Happy St. Patty’s friends!
Today I want to talk a little bit about a class discussion I participated in this past Monday. We were blessed to be around the presence of Cate Palczewski, as she informed us about the positives and negatives of pornography. When I reflect back on the reading (Palczewski Reading.pdf), I dive deeper into the question of “if pornography is bad?” In class we talked about the negative objectification of women, sexual abuse of women, and sexualization of child pornography. With those aspects being said, I do believe that pornography leaves negative effects. When males are taught at a young age to objectify women as their “bitch,” and seen as just a body to have sex with; all respect is being lost.
Image: PornHub, Flickr
Being in a sorority, I am constantly around fraternity boys that joke around about the “bitches they f*cked last night,” and hearing that makes me sad. Sad to think that we live in a patriarchal society, where young boys are growing up learning to disrespect women. Guys joke about watching porn, sexting, or women’s naked bodies… I’m here to say: It’s not funny. Pornography is a conversation that needs to be talked about, because it brings about serious issues for reasons behind males treating women like objects, and unequal partners.
On a more personal note, I’ve experienced multiple times being sexualized by men. Even my guy friends objectify my body. When my guy friend’s slap my butt, joke about my breasts, and when I’m eating certain foods they talk about keeping my mouth open. Sexualized comments can really make me, and other women, feel very uncomfortable. Because of the way websites like PornHub contribute to the standard of treating women like shit, men start to believe that is the norm. Also, the way women in the videos may be legally 18+, but are dressed to look youthful adolescents is disturbing. Why are men fascinated by the dominating factor of child sexual molestation?
Image: Dark hair model, Stock.adobe.com
Unfortunately, websites like that, have created a negative stigma for what makes porn content. Women are shown to be treated lesser, therefore it translates in a more realistic form, when women do not meet men’s expectations. Porn doesn’t have to be like that. I strongly believe that nakedness and sexual expression are not necessarily bad factors of being human. It can actually be a beautiful act, and even a form of art.
But I’ll leave you all with some food for thought:
- Has modern day pornography normalized the objectification of women’s bodies?
2. Why have pornographic websites geared majority of their content to male pleasure? Are women even in present day still being negatively stigmatized for being too sexual?
Featured Image: Lucky Charms, Wikipedia
ShoutOut! James Madison University 
Great post! I agree with what you said, and I feel as if the objectification of women is so normalized that even the most extreme versions of it, such as in pornography, often go ignored. However, I do feel as if women are taking back nudity and sexuality as something that can be ours as well. There definitely is stigma but I also see progress.
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Thank you so much! I totally agree, women are taking back sexuality and nudity, and it’s pretty awesome! It opens to a bigger question of women being about to express themselves the way men do, without being negatively stigmatized.
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Thanks for the “likes!” the support feels great, especially when talking about such a controversial topic.
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I really appreciate the examples you included of your own experience with objectification. You’ve hit on the big issue here, that pornography (vs erotica) normalizes objectification, and makes it okay for that kind of exchange to take place in “real life.” I’ll never forget one of the first intimate encounters I had with a man, and the expectation that our intimacy would BE LIKE what he encountered in pornography! The hardest thing to stomach about all of it is that like you said, sexuality + physical intimacy can be art forms, but our creativity + human invention is stifled when all we can conjure are these problematic images given to us by the porn industry.
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I totally agree. I also think the worst part about objectifying women, is since it has become so “normalized”, I get scared to tell guy when it makes me feel uncomfortable, or hurtful.
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I think this post is a really good take and I like how you pulled personal anecdotes in. I also have guy friends who make demeaning comments about women, and it’s exhausting to always be the uncool feminist friend calling them out! I liked the question you posed about porn focusing on male pleasure extensively and casting female pleasure to the wayside or excluding it completely… I think women having more agency in terms of sex in general would play into WAY healthier attitudes towards consent, intimacy, and body empowerment!
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Thank you all so much!!! The “likes” are so heart warming. It also let’s me know that you all enjoy parts of what I’m writing about and care about, so yay!! I also totally agree @livinghumangirl, that women should have more say in attitudes and beliefs about sex and empowerment, it would make what defines sex a much easier topic to discuss!
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