Violence

11 Pages 2804 Words

Pornography as Violence against Women
“Pornography is central in creating and maintaining the civil inequality of the sexes. Pornography is a systematic practice of exploitation and subordination based on sex which differentially harms women..." Andrea Dworkin and Catharine A. MacKinnon

Pornography is an industry growing at a rapid rate. As its audience expands its consumers are getting younger and younger. I have always been against pornography for a variety of reasons. I now have one new reason. My nine-year-old cousin just got the internet on his computer. The first website he went to was Hooters.com. I had to listen to him talk about the “hot babes” in bikinis on the site and how he can’t wait until he is old enough to go to Hooters. He wants to marry a Hooters girl because she is a hot babe. If this isn’t testimony to the damage that pornography has on young minds I don’t know what is. Several of these bikini-clad women were printed out on his new color printer. His father commented on the quality of the color. I was appalled. I waited for my aunt to take his computer privileges away or at least shut down the site. She didn’t. How do I explain to this nine year old wrongs of his actions, and is it my place to do so? What’s going to happen when
he discovers the other sites with scantily clad women? I fear for this.

Some may ask, “Why is this so damaging?” He is young and curious, a “boys will be boys” kind of notion. Before I can answer that question I want to show the correlation between pornography and violence against women. I want to expose pornography as abusive to women. I think then that the question will answer itself.
I think it is appropriate to first define pornography before I continue. The American Heritage Desk Dictionary defines pornography as written or pictorial matter intended to arouse sexual feelings. This definition gives an erotic, innocent explanation to p...