Beyond Feminism

 
On Saturday 26th of July the first Radical Feminist Summer Gathering will be held in Manchester. I pray the Feminist Goddess in candy floss ceiling above that I’ll be able to go.
We are raising funds for the event by selling ‘Bin the Bunny’ t-shirts for 12£. What exactly is this ‘Bin the Bunny’ goodness? It’s an anti-Playboy campaign organized by Anti-Porn UK. How COOL is that? This information would be on my sidebar were it not because of WordPress crapulent insistence on not letting me touch the CSS code of this blog unless I pay moneys. Which I can’t. So, what better way to advertise the t-shirts AND the campaing than to make some (f)art! See, the first time I saw the logo for the Bin the Bunny campaign, I thougth “what a neat design. It’s simple, yet it says it all”. This is my way to honour, for lack of a better word, the work of the designer.

I cannot say it better than Debs:

“you get to raise money for a great event, and tell Heff where to stick it at the same time!”

If you have been following this blog, you will have noticed that my post Get Real! has gathered a fair ammount of attention. Some of it has consisted of not entirely polite bashing, which I’m sure has nothing to do with anti-pornstitution feminists being the pariahs of the movement and all to do with sex-workers never being allowed to voice their positive opinions on the sex industry because of the constant censoring carried out by insensitive anti-sex feminists like me.
Since I don’t want to make a fool of myself by replying to these attacks and fuel the so called Feminist Wars, I’m going to turn this episode into something positive.

I give you the following statement by Ex-Prostitutes Against Legislated Sexual Servitude. Why, you may wonder. It is old, December of 2007. It’s based in Canada. It’s about oposing the opening of a legal brothel in Vancouver. BUT I think it’s enlightening.

AND I’ve just found it.

NO Legal Brothel in Vancouver

by Ex-Prostitutes Against Legislated Sexual Servitude (X-PALSS)

We urge you to oppose any attempt to introduce a legal brothel in Vancouver.

As women who have been prostituted in Vancouver and in the light of these facts:

• That current discourse on prostitution would have the public believe that it is normal work that simply needs to be better regulated
• That there is currently a proposal to open a legal brothel in Vancouver
• That this proposal is said to speak for current and former prostitutes of Vancouver
• That this proposal promises to make the lives of prostituted women “safer” at best
• That none of us have ever met a prostituted woman who would not leave the “trade” if she had a real chance to do so
• That we are women who have been abused on Canadian soil, by Canadian men while all levels of our Government did nothing to intervene.
• That some members of parliament are now advocating to legalize that abuse.

We want you to know:

We are women who have been harmed by prostitution. We believe that no amount of changing the conditions or the locations in which we were prostituted could ever have significantly reduced that harm.

We experience the normalizing of that harm by calling it “work” insulting at best.

It matters very little to us whether we were prostituted on the streets or in the tolerated indoor venues and escort agencies of Vancouver. Our memories are not of the locations but of the men who consistently acted as though we were not quite human. We remember the countless other men and women who daily averted their eyes. We remember the utter lack of services or options that made any sense and the blatant denial of access to any kind of help or justice. We remember the need to “dumb down” our sense of entitlement to a better life so we could bear the one we were in. And we remember too well the numbing despair that came when we finally lost faith that there existed in this world anything decent and good.

We oppose any measure that would put more power in the hands of the men who abused us by telling them that they are legally entitled to do so. This proposal does not speak for us, would not have affected our level of safety in a way that matters, and would not have spared us the harm that is inherent in prostitution.

We are not impressed with lip service proposals to make prostituted women’s lives “safer”. Safer is not good enough. We consider it a violation of our human rights that we were abandoned to years of situations that fit the definition of sexual assault under current law. But not only is this violence not recorded, not prosecuted, not punished. We are now being told that we chose it.

We believe that, where there is public and political will, lives can be changed for the better. We do not believe the lie that prostitution is inevitable. We believe it can be abolished.

As hosts of the 2010 games, we want our city, our home, to refuse to take part in the global flesh market that is sex tourism and send a message to the world that women will not be sold in Vancouver.

We believe that every sexually exploited woman represents a life wasted. We are greatly saddened for the lives of women lost in prostitution, as well as the loss of the sum of the contributions that countless women still living would have made had they not been abandoned to sexual slavery.

We urge you all to refuse to believe that prostitution is normal or that is an equal exchange “between two consenting adults”.

We urge you to oppose any attempt to introduce a legal brothel in Vancouver.

X-PALSS (Ex-Prostitutes Against Legislated Sexual Servitude), Vancouver, B.C.

All emphasis mine

(Found Via Angry For A Reason)

Oh my! Will Laura Woodhouse and I ever agree on something?

“While many women in the sex industry are not there out of choice, some of them are and, while some of us may not support or like these women’s choices, it does not mean we can go around disregarding their feelings, attacking their right to a voice and accusing them of encouraging rape.”

Except that they do encourage rape. Or rather, THE SEX INDUSTRY ENCOURAGES RAPE. And the women working in it are accomplices. That’s the way it is.
Jebus, haven’t we been over all this already? If Andrea Dworkin were alive today, she’d be killing herself. “Porn is the theory, rape is the practice”. “Porn influences men’s attitudes towards sex”. It’s been proven over and over. But you know what? Don’t take my word for it. Just go and ask the women who have been raped by a man who wanted to “act out” porn in real life. Better still. Go to those women who have had the “luck” to have a camera record their rape only discover that, when presenting said video in court, they have their screams for help and cries to stop dismissed as a sign of her own enjoyment in the act.

I’m gonna say it once again. I don’t care if one, two, a thousand or ALL women in the sex and porn industries are “happy” to do their “freely chosen” job. Because what these women do AFFECTS MEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS ALL WOMEN. That’s ALL OF US. That includes ME. Get it? It affects ME. Personally.
This is HALF of the argument against the sex and porn industries. The other half tells us that they are damaging to the women who work in them. But even if THE WOMEN THEMSELVES weren’t damaged, WE, that’s the rest of us real women on this planet, ARE. Because we all have to deal with the men who engage in prostitution and porn. Because we all have to deal with the impact that the very existence of porn and prostitution have on this society.
This is all quite straightforward. It gets muddier when we consider what is actually going on in the minds of the women who “happily” embrace such “work choices”. And I have absolutely no problem in pointing out that they are brain washed. Why? BECAUSE WE ALL ARE. I repeat. EVERY PERSON IS BRAINWASHED. Including ME. By the mere fact of LIVING in a society, you will be brainwashed into thinking whatever that society teaches you. And unless you actively challenge that brainwashing, you are condemned to carry it in your brain. Hell, even when you DO challenge it, it’s still bloody hard work! The examples of this range from active feminists who still wear high heels and cannot tolerate the sight of their hairy legs to Muslim women who stand against the most extreme misogyny in the Islam while retaining the rest. And this is what makes feminism and all other political movements so difficult. That everyone is brainwashed into ascribing to the status quo. And this is precisely why the number of people thinking one way or another doesn’t guarantee one bit that they are right. Democracy might work that way, but science and morality don’t.

Note: I’m only focusing on porn because that’s what’s seen as the most “harmless” and because it’s the only topic I know anything about. I am not familiar with the way prostitution affects a society’s attitude towards women, probably because proving any theory on it would be very difficult, considering how ALL societies purport prostitution. But Rebecca, who has escaped prostitution, can tell anyone who is remotely interested why we should all be against it, based on her real world experiences.

Note 2: Why do we value so highly the opinion of those people inside the sex and porn industries who are so peachy about it all? As I said above, they might not suffer any damage, but the real women out in the world do. What can these women say about how their “work” affects us? It’s like asking the tobacco companies if they think their product is bad for non-smokers!

Note 3: And this assumption that whatever a woman does is “her choice only” just SCREAMS of Rightwing mentality of the “There’s no such thing as society” kind.

I know. The very word “censorship” is enough to send all liberals’ head into a centrifugal spin cycle.

The basic feminist argument to ban pornography goes along the lines of “it’s violent, misogynistic, degrading, racist, dehumanizing, objectifying, etc”. You can take your pick. The basic argument to not ban pornography, or indeed anything, goes along the lines of “free speech!!! *sob* *pout*”.
I’m gonna have my courtesy take a leave of absence for a line. Take your free speech and shove it! Thank you. Now normal, proper, writing may continue.

It’s an unfortunate and mean joke of destiny that anti-porn feminists get to be hit on the head with “free speech” twice, from both sides. See, free speech is all very peachy as long as the “wrong” kind of people ie: too lefty and too radical feminist, don’t get to put a word edgeways.
See, the laws that protect “free speech” are not needed anymore. The fact that today people aren’t killed for saying the “wrong” things isn’t a result of the killers turning into nice, fair beings, bur rather of people not saying anything at all. Power is so centralized, the system so deeply rooted that even if people came up with something to say against it, their words would have no impact. Yes, keep on talking, no one will take you seriously anyway. Here, have freedom of speech!
Furthermore, now what truly regulates what gets to be said and what doesn’t, are the market laws. If it sells, it’s out there. But if it doesn’t, no one will ever know of it. Worse still, if it gets in the way of the “big” selling, then by the Powers that Be it will be “hidden”. Or rather, it will be chopped into itty bitty pieces, put on a big bag and thrown at the river with a big rock tied to it. This is in practise just another form of censorship, only unofficial. I’m not going to continue with this particular argument because there’s more than one and more than two people out there whose entire belief system and/or religion is based on the market laws. They really believe they are the ones that will bring happiness, freedom and joy to human kind. So any attack to the market laws by pointing out that they are responsible for effectively censoring that speech which could open the eyes of millions to the true atrocity that is porn will fall on deaf, blind and mute ears.
Suffices to say that when we radical feminists dare raise our voices against pornography, we are ignored by even the most pro “free speech”-ers. I tried to find information on “Censorship” and “Andrea Dworkin” on the internet by typing those terms on my search engine. Guess what came out. Hint, it wasn’t “pro” censorship or “pro” Andrea Dworkin. Even on the internet, we are not the voice being heard when it comes to women and porn. But maybe this only happens in the real “mainstream” media. Maybe it is different in other publications who are protected by “free speech” but who also don’t get to be heard by anyone. I’m sorry to break it to you, but it isn’t. So as you can see, “free speech” is working very well: we don’t exist. Not amongst the left. And not even amongst our own ilk. If it is true that feminism is far from having any space on the mainstream culture, anti-porn feminists barely have any space on mainstream feminism. It doesn’t sell. It actually gets in the way of the selling. Shut up about it all.

But this is not the end of it, because “free speech” is not done in silencing us. The strongest argument against pornography is that it would attempt against it. That’s right. Never mind that there is no real “speech” in pornography safe for the constant spouting of virulent insults of the “whore-bitch-slut” kind. Never mind that were you to take the sex away from porn, it would undoubtedly constitute the most blatant example of “hate speech” ever conceived. And here, we have arrived to the key of the problem. That the laws that are already in place to protect minorities from purposeless violence masqueraded as speech, that is, the laws that say “from here on, this is hate speech” aren’t used when it comes to women. And this is partly related to the good old hypocritical “how can we tell what is violent, misogynistic, degrading, racist, dehumanizing, objectifying, etc and what isn’t”. I remember I asked a similar question in an Amnesty International meeting. How can we tell what is indeed “bad” and worthy of action from what isn’t? The answer was basically “we are dealing with the worst of the worst, there is no doubt that this is bad”. I wonder why the same argument isn’t valid when it comes to pornography. Is it because misogyny is universally accepted, while human rights (read MALE human rights) abuse isn’t? Is it because the violence and degradation are wrapped around sex and no one wants to tell other people what they are not supposed to do in bed?
The idea that we couldn’t possibly distinguish between the bad and the good, between porn and erotica, is entirely made of straw. And the question of “what constitutes what” tells us more about the person asking it than about porn itself. If people have become so used to violent, misogynistic, degrading, racist, dehumanizing, objectifying, etc imagery that they cannot differentiate it from what isn’t, then we have a problem. Indeed, this is precisely what anti-porn feminists have been saying all along. The problem is precisely that no one is horrified by this violent, misogynistic, degrading, racist, dehumanizing, objectifying, etc as they should. But I’m not allowed to say that. I would be inflicting my morality upon someone, self appointing myself as a moral authority. And the only people who can still do that with impunity are members of the church. In these days of moral relativism and “everything goes” no morality is any better than any other. In fact, having no morality is OK as well! Heck, I am surprised we still have any laws left with this kind of mentality. Enough already. Violence, misogyny, degradation, racism, dehumanization, objectification, they are all wrong and immoral, by themselves and more so when combined. And in porn, this not only is given a “pass” but is actually presented as essential to the epitome of male pleasure. Let’s pause and think about that again. Violence, misogyny, degradation, racism, dehumanization, objectification, is presented as inextricably linked to male pleasure. The logical conclusion of this is that men enjoy violence, misogyny, degradation, racism, dehumanization, objectification. Why they must, if they get off to it! If anything, what kind of monsters is this presenting men as? Worse still, what kind of monsters is this making men of?*

I’m gonna tell you here and now what I would happen if we banned pornography. In one sentence: it would move the ante up by a lot. What today is extreme and illegal would just disappear. Because what today is mainstream would be the new “illegal” and extreme. And what today is not porn, because we can get it in news agents, page 3 of national newspapers, front page of rubbish newspapers, back page of sports newspapers, etc would suddenly be the only fully legal masturbatory material available. The “soft core porn” of today would fill the void left by the “illegal” mainstream porn. (This, ironically, would benefit pornographers the most. They are already puzzled about how to increase the “titillation” (read violence and degradation) bar. They have gone so far there’s nowhere else to go. There are only so many ways you can fork a woman.) Clearly, this case scenario is far from depicting the end of the world and civilization as we know it. Men would still get their precious pictures; they’d only be less violence, misogyny, degradation, racism, dehumanization, objectification, etc in them. And notice I’ve said “less” and not “none”. The work still won’t be over. Because what we really want is for men to stop wanting to see the violence, misogyny, degradation, racism, dehumanization, objectification, etc, not just to have it less available. But it’s a step forward. It’s a good, long needed step forward towards ending all this needless pain.

I am sick and tired. I am sick and tired of fighting to open eyes to something that should be blatantly obvious. Ladies, it is blatantly obvious. And by goddess, pornography will go away, one way or the other. How can I be so sure? Simple. We are fighting for human dignity. And human dignity ALWAYS wins in the end. And because the right of someone to have their pleasure increased cannot trump the right of someone to NOT have their pain increased. End of story. And pornography causes pain. To the ones involved in making it, to the ones viewing it and to the ones who have to put up with the ones who view it.

*As the radical feminist already knows, mysandry is just the other side of misogyny. Men cannot treat women like dirt without becoming the “bad” people who are treating other human beings like dirt.

 What is “The Fuck Me Look” you ask? I only have a vague idea. But Gail Dines knows this stuff much better. This is an excerpt of what she said about it at the ”Pornography and Pop Culture” Conference. (Please keep in mind that this was a live speech and I’m quoting it verbatim)

“She’s speaking to the presumed spectator who of course is male and what she’s saying is very clear: “Fuck Me”. (…). The problem with this is that males in our culture are socialized in a society in which they are bombarded with the “Fuck Me” look, where it offers visual entitlement to ownership of women’s bodies. And what is rape and sexual assault if not taking them up on that offer that she’s offering. The only trouble is that she’s not walking down the street, WE ARE. This has tremendous implications. When Madonna goes out, and talks about women and puts out the message that women are exactly as men thought they are (pornographic men), it’s all right for Madonna to say that, cuz’ you know what, she travels with beefy guys who protect her. It’s you and I walking in that fucking parking lot at night that have to deal with the guys who believe this. So that’s the problem when women talk about their choices is that every single one of us suffers in some level.”

Feel free to use the picture for all your feminist purposes.

Who, in the name of the goddess of coffee, came up with the label “pro-sex” or it’s opposite version, “anti-sex”, to refer to the position that someone adopts towards pornography? The underlying assumption is that being “pro or anti – porn” is equal to being “pro or anti – sex”. You are already proving the feminist point that the pornographers have succeeded in defining all sex worth having! Do you realize what that means? A couple of peoples making bucks out of selling a product, satisfying the whims of the market while directing the market’s whims, are defining all of human sexuality! That’s precisely what feminists fight against! No one has the right to define human sexuality, not even anthropologists, as there is no way to know what all people have done over the whole existence of human kind.
There are people in this world who are “anti-sex”, mind you, but they are not called feminists. They are called godbags, and a lot of respect is given to them, thank you very much. Up to the point that discriminating against them, their “anti-sex” beliefs included, is punished by the law. And no one dares raise a peep about the godbags, perhaps because, as deranged as they may be, they still have quite an amount of power over quite an amount of people.
Be warned. I haven’t written the last word about my thoughts on this topic.

I found this really good article from Robert Jensen about the cruelty of pornography. It is particularly interesting because he is, obviously, a MAN, and because he focuses on the emotional aspect of pornography, for both men and women.

The link to the article is here:
A cruel edge: The painful truth about today’s pornography — and what men can do about it
Read the rest of this entry »

Of all the speeches in the Pornography & Pop Culture Conference (see previous post), I found Gail Dines’s speech to be the most interesting of all, clear, smart and funny. I went to her webpage, Gail Dines, and read her article titled “Pornography is a Left Issue”.
This is a quick summary of it:
Read the rest of this entry »

Last March, there was a Conference held at the Wheelock College, about Pornography. I didn’t attend it myself, but I’ve watched the speeches and they were very interesting. It’s wonderful to find people who think like me!

I found ou about the Conference on the “Blog of Activism Agains Porn”. The post can be found here:Wheelock College Feminist Anti-Porn Conference

And this post contains the links to the videos of the speeches posted in Google: Wheelock College Anti-Porn Speeches

This is the Official Web Page of the Conference: Pornography & Pop Culture Conference. It also contains the speeches videos, but they are on an awkward format I can’t play :P.