While interviewing people in the porn industry for my undergraduate honors thesis, I quickly learned the most important bit of information to offer interview subjects within 30 seconds of initiating conversation. Because this blog concerns itself with the same subject matter involved with my interviews, I will use this bit of information as a way of introducing myself.
I am a young feminist in academia researching pornography—but don’t worry, I think porn is good.
That last bit has proven to be the most important part of every single introduction I made while researching pornography. And the fact that people in the industry—men and women alike—needed to hear this in order to consent to an interview is telling: feminism and pornography are not generally considered complementary pursuits. Yet I am a feminist who believes there is nothing inherently wrong with pornography. I do not believe it is always exploitative, degrading, or harmful. (Those interested in how I arrived at this conclusion can read my thesis, a link to which will appear in the sidebar soon.) To me, feminism and porn can certainly coexist, and indeed at times work in concert to further one another’s goals.
At the same time, I’m not willing to throw my name behind porn as a hearty supporter. The fact is, most of the time porn makes me want to vomit. Essentially, my position on pornography is that there is nothing harmful about it—but at the same time it fails to live up to its potential as a rebellious, subversive force undermining oppressive attitudes and institutions.
I ended my recent undergraduate honors thesis with a quote by a peepshow dancer, Vicky Funari. After a remarkable account of her career as a peepshow dancer, in which Funari reflects upon the positive as well as negative aspects of the sexual exchange, she reflects:
"Our only choice as women is to remake the system and pornography itself in our image, to surround our daughters and sons with images we want them to see and, more importantly, with a reality we want them to live."
This nicely sums up my position. Before images of revolution and porn bonfires start cropping up, I should say that this remaking of the system and pornography itself is not a drastic overhaul. It does not, in my view, require a massive revision of the porn industry. Rather, it involves a widening in the variety of images and in the means of image production. It involves a shift in the power structure of the industry, and it involves a shift in both the consumer demographics and what consumers expect of porn. All this can be pursued through shrewd application of business strategy. I hope to explore various possibilities in my postings here.
While this brief intro to my position on pornography might not be as clear is it could be, and perhaps some will see it as unnecessary, I hope that it offers a sense of my basic ideological framework. I do feel that as someone about to write about the politically-charged subject of pornography, I need to articulate my ideological position.
I look forward to initiating debate and hearing different viewpoints about this taboo and (to me, at least) endlessly fascinating topic.
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