’
The Journal of Sex Research
40 (1) pp. 61–75.
Home Office (2004b)
Solutions and Strategies: Drug Problems and Street Sex Markets
. UK Government, London.
Povey, D. (Ed) (2005)
Crime in England and Wales 2003/2004: Supplementary Volume 1: Homicide and Gun Crime
. Home Office Statistical Bulletin No. 02/05. Home Office, London.
___________________________
1
This is an excerpt from a longer article; for the full version contact the author at
[email protected]
Do not quote from this article without permission from the author.
2
<
www.fawcettsociety.org.uk
>
3
<
www.eaves4women.co.uk
>
4
<
http://www.parliament.uk/education/online-resources/parliament-explained/women-in-politics/
>
5
Prevalence of intimate violence by category among adults aged 16 to 59, Homicides, Firearm Offences and Intimate Violence 2005/2006.
6
<
http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk
>
Melinda LiszewskiA Collective Shout for Women and Girls
What started as an idea in the minds of a group of women who had only just met, has evolved into a dynamic grassroots campaign movement challenging the sexploitation of women and girls.
In late 2009, 7 women met to discuss an idea for a new national movement in Australia that would challenge the sexual objectification of women and girls in popular culture. Melinda Tankard Reist had just launched her collection,
Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls
. It was part of a growing body of research into the harms of an increasingly pornified culture and many women were asking ‘So what can we do?’ The name ‘Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation’ (<
www.collectiveshout.org
>) came from one of the book’s contributors, Tania Andrusiak, who described it as a “collective shout against the pornification of culture.” It was time to turn the growing community concern surrounding the sexual objectification of women and girls into grassroots action.
In 2009, the word ‘sexualisation’ was relatively new to the Australian discourse on the health and well-being of young people. Research papers from the USA, Australia and the UK all documented the ways in which children – especially girls – were sexualised (e.g. Rush and La Nauze, 2006 a, 2006 b; Zurbriggen et al., 2007; Papadopoulos, 2010). Yet despite the demonstrable harm to girls’ health, and an Australian Senate Inquiry into sexualisation, there had been little to no response from government and regulatory bodies.
1
The industries significantly responsible for sexualisation – advertisers, marketers, the fashion and beauty industries – had not been made accountable for the harm they were doing.
We began by establishing an online presence with a Website, Facebook page and Twitter account.
2
Interest in our movement was so great that even before the site was finished, concerned individuals began to sign up to Collective Shout. The
Website was designed to act as an online meeting point for supporters. Members were invited to alert us to sexist and objectifying advertising and products by using the forum and blog facility. This allowed others in the Collective Shout community to join those members in protesting or boycotting offending products or services.
In our first 12 months, Collective Shout has racked up a significant number of wins against major corporations.
• The Australian Football League forced AFL Queensland and a Gold Coast football club to withdraw from a sponsorship deal between the sexist restaurant chain, Hooters, and an under 16s football team.
3
• Major Australian underwear retailer Bonds withdrew their range of bras for girls as young as 6.
4
• Complaints against Calvin Klein’s simulated sexual assault billboard were upheld by the Advertising Standards Board following our campaign against the portrayal of violence against women to sell jeans. This attracted significant worldwide media attention.
5
• Collective Shout helped to stop a Gold Coast racecourse’s plans to hold a ‘bikini track sprint.’
6
• National grocery retailer Woolworths pulled out of a joint ‘Lynx’ promotion which offered winners a visit to the sexist Playboy Mansion-styled ‘Lynx Lodge’.
7
We have been part of global campaigns against: Amazon, for selling a guide to child sexual assault; Etsy, for selling rape greeting cards; and rapper Kanye West’s
Monster
video clip, in partnership with Adios Barbie, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (Australia), and Media Watch. We have a current campaign
against the importation of toxic US-style child beauty (sexualisation) pageants to Australia.
8
None of these wins would have been possible without the active participation of Collective Shout supporters who are growing in number and strength. Individual members have told us that they had previously felt alone in their concern about the sexual objectification of women and children. But now, with the knowledge that they are part of a bigger movement, they feel empowered to speak out and take action. They are challenging retailers about sexualised clothing for children, are bold enough to confront shop managers for their open display of pornography, and willing to persist with writing to the Advertising Standards Board about sexist advertising. At times, opposition to Collective Shout has been fierce, but when we support and encourage one another we stand strong for a world free of sexploitation. We invite you to join us.
Bibliography
Papadopoulos, Linda (2010) ‘Sexualisation of Young People: Review’, UK Home Office. Available at <
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100413151441/homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news/sexualisation-young-people.html
>.
Rush, Emma and Andrea La Nauze (2006a) ‘Corporate Paedophilia: Sexualisation of children in Australia’.
Discussion Paper
, Number 90, The Australia Institute, Canberra, <
https://www.tai.org.au/documents/downloads/DP90.pdf
>.
Rush, Emma and Andrea La Nauze (2006b) ‘Letting Children be Children: Stopping the sexualisation of children in Australia’.
Discussion Paper
, Number 93, The Australia Institute, Canberra.
Tankard Reist, Melinda (Ed) (2009)
Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls
. Spinifex Press, North Melbourne.
Zurbriggen, Eileen L., Rebecca L. Collins, Sharon Lamb, Tomi-Ann Roberts, Deborah L. Tolman, Monique L. Ward, Jeanne Blake (2007) Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. American Psychological Association. Available at <
http://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/girls/report.aspx
>.
___________________________
1
<
http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/eca_ctte/sexualisation_of_children/index.htm
>
2
<
http://www.collectiveshout.org
>
<
http://www.facebook.com/collectiveshout
>
<
http://www.twitter.com/collectiveshout
>
3
<
http://community.collectiveshout.org/profiles/blogs/afl-withdraws-from-under-16s
>
<
http://melindatankardreist.com.au/2010/05/boys-babes-and-balls-hooters-mascots-for-u16-boys-footy/
>
4
<
http://collectiveshout.org/2010/09/win-bonds-withdraws-little-girls-bras/
>
<
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/bonds-stops-sale-of-bras-for-kids/story-e6frf7l6-1225932238263
>
5
<
http://collectiveshout.org/2010/10/win-calvin-klein-gang-rape-billboards-removed/
>
<
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8109416/calvin-klein-gang-rape-billboard-removed
>
6
<
http://collectiveshout.org/2010/09/win-racing-qld-bans-bikini-track-sprint/
>
7
<
http://collectiveshout.org/2010/10/win-woolies-withdraws-from-lynx-promotion/
>
8
<
http://collectiveshout.org/2010/11/amazon-delists-pedophiles-guide-to-love-and-pleasure/
>
<
http://melindatankardreist.com/2011/01/congratulations-you%E2%80%99ve-been-raped/
>
<
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/prevent-official-release-of-kanye-wests-women-hating-monster-video/
>
<
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Stop-Child-Beauty-Pageants-in-Australia/
>
Matt McCormack Evans
Men Opposing Pornography in the UK
It was at university in 2008 that I experienced firsthand how pornography affected my perception of women as I caught myself constantly sexualising them in an increasingly demeaning way. I believed I could keep the time I spent using pornography partitioned away from the rest of my life, and my attitudes, values and behaviour. But it became more and more obvious that this ‘partitioning’ was not possible; that porn continued to negatively influence the way I viewed women and could not be separated from who I was and how I behaved.
Along with this realisation came a new awareness of how pervasive porn use was among my male peers. I became more receptive to male friends revealing the influence pornography had on how they saw and thought about women. This led to a heightened awareness of references to porn in mainstream media, and it became obvious to me that pornography is a huge part of modern culture, promoting a relentlessly misogynistic kind of propaganda. With the content of mainstream porn being so sexist, violent and degrading to women, and with an increasing number of men watching it for an increasing amount of time, pornography is one of the primary issues facing men who believe in gender equality and ending violence against women.
The year 2010 saw a huge resurgence in UK feminist activism and involvement (see Long, van Heeswijk, this volume). However, despite this renewal, there was little being done to specifically target men. Many men experience a conflict between their intellectual values and the nature of the pornography they use, finding it incredibly difficult to reconcile their use of sexist, violent and degrading material and their beliefs in equality and respect for women. However, few men openly admit such a conflict and it is difficult to find sources. There was little online that addressed this phenomenon and provided a space where men could read posts by other men talking about these issues.
In response to this, The Anti Porn Men Project was created to provide an online forum for (mainly) men to speak, discuss, and learn about porn, porn culture and the anti-porn movement. We wanted to create a space where those
who were coming to anti-porn thoughts for the first time could read material that would confirm and legitimise these concerns and help them feel like part of a wider community as well as for those further along the path who wanted to develop and discuss their anti-porn perspective. The Anti Porn Men Project was launched in September, 2010 to a huge response. The Website had over 10,000 visits in its first 3 weeks and received media interest spanning 6 continents in the next 2 months. It had certainly struck a nerve.
The Project’s approach has been one of combining a user-authored blog with more traditional educational material. The Project’s mission is to raise awareness of the harms of pornography and encourage men to speak out against it with the aim of bringing about a greater level of debate and questioning of pornography in our culture. Our strategy for consciousness raising and increasing the level of questioning of pornography essentially lies in the maintenance of a growing online presence through the regularly updated multi-contributor blog and an active comment and debate section.
In accommodating both newcomers to anti-porn thought as well as more seasoned activists, we publish a wide variety of material including general opinion pieces, personal experiences, reviews, academic-style studies, comment on current affairs, news and events updates, along with a ‘Featured Posts’ section. The comment and debate section plays a significant part in the Website’s activity, and is central to the community that has built itself around the site which largely takes care of itself in answering the queries of newcomers and maintaining a healthy level of debate amongst the site’s subscribers.
The Project also hosts online educational resources and acts as a signpost for links to other organisations and Websites in the anti-porn movement. The Website (<
www.antipornmen.org
>) has a wealth of videos, audio files, pdf files, academic papers, news articles, and links. We try to cater for researchers by providing an extensive backlist of news articles on porn as well as various interviews, speeches and articles by leading anti-porn academics and campaigners. We also produce leaflets that are circulated at anti-porn events and are currently designing workshops that we intend to run at various conferences and festivals across the UK.
Despite the early success and attention enjoyed by The Project, we have become very aware of the obstacles that exist when attempting to get men to talk critically about pornography. Before The Project, those anti-porn organisations that were aimed at men were largely driven by religious concerns, or concerns about sex, family or addiction. People who speak out against porn are routinely thought to be prudish and/or deeply conservative or religious. We demonstrate
that this is not the case. We are clear about the basis for our objection to porn and this is central when communicating our message.
The concept of a ‘real’ man represents another serious problem. Men who object to porn are often thought to not be ‘real’ men in some way. The accepted view of masculinity is largely built on dominance and control over women. This not only plays a huge role in shaping the aggressive nature of pornographic content but also acts as a powerful barrier to men’s openness about their usage of and concerns about porn. Challenging the macho posturing and rhetoric, so integral to porn usage and culture, is essential to engaging men in serious discussion about pornography. Aside from having the vast majority of our articles authored by men, The Project has an ‘anti-porn men’ page which features leading male anti-porn scholars and activists, as well as popular figures who have raised objections to porn. The Website also has a page devoted to ‘men and masculinity’ which seeks to challenge established concepts of masculinity.
Finally, when challenging pornography, the pervasiveness of its use and influence on our culture is a huge obstacle. The normalisation process that comes with the widespread use of pornography and the mainstreaming of pornographic imagery in the music, magazine, and advertising industries has led to a society which is accustomed to seeing women presented in provocative poses, as being essentially associated with sex and only valued for how they look. This desensitisation to the ‘pornographic norm’ renders the sexism and degradation in porn invisible and unnoticed. Remarkably, while pornography is so obviously present in the private lives of a huge number of men it remains largely absent from both private and public discussion about serious issues of gender equality and violence. For many men it is already an incredibly uncomfortable task to challenge one’s own behaviour when it comes to pornography use and this is only compounded by the normalisation of both the industry and pornographic imagery.
However, despite the difficulty many men experience when challenging their own behaviour, a visible presence of men who are openly anti-porn can only encourage more men to question it. It is for this reason that activism is essential and why activism that is conducted by men and which targets men, has such great potential. It is vital for men to get involved in the rejection of pornography and porn culture. Porn is overwhelmingly produced and consumed by men and if it is going to be effectively challenged it must be done so with the inclusion of men.
In the wider context of the struggle for gender equality and the eradication of violence against women, pornography represents the primary barrier to men’s mass engagement in the cause for women’s equality. The cultural and
social impact of porn on the way in which men think about and treat women is profound. Pornography has become the principal machine of patriarchal propaganda and its use is fundamentally incompatible with genuine engagement with and respect for women, I believe that the inclusion of men in the anti-porn feminist movement is vital to its success.
The anti-porn movement in the UK is largely activist-led. This gives it the energy and freshness required to stay motivated and ready for the ever more insidious ways in which porn culture is normalised and justified. The Anti Porn Men Project hopes both its membership and contributor base will continue to grow through the use of this dynamic activist-led approach. We have plans to develop workshops for men and boys, pursue greater support for the anti-porn movement in both feminist and left-wing political circles, and push ever further for it to be socially acceptable for a man to be anti porn. The Project, unique in its focus on men and its presence online, at events, and in the media, will continue to give a voice to the growing number of men who are speaking out against pornography.
<
www.antipornmen.org
>
Men Opposing Pornography in the UK
It was at university in 2008 that I experienced firsthand how pornography affected my perception of women as I caught myself constantly sexualising them in an increasingly demeaning way. I believed I could keep the time I spent using pornography partitioned away from the rest of my life, and my attitudes, values and behaviour. But it became more and more obvious that this ‘partitioning’ was not possible; that porn continued to negatively influence the way I viewed women and could not be separated from who I was and how I behaved.Along with this realisation came a new awareness of how pervasive porn use was among my male peers. I became more receptive to male friends revealing the influence pornography had on how they saw and thought about women. This led to a heightened awareness of references to porn in mainstream media, and it became obvious to me that pornography is a huge part of modern culture, promoting a relentlessly misogynistic kind of propaganda. With the content of mainstream porn being so sexist, violent and degrading to women, and with an increasing number of men watching it for an increasing amount of time, pornography is one of the primary issues facing men who believe in gender equality and ending violence against women.
The year 2010 saw a huge resurgence in UK feminist activism and involvement (see Long, van Heeswijk, this volume). However, despite this renewal, there was little being done to specifically target men. Many men experience a conflict between their intellectual values and the nature of the pornography they use, finding it incredibly difficult to reconcile their use of sexist, violent and degrading material and their beliefs in equality and respect for women. However, few men openly admit such a conflict and it is difficult to find sources. There was little online that addressed this phenomenon and provided a space where men could read posts by other men talking about these issues.
In response to this, The Anti Porn Men Project was created to provide an online forum for (mainly) men to speak, discuss, and learn about porn, porn culture and the anti-porn movement. We wanted to create a space where those
who were coming to anti-porn thoughts for the first time could read material that would confirm and legitimise these concerns and help them feel like part of a wider community as well as for those further along the path who wanted to develop and discuss their anti-porn perspective. The Anti Porn Men Project was launched in September, 2010 to a huge response. The Website had over 10,000 visits in its first 3 weeks and received media interest spanning 6 continents in the next 2 months. It had certainly struck a nerve.
The Project’s approach has been one of combining a user-authored blog with more traditional educational material. The Project’s mission is to raise awareness of the harms of pornography and encourage men to speak out against it with the aim of bringing about a greater level of debate and questioning of pornography in our culture. Our strategy for consciousness raising and increasing the level of questioning of pornography essentially lies in the maintenance of a growing online presence through the regularly updated multi-contributor blog and an active comment and debate section.
In accommodating both newcomers to anti-porn thought as well as more seasoned activists, we publish a wide variety of material including general opinion pieces, personal experiences, reviews, academic-style studies, comment on current affairs, news and events updates, along with a ‘Featured Posts’ section. The comment and debate section plays a significant part in the Website’s activity, and is central to the community that has built itself around the site which largely takes care of itself in answering the queries of newcomers and maintaining a healthy level of debate amongst the site’s subscribers.
The Project also hosts online educational resources and acts as a signpost for links to other organisations and Websites in the anti-porn movement. The Website (<
www.antipornmen.org
>) has a wealth of videos, audio files, pdf files, academic papers, news articles, and links. We try to cater for researchers by providing an extensive backlist of news articles on porn as well as various interviews, speeches and articles by leading anti-porn academics and campaigners. We also produce leaflets that are circulated at anti-porn events and are currently designing workshops that we intend to run at various conferences and festivals across the UK.
Despite the early success and attention enjoyed by The Project, we have become very aware of the obstacles that exist when attempting to get men to talk critically about pornography. Before The Project, those anti-porn organisations that were aimed at men were largely driven by religious concerns, or concerns about sex, family or addiction. People who speak out against porn are routinely thought to be prudish and/or deeply conservative or religious. We demonstrate
that this is not the case. We are clear about the basis for our objection to porn and this is central when communicating our message.
The concept of a ‘real’ man represents another serious problem. Men who object to porn are often thought to not be ‘real’ men in some way. The accepted view of masculinity is largely built on dominance and control over women. This not only plays a huge role in shaping the aggressive nature of pornographic content but also acts as a powerful barrier to men’s openness about their usage of and concerns about porn. Challenging the macho posturing and rhetoric, so integral to porn usage and culture, is essential to engaging men in serious discussion about pornography. Aside from having the vast majority of our articles authored by men, The Project has an ‘anti-porn men’ page which features leading male anti-porn scholars and activists, as well as popular figures who have raised objections to porn. The Website also has a page devoted to ‘men and masculinity’ which seeks to challenge established concepts of masculinity.
Finally, when challenging pornography, the pervasiveness of its use and influence on our culture is a huge obstacle. The normalisation process that comes with the widespread use of pornography and the mainstreaming of pornographic imagery in the music, magazine, and advertising industries has led to a society which is accustomed to seeing women presented in provocative poses, as being essentially associated with sex and only valued for how they look. This desensitisation to the ‘pornographic norm’ renders the sexism and degradation in porn invisible and unnoticed. Remarkably, while pornography is so obviously present in the private lives of a huge number of men it remains largely absent from both private and public discussion about serious issues of gender equality and violence. For many men it is already an incredibly uncomfortable task to challenge one’s own behaviour when it comes to pornography use and this is only compounded by the normalisation of both the industry and pornographic imagery.
However, despite the difficulty many men experience when challenging their own behaviour, a visible presence of men who are openly anti-porn can only encourage more men to question it. It is for this reason that activism is essential and why activism that is conducted by men and which targets men, has such great potential. It is vital for men to get involved in the rejection of pornography and porn culture. Porn is overwhelmingly produced and consumed by men and if it is going to be effectively challenged it must be done so with the inclusion of men.
In the wider context of the struggle for gender equality and the eradication of violence against women, pornography represents the primary barrier to men’s mass engagement in the cause for women’s equality. The cultural and
social impact of porn on the way in which men think about and treat women is profound. Pornography has become the principal machine of patriarchal propaganda and its use is fundamentally incompatible with genuine engagement with and respect for women, I believe that the inclusion of men in the anti-porn feminist movement is vital to its success.
The anti-porn movement in the UK is largely activist-led. This gives it the energy and freshness required to stay motivated and ready for the ever more insidious ways in which porn culture is normalised and justified. The Anti Porn Men Project hopes both its membership and contributor base will continue to grow through the use of this dynamic activist-led approach. We have plans to develop workshops for men and boys, pursue greater support for the anti-porn movement in both feminist and left-wing political circles, and push ever further for it to be socially acceptable for a man to be anti porn. The Project, unique in its focus on men and its presence online, at events, and in the media, will continue to give a voice to the growing number of men who are speaking out against pornography.
<
www.antipornmen.org
>
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