186 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
186 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
An Anarchist Defense of Pornography
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BAD Broadside #5
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Pornography continues to be a controversial issue, including among
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anarchists, whom one might expect to be among the strongest supporters
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of free sexual expression. However, many anarchists have criticized
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pornography and some have supported and/or participated in the
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anti-pornography movement, the members of which not infrequently
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strive to prevent those wishing to view pornography from doing so.
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Some anarchists in canada even went so far as to firebomb a sex video
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store, an activity which many other anarchists either ignored or chose
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not to criticize. Meanwhile, those of us who defend pornography and
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freedom of expression, sexual or otherwise, are dismissed as sexists
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and reactionaries. Why is it that supposed lovers of freedom and
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sexual liberation seem to forget their principles when it comes to
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sexually explicit literature and pictures.
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The anti-pornography movement, including its anarchist members and
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supporters, is not monolithic. Some dislike dirty books and movies,
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but support people's freedom to produce and consume such material.
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They rely on argument and protest in an attempt to change the
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attitudes of those who like porn, encouraging them to refrain from
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indulging in it, and do not support censorship. Others, again
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including some anarchists, feel that physical attacks on porn stores
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or government-mandated censorship are acceptable tactics in the fight
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against porn. While only the latter position is censorious, and
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therefore unanarchic, the former position, which is contemptuous of
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depictions of sex is also problematic in a movement which purportedly
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favors sexual freedom.
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Pornography is simply a depiction, in words or pictures, of sexual
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activity. Most people find sex a good, pleasurable activity and
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looking at pornography is sexually arousing for many people. Anti-porn
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people frequently say that the images of women in porn are degrading
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and offensive to women. However, while some women certainly are
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offended by pornographic images they find degrading, other women enjoy
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pornography. (See, for instance the book Caught Looking by Kate Ellis,
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et al, or Writing Sado-masochistic Pornography: A Woman's Defence by
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Deborah Ryder.) While the anti-porn movement views women as a class,
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who all share the same goals and desires, women are not a mass of
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automatons who all think and feel alike; some are pro-porn and some
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are anti-porn, just like men. Additionally, the images of women in
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porn are no more sexist and demeaning towards women than the images of
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women in most literature and visual media, from novels to movies to TV
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to magazine ads. In a sexist society, most images of women are going
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to contain at least some of the sexist attitudes common to both women
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and men. Besides, some pornography contains women characters who are
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very independent, self-motivated and concerned with their own
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pleasure, especially in S/M porn where women are frequently on top.
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What bothers these people is not the image of women in porn, which is
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like that elsewhere in society, but its sexual explicitness; they are
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uncomfortable with sex.
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Anti-porn activists also claim that porn, with its allegedly
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degrading view of women is responsible for the attitudes and actions
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of men towards women, and therefore is different from other forms of
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expression. But, as with other types of writing and pictures, porn
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generally shows what people want to see and are comfortable with; it
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doesn't plant foreign ideas in people's minds. And, even in the few
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cases where novel ideas are introduced to people in porn, they remain
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just that, ideas. Men do not rape or beat women because they see it in
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a movie. Sexism, rape, and beatings of women by their partners existed
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long before the widespread dissemination of modern pornography, and
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societies with little or no porn are no less sexist and violent than
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those where it is common.
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The claim that men are made violent by porn, besides being
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inaccurate, is also based on a myth: that most pornography is violent.
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Most porn is composed of depictions of non-violent, consensual,
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mutually pleasurable sex. Some of it also contains S/M sex, which,
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while including the trappings of violence, and involving (apparent)
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pain, is also consensual and mutually pleasurable. There is certainly
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some porn which depicts rape or other coercive and violent sex, but it
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is a small portion of the porn produced and consumed. Moreover, like
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violent non-sexual movies and books, it is simply a depiction of a
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fantasy, made up by the author, or performed by consenting
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acters/actors. Violent porn is no more real violence than are the
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Halloween movies. And if anti-porn people are truly concerned about
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the violence and not the sex in porn, why is it that they protest only
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porn shops or destroy porn mags and video store, while ignoring Friday
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the Thirteenth and horror magazines and books.
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One aspect of the whole phenomenon of porn that is often left out
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of the discussion is that of homosexual porn. Much of the pornography
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produced today shows men having sex with men, with a growing
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proportion depicting woman-woman sex. The anti-porners tend to ignore
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homoporn because it gives the lie to many of their arguments. If
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depictions of inequitable sexual encounters between men and women are
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degrading to women, why aren't similarly inequitable encounters
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between men and other men (which are very common in all-male porn,
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with its tops and bottoms) degrading to men? And if they are
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degrading to men, why isn't such porn offensive to men, especially
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bottom men? And, if there is S/M imagery and (pretend) violence in
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this porn, why doesn't this result in widespread violence against men,
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and even rapes of men?
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A discussion of such issues never takes place, since most of the
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people who oppose heteroporn are unwilling to talk about, let alone
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criticize, queer porn because they do not want to risk being seen as
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"homophobic" or otherwise politically incorrect. This is due to the
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fact that porn has often been seen, rightly, as liberatory by
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homosexualist men (and recently also by some homosexualist women), and
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is a much more open part of mainstream life for queer men than
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heteroporn is in straight society. Because of this "politicization" of
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queer porn, any discussion of homoporn by the anti-porners, few of
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whom are homosexualist men, is likely to be criticized by gay
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liberationists as "anti-gay", and thus effectively suppressed. This is
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unfortunate, since such a discussion would show the fallacies in the
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anti-porn arguments.
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Even though it seems odd that sexual liberationists and anarchists
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would find porn offensive, it is certainly true that people have
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different tastes. Just because I like porn doesn't mean that you
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should. But, if one finds something offensive, one should simply avoid
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it, and thereby avoid the offense. However, anti-porners are not
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content with this strategy when it comes to porn. They feel that if it
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offends them, it must offend others, primarily women, and they take it
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upon themselves to protect these others from it. Additionally, since
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they feel it leads otherwise non-violent, women-loving men onto the
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path of violence and sexism, they feel they need to prevent men from
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seeing porn as well.
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As stated above, anti-porners differ on the strategy they employ
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to achieve these ends. While those who rely on argument and protest to
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influence others to avoid porn are preferable to the censors, their
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ideas about people are problematic for those with an anarchist
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perspective. People are free agents who make choices and decisions
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based on what they observe, hear, and otherwise experience, and are
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responsible for the outcome of these choices. The libertarian way to
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deal with other free agents who choose to view or read materials of
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which one disapproves is to let them see these books or movies and
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then discuss the material with them and try to convince them of one's
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point of view. The issue should be debated in a free marketplace of
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ideas, a marketplace where all should feel free to view the images or
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writings under discussion, not simply taking the word of the puritans
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that porn contains degrading or harmful images or words. People who
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pressure porn dealers to stop distributing porn, and who encourage
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others to avoid porn based on someone else's experience of it, while
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engaging in a non-coercive, and therefore acceptable form of activity,
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do not respect the decision-making ability of others. Nor do they
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trust the strength of their own arguments when up against a person's
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own experience of pornography. Such people feel that others need to be
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protected (in large part, from themselves) by those more enlightened,
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i.e., the anti-porn people. Urging others to restrict their
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experiences and rely on the opinions of others in such matters as
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reading and viewing preferences, including the reading and viewing of
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porn, while not unanarchic, is certainly illiberal.
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More objectionable to anarchists, however, are the anti-porn
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activists who are frankly censorious. While we have not come across
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any anarchists who endorse laws banning porn, many anarchists support
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destruction of the property of porn dealers. Destruction of films and
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books which some people wish to sell to others who voluntarily seek to
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buy them is just as much censorship as any government mandated law.
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While sharing the views of the other anti-porners who seek to protect
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others form porn, these people go a step further and use coercive
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force to achieve their ends. This is totally incompatible with the
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kind of voluntary society sought by most anarchists, and should be
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denounced by all freedom-lovers.
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Pornography, like any other form of entertainment can be good or
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bad, based on the individual merits of any particular work. However,
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as a genre of literature or film, it is no better or worse or good or
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evil than any other. If porn is bad or sexist, the best strategy is to
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criticize it and discuss it with others, and/or make good, non-sexist
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porn, not suppress it. Sex and its depiction are a source of pleasure
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for many and our freedom to indulge in both should be defended, or at
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least tolerated, by anarchists. Censors, including those who claim to
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be anarchists, are the enemies of freedom, and anarchists who support
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them call into question their commitment to a free society.
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NO COPYRIGHT
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Please send two copies of any review or reprint
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of all or part of this to:
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Boston Anarchist Drinking Brigade
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(BAD Brigade)
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PO Box 1323
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Cambridge, MA 02238
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Internet: bbrigade@world.std.com
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February, 1992
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