POSA™ Blog
How Women Are Pathologized If We're Opposed to Pornography
Today we're sharing a most enlightening article that shows how systemic the silencing of women is when they object to pornography.
As seen through a feminist lens, this sanity-restoring article can help validate our collective grief over the devastation pornography has wrought, not only in our own lives, but globally:
"Why are you triggered by porn?" he asked.
As if my hatred for the industry and the filmed violence inflicted on the bodies of women and girls is nothing more than personal pathology! As if my anger, discomfort, and sorrow at the injustice of porn and its ideological role in constructing women as subordinate sexual objects that exist for male pleasure is actually only due to some personal history of trauma....
Click here to read: I'm not 'triggered,' I'm angry: Against the medicalization of women's rage
Please share with us your view in the comments below. How do you feel about a woman opposed to pornography being labeled as someone who is "triggered"? Does this classification interfere with gaining an objective view of pornography in society?
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Comments 6
I am definitely the minority within my social circles when it comes to my opinion on porn. My female friends just accept that all men"look at porn." Their husbands and most of my male friends think I am overly righteous and ridiculous... because,"everyone does it." To which I reply: "So you are OK with your wife, daughter, mother, being in pornography? That's cool with you? If other men watch the women in your life, on screen?" hmmm-
This is why I am a huge fan of Dr Gail Dines - she explains how women and men have been tricked into believing we should just accept porn as a healthy part of our lives better than I ever can. The genius of the porn industry is that it sells itself as “sex positive” and anyone who is anti porn is therefore anti sex positive. I quote…”(without) pornography we get a glimpse, however fleeting, into what it might be like to have sexual autonomy and authenticity, to have our minds and bodies not be brokered by the sex industrial complex. To have our most private, intimate and personal spaces not infiltrated and undermined by toxic lies about sex, relationships, men, women, etc. To author or own sexuality.”
Being married to a porn addict showed me how damaging it truly is to normal relationships. Reality can never compete with fantasy. It is unrealistic to think that porn doesn't adversely affect people. And the addiction makes the addict create chaos in his/her life to justify turning to porn. Everyone tries escapism at some point to deal with stress but to use porn to escape does nothing but cause pain for everyone involved. Spouses children career happiness is all affected by this addiction.
Right, MJ- you make an important point here, that soon enough the addict creates chaos to justify turning to pornography. This usually takes partners a while to figure out, often because we're so exhausted from fending off the arguments, the stonewalling, the rages....we can't exactly see all the mechanisms at work. Sounds like you figured it out, though...
Hopefully your life is calmer and more joy-filled now....
Thanks for sharing your perspective here!
Good points.
Right friggin' on! It's true that we have NO argument. The minute we make one, we've made ourselves a spectacle. It's demoralizing to say the least. My whole family was ruined by porn BUT the bigger issues are still utterly valid aren't they? Arg!!!