So, lately, I’ve been thinking about porn and feminist porn. Which, me being me, is strange. But it’s kind of been popping up around my life lately.
Every year, our school hosts a porn night and the club for our major hosts an alternative porn night instead. I went to both events, the first being some Avatar porn knock off thing. The second showing was Tristan Taormino’s Expert Guide to Oral Sex, Part 2: Fellatio which seemed kind of appropriate given the blog posts earlier in the semester about blowjobs.
Anyways, the thing that really got me thinking was that a girl who went to the alternative porn night said afterwards that feminism was no longer quite as necessary, women were equal and why shouldn’t feminist porn aim to please both men and women? This was in response to some people saying that the porn we watched was more exclusively directed at women. It might have been, but it was about blowjobs, so that seemed weird as an argument to me? I mean, I am a feminist and clearly don’t think feminism’s work is over, so I didn’t agree with this girl at all. But more than that, I cannot understand that argument, even if you think feminism is over in general.
Pornography is aimed at men. Before Avatar, I hadn’t really seen any mainstream pornography, but it was kind of what I might have expected. The entire first scene had the male commanding officer dude fully clothed with his penis out while the much younger girl he was having sex with was entirely naked except for her socks. It spent a good amount of time showing the girl giving a blow job, but the guy never went down on her. Despite the good forty minutes plus spent on this scene, it was never clear when the girl had an orgasm or didn’t.
I mean, in general, pornography really isn’t my thing. However, it’s totally clear to me that if mainstream pornography is meant for and marketed to men, it isn’t necessarily bad for women to get porn that might interest them, too or porn that might allow them to look at or express different kinds of desires. Also, clearly there are other markets of porn that are more specifically aimed. Straight or bisexual women should be able to watch heterosexual porn if they want to and feel like it can work for them.
I wanted to argue with that girl so bad! Or maybe Jimmy slap her… JK…kind of. I mean, was she asleep during the Avatar porno? I think that first woman orgasmed maybe twice in that first hour verses the million times that nasty guy got off. Clearly we aren’t concerned about the women’s desires. No. They are just instruments for male pleasure if you watch porn that’s marketed to heterosexual men…pretty much all mainstream. And some less experienced men use porn as a tool for learning how to have sex with women. Films like This Ain’t No Avatar are SOOOO problematic.
And this guide to fellatio was only feminist in that it was marketed towards women who enjoy giving blowjobs. It was still about women pleasing men. Men still can get off to it. The women were more empirically attractive than the men in the film. I really don’t know what that girl was trying to say!!!!!!! GRRRS!
Well we need to get that girl into a GESS class, STAT! But beyond that porn is such a sticky (heh) subject. I feel bad calling stuff lots of people like “yucky” just because I don’t like it. To each their own. And I am not sure a porn about bj’s is or is not feminist. I don’t know! It’s so hard not to be judgmental! I’ve heard a lot of people say that “women focused” porn is such because women “like to see a relationship built between characters” and like “pretty costumes” and “good story lines” which is all pretty sexist its self right? UGH! I don’t know. If you like it, watch it. If not I almost feel like it’s a waste of time to renegade against it. Do we have bigger problems? Does porn contribute to them or can we just ignore it?