My Last Term's Research Paper

I took women's studies last semester as part of my general studies. As usual I did last minute work and I have to do a 10 page research paper on anything related to women's studies. I was surprised that i got 490/500 for this paper as I completed this paper within 3 days. I don't expect anyone to read the whole thing though, but if you do, please feel free to comment and tell me what you think about it. So take a deep breath and hope you would like it.

Pornography censorship; why it should not be censored
Perhaps censorship and pornography are the two most controversial topics in their own ways. Pornography has been around ever since the early days of human existence. Perhaps the most famous documented pornography would have to come from Karma Sutra. Originated from India, Karma Sutra is a manual of sexual experience addressing not only the practicalities of sexuality, but also the courtesies, manner of living and how to successfully relate with a sexual partner in a deeply meaningful manner. Before delving into the topic further, one would ask what pornography is. The word pornography derives from the Greek description of prostitutes. However, the original meaning of the term is irrelevant to its current meaning, as pornography has pretty much evolved since then. The definition of pornography would be any material that is used to create sexual arousal and excitement. Pornography can be in many forms and genres. Pornography can be found in books, videos, telephone-sex, internet, radio and cable television. Then there is the type of pornography that might suit one’s taste. These include but not limited to oral, anal, bi-sexual, lesbian, gay and straight porn. The most common form of pornography would be video pornography.

Censorship on the other hand is the removal of information from the public by a controlling group or body. Typically censorship is done by the government, media or religious groups, although other types of censorship exists. Censorship has been around since the start of human civilizations. In ancient societies such as Israel or China, censorship was considered as a legitimate instrument for regulating the country as a whole. The first censorship law was introduced in 300AD. The word ‘censor’ can be traced back to the office of censor in Rome in 443BC. To the Greek communities, good governance means shaping the character of the people. Hence censorship is used to block out information the Roman government thinks that might affect the development of the ideal character of the people. Even until recent times, the USSR was responsible for the longest lasting and most extensive censorship of the 20th century. Up till today, North Korea practices strict censorship and their citizens are banned from using the internet or to watch the television. Perhaps censorship was a feasible thing to do in the early days of civilization as normal citizens are not as educated and aware of things in general. However in the information age, censorship is not an easy thing to do. Information is easily available on the internet, making it accessible to almost anyone who could operate a computer and impossible to censor information. This includes pornography as well. In my opinion, pornography should not be censored but instead pornography should be regulated.

It is easy to blame pornography for its role of sexual harassment, molestation charges, rape and many other sexual offences. There is no denial that pornography may result in someone to commit a sexual offence. However, when we sit down in our living room and switch on the television, the things we hear and watch from the television plays a bigger role in influencing the people. In the movie Dreamworlds II by Sut Jhally, it talks about how images that it shown on television, especially MTV depicts images that are awfully similar to pornographic scenes. MTV is created in 1981 to broadcast music videos and provide music companies a place to advertise their music. Since then, they have become so popular it has become a household channel for viewers. Dreamworlds II elaborates further how MTV portrays women in only one aspect, that women are ravenous creatures that only desire sex. Degradation of women is done via objectification, where only certain body parts of a women body is shown. Typically body parts that are often subject to objectification are women’s legs, buttocks and busts. The majority of the music videos shown on MTV often have this elements present; lots of scantily clad women acting and posing suggestively. Ultimately, viewers watching those images give them an inaccurate implication of the women’s character. Television is not only responsible for it is one aspect view of women, but is also responsible for violent scenes and also depictions of drug abuse. While pornography is meant for adults only, television is catered to the mass audience across all ages. In an American household, the television is an integral part of spending quality time with the family, spending an average of four hours a day. The most time a person would watch pornography would be an hour a day. This means the amount of television exposure to the amount of pornography is to the ratio of 4:1. If there is any censoring needed, it should be the television, which I believe is largely unregulated compared to the porn industry.

Then there is the issue about sex. It is a social taboo to most people talking about sex. Parents are ashamed to talk to their children about safe sex and that they cover it up by describing it as the birds and the bees. People’s faces cringe and show expressions of disgust if any discussions regarding about sexuality is mentioned openly. Perhaps sex being a taboo began in the middle ages. During that time, priest could marry and have children. However, as the priests died, any land he held went to the widow and because of that, the church began to lose lots of land and money that they felt it belongs to the church. To solve the problem, they passed a law that states a priest could not marry and current priests who were married were to be relieved of their roles in immediate affect. Since then the idea of sex is ‘wrong’ was born. Although America is not a Christian nation, the country is greatly influenced by Christianity and about 80% of Americans are Christians. It is not surprising then that America is largely shy and rather avoid the topic about sexuality. Essentially pornography is glorifying sexual acts in the name of sexual excitement. As though sex is not enough to ignite controversy, pornography would surely ignite more than just controversy, making pornography more than just a taboo. It is a sinful, wrong, inappropriate, leads to rape, molestation, adultery etc.

‘Pornography is used in rape – to plan it, to execute it, to choreograph it, to engender the excitement to commit the act.’ This is a direct quote from Andrea Dworkin, a renowned feminist. The statement above is obvious that Dworkin is against any forms of pornography. It is understandable that she take an extreme dislike to pornography, regards men as ravenous sex crazed creatures and that pornography ignites their appetite to rape. At an early age of nine, she was sexually abused in a cinema. At the age of eighteen, she was arrested for an anti-Vietnam protest, she was sent to prison. Subsequently, she was sexually assaulted by the prison doctors. It was reported that Dworkin bled for fifteen days and a report from another doctor said that had never seen a uterus so bruised and a vagina so ripped. Later in life she married a Dutch political radical, which turn out to be a huge mistake as he abused her repeatedly, often hitting her till she was unconscious. This caused her to leave him and subsequently come back to the US. This marks the beginning of her dedication to feminism, where her work focuses mostly upon the abolishment of porn. In her book Woman Hating, she talks about the Story of O, an erotic novel about a woman who is into female submission. O is always subjected to human torturing and sexual abuse. Often she is being blindfolded, chained, whipped, made to wear a mask and also perform sexual favors like oral, vaginal and anal intercourse. The surprising thing about this story is that O consents to everything that is done to her. The Story of O is an epitome of the woman degradation. The name itself, O, signifies zero, emptiness, soulless. Her worthiness is only defined by the hole between her legs. Her thoughts, her character, her feelings are all non-existent, stripping her of her worthiness as a whole by objectifying her. In one part of the story she is even branded with Sir Stephen’s mark, who owns her. Even worse is that rings with his insignia is inserted into her vagina. The level of degradation in Story of O is extreme and it is no wonder stories like this would enrage women, as the story is very much akin to sexual assault.

Linda Susan Boreman, or better known as Linda Lovelace, is another anti-pornography advocate. Boreman in her early years is nicknamed “Miss Holy Holy” as she kept an arms distance from her dates. It is surprising then that she lost her virginity at 19 and had given birth to a son out-of-wedlock when she was 20 years old. Having strict Catholic parents, she was tricked by her mother to give up her son, saying that she would be able to meet with him again once she is able to take care of him. A year later she moved back to New York, where she had a bad car accident. Subsequently she returns yet again to Florida to recover. While relaxing at the poolside with her girlfriend, a bar owner and part-time pimp Chuck Traynor spotted her and offered both of them a joyride in his Jaguar. Soon Boreman fell in love with Traynor and within weeks she moved in with Traynor. Later both of them moved to New York, eventually gotten married and that’s when her pornography career started. In 1972, she starred in the adult film Deep Throat, arguably the most successful adult film ever in terms of revenue income. Then in 1980, she released her 3rd autobiography book titled Ordeal. In this book she reveals that she was being forced into pornography by her husband Traynor. In her book she talks about how Traynor would abuse her. When she threatened to leave him, he got more aggressive, making her literally a prisoner. Boreman was never out of Traynor’s sight, even when using the toilet Traynor would peep through a hole in the door. Other extreme things include sleeping on top of Boreman at night, tapping into her phone calls and also threatened her at gun point to shoot her if Boreman attempts to disobey his orders. According to Boreman, her bruises on her legs can be seen in Deep Throat.

While admiration is given to people who is outspoken in their beliefs, being too passionate in it might cause one person to be illusional and sidetracked. If anyone were to analyze Andrea Dworkin’s life, many would agree with this statement. While pornography could lead to sexual abuse, Dworkin asserts that pornography promotes many other forms of negative elements including turning women into objects and commodities, women violence and exploitation of children. Other outrageous statements about pornography includes igniting racism by promoting racial degradation as sexy, romanticizing concentration camp, the Nazi and the slaveholder, exploits demeaning racial stereotypes to promote sexual arousal and to ignite racist sexual obsessions.. Pornography also forbids self-determination to women and to children thus annihilating women’s chance for freedom. With so many negative issues linked to pornography, one would wonder the credibility of the connection between certain issues with pornography. She might as well add that pornography promotes terrorism, as it uses elements of violence empowering women, terrorizing them. One can feel that the attack on pornography is more of a personal issue rather than a feminist issue. It is also very hypocritical of her that while she claims pornography induces violence upon women, while she says things like “I want to see a man beaten to a bloody pulp with a high-heel shoved in his mouth, like an apple in the mouth of a pig”. She stereotypes men according to her experiences with men and blames the pornography industry for making men ‘jerks’. The phrase ‘You believe what you choose to believe’ is suited for Dworkin’s stance against pornography. Dworkin took Boreman’s experience and use it as a reason why pornography should be censored and banned. As Boreman’s experience with the porn industry was horrid and traumatizing, Dworkin conveniently assumes that all women in the porn industry are feeling the same as Boreman. Boreman on the other hand, is enjoying the publicity that she is receiving. There are inconsistencies about her claim that she is a victim of pornography. In the first two autobiographies, Inside Linda Lovelace and The Intimate Diary of Linda Lovelace, she talks about pornography and her sexual experience. She talks about her day to day life experience in the porn industry. In her third autobiography Ordeal, the story was told in a different tone, talking about her past sexual abuse and how she was tortured and beaten up by her husband. This was contrary to the first two books that she has written, possibly implying remorse over what she has done. During her teenage years the Vietnam War protests was at its peak. Students march in protest and rebellion has a symbolic meaning. To rebel was a sign of protesting against Vietnam War and a cool thing to do. As with almost every teenager, they rebel against their parents and with the Vietnam War protests in full swing there was never more a perfect time to rebel. Coming from a strict Catholic family where celibacy is important and virginity is sacred, she did the exact opposite by impregnating herself as a sign of rebellion. Things got out of hand when her mother tricked her into giving away her baby, where she eventually ran away with Traynor. From there she was tricked into pornography, thinking she would make a lot of money out of it. In the end, Traynor took all the money and Boreman found herself with nothing. In anger she then divorced Traynor and straight away moved in with her producer and choreographer, David Winters. It is interesting to note that she was able to divorce Traynor when she described how difficult it was to leave Traynor. In my opinion, Boreman regretted going into the porn industry and she can’t escape her past as much as she tried to. She tried starting acting in nightclubs and got hired by Aladdin Casino to play in My Daughter’s Rated X. However the show closed after a week as audiences were disappointed to see that she didn’t get naked. She then turns to Andrea Dworkin for help, and Dworkin took advantage of the situation by making Boreman the feminist poster child for demeaning effects on pornography. Throughout the 80s, she was in demand as a professional witness for anti-obscenity movements. There she acts out like a typical rape victim, looking terrified, traumatized and sobs uncontrollably when recalling her ‘ordeal’. Following her famous outcry about the porn industry, pornographer and writer Hart Williams coined the term ‘Linda Syndrome’ to refer to women who left pornography and attempts to seek acceptance from the ‘overground’ society by disassociating herself and to play victim of the porn industry.

It is people like Andrea Dworkin that undermines the work of porn actress. Indirectly, Dworkin is insulting the women in the porn industry. Women in the porn industry are human beings too. They have feelings; they have the brains and are creative in their own way. By saying pornography objectifies women, degrading female and creativity, it means that porn actresses are nothing more than a sex machine where their intelligence is limited to just sucking, licking, frolicking and fucking. So for those who choose to become a porn actress and are happy to be in the porn industry, Dworkin is implying those women who fall in that category are basically a worthless slut who is nothing more than a shell of their body. Well for Nina Hartley, she graduated magna cum laude in nursing. A lot of college graduates are into the porn industry as well. I guess by Dworkin’s definition, a woman who has a PhD, an artist or/and immensely contented would be worthless overnight if she decides to be in the porn industry. Furthermore, saying how pornography forbids self-determination thus annihilating women’s chance for freedom is an absolute contradiction to the meaning of freedom to choose. If I were a woman, I should have the freedom of venturing into porn. Whatever reason it might be, women should have the freedom of choice, and censoring porn would mean limiting choices for women.

Feminists, whether it is Cellestine Ware, Andrea Dworkin, Linda Boreman, Betty Dodson etc all has brought women to what they are today. One can safely say most of the perception of female inferiority is almost non-existent. Women are allowed to express themselves more openly and with more assertion than ever before. To me pornography itself is just a women’s expression of sexuality. However, like television and internet, pornography is getting more and more corrupted to a point it loses its true meaning. Television is inundated with advertisements that results in over consumerism especially in the United States. The internet is full of spams and e-mail scams are rampant. Pornography is now full of immature porn actresses who want to make a quick buck by subjecting herself to degrading sexual acts. Most of them regret their actions and then blame the porn industry for humiliating them. There are porn actresses like Nina Hartley that loves pornography and lives by it. Pornography is like a career. One has to go into a career that they enjoy working with and does not go against your conscience.

Shall pornography is being censored, more complications would occur, making the situation worse than before. Censoring pornography is not as simple as just getting rid of it. One has to analyze the effect of censoring pornography from a social, economic and political perspective. The law of supply and demand is simple; as long as there is demand, there will always be supply. Censoring pornography would only limit the supply, and people would have other ways of getting pornography if they want to. The issue of pornography is complicated and is not easily solved simply by imposing a censorship on it. A moderate approach must be taken to solve the problem, and that is to regulate, monitor and enforce pornography. To avoid Linda Syndrome, porn actresses must sign a document saying that she is willingly participating in the porn industry and that she is fully aware of the consequences and is personally responsible for all of her own actions. Regulations should be reviewed from time to time, eradicating any loopholes to avoid porn actresses being exploited. Child pornography, which is defined as any pornography with actresses under the age of eighteen is strictly prohibited in any form and that is punishable under the federal law. Proper steps must be taken to ensure history does not repeat itself. The Volstead Act, also called the National Prohibition Act was passed on January 16 1920. Volstead Act prohibits the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquor in the United States. The effects of the Volstead Act were largely unanticipated. Legitimate liquor business became illegal overnight, and most of the breweries were taken over by the criminal gangs. Many confrontations took place during the period between 1920 to 1933. Confrontations often result in mass murdering, and the gangs that reach to the top became filthy rich.
Enforcement was difficult to uphold as the gangs were so rich that they bribe the enforcement officers. Those that dare to go against them were murdered instantly. The gangs had such strong influence to the point they control the politicians, either with money or by force. With alcohol gaining social acceptance and the violence and intimidation inflicted by the criminal gangs, public support of the Volstead act started waning. By 1933, public opposition towards the Volstead Act has become overwhelming that the congress decided to lift the act, making alcohol legal again. The lesson learnt from this is simple, censoring would not solve the problem, and the problem is only being swept under the rug. The problem is still there, and eventually someone would have to pick up the rug, dust it thoroughly and get rid of the dust once and for all.