It’s a complicated subject. The generalization that men are only aroused by oppression is pretty simplistic. Yet so much of the sexuality thrown in our faces every day is oppressive that it’s easy to buy into simple problems, and simple solutions.

The mystery of male arousal must be about more than simple oppression.

THE TWO ARE NOT THE SAME.

And neither one is “complicated” or “mysterious.” That’s just a lot of bullshit men use to excuse their jackassness.

“‘pornography can only exist under the auspices of oppression.’ Dig this:

THE TWO ARE NOT THE SAME.”

Excellent point, Twisty. And I think Tony’s confusion of the two really does reflect a generalised attitude: that porn just is a representation of sex–or even to some, that porn IS sex. This is similar to what’s come up on another blog regarding rape, and it’s the idea that many people, sadly including lots of women, honestly do believe that women’s sexuality really *is* exactly what male fantasy *wants* it to be. Only if you feel this way can you honestly believe that what you see in most porn has any relation at all to real-life sexual behaviour. Though, scarily, as porn becomes more and more mainstream, I think that more and more people are buying into the idea that “this is what sex looks like” and are behaving accordingly. At least when they are young and inexperienced.

And it very much disturbs me that there are men who actually do seem to feel that taking away the exploitative, demeaning aspects of how we view sex will kill their arousal. That’s beyond horrifying.

It also begs the question of why *I*–or any other woman–should accept dehumanisation just because that’s what a guy needs to get off?

I agree with Twisty and Crys T wholeheartedly. Porn isn’t the depiction of sex, it’s the depiction of someone being used as a sexual object. The females involved are not actively expressing their own sexuality, they are passive pieces of meat with convenient orifices which men use.
The desire for sex is the desire to engage in sexual activity with another, who is equally as engaged as you.
Porn just encourages the desire to use others as a masturbation aid.

The difficulty, of course, is in selling the radical notion that women are actual humans.

My hypothesis is that porn doesn’t degrade women; women, as a class, are already degraded. Porn is just the documentation. Un-degrade the women, and porn is just stupid pictures.