Violence

11 Pages 2804 Words

ornography. Diana E. H. Russell defines pornography as material that combines sex and/or the exposure of genitals with abuse or degradation in a manner that appears to endorse, condone, or encourage such behavior. (Violence Against Women, 1999, p.86) I find Russell’s definition more fitting, although each piece of pornographic material can offer its own new definition.
Russell goes on to describe abusive sexual behavior as sexual conduct that ranges from derogatory, demeaning, contemptuous, or damaging to brutal, cruel, exploitative, painful, or violent. She portrays degrading sexual behavior as sexual conduct that is humiliating, insulting, and/or disrespectful; for example, urinating or defecating on a woman, ejaculating in her face, treating her as sexually dirty or inferior, depicting her as slavishly taking orders from men and eager to engage in whatever sex acts men want, or calling her insulting names while engaging in sex, such as bitch, cunt, nigger, whore. (www.dianarussell.com/porn)
The above described abusive/degrading behaviors are all present in various pornographic films and illustrations. Such behaviors objectify women. Sexual objectification is another common characteristic of pornography. It portrays women as depersonalized sexual things. If a young child grows up watching men defecate on, forcibly rape, or refer to women’s body parts as “tits, cunt, or ass” he is going to grow up on the notion that women are inferior to men. These body parts become the words used to define a woman. Women will be seen merely as objects used for male gratification. According to Susan Brownmiller as cited by Diana E.H. Russell,
[In pornography] our bodies are being stripped, exposed, and contorted for the purpose of ridicule to bolster that "masculine esteem" which gets its kick and sense of power from viewing females as anonymous, panting playthings, adult toys, dehumanized objects to be used, abused, broken and disca...