>Many feminists (bell hooks, Dworkin, and others) think there's been a
>regression in advancement toward liberation for women, too. I count
>the failure of "the left" (such as it was in the 80s, though all that
>Central American solidarity stuff seemed pretty damn effective) to get
>broadly behind the feminist anti-pornography movement as contributing
>to that regression.
It's a sign of the decline of feminism that so many feminists focused so much on the question of pornography, be they for or against porn. The debate on sexuality, sex work, etc. is not unimportant, but living wages, equal wages, equal employment opportunities, unemployment insurance, workers' rights in general, reproductive rights, health care, child care, elder care, care of the disabled, disability rights, domestic violence, domestic partnership/civil union/"gay marriage"/or whatever you call it, wars, militarization, etc. -- *all the issues that affect women's standard of living and quality of life much more clearly and dramatically than porn ever does* -- should have taken precedence over the "porn war." In my opinion, the anti-porn movement did *damage* to feminism, firstly by diverting attention of feminists and would-be feminists away from issues vital to working-class women; secondly by creating opportunistic alliances between anti-porn feminists & social-conservative politicos on censorship; and lastly and most importantly by obfuscating the *roots* of problems in the sex industry (e.g., impoverished women in poor nations "poverty-drafted" into the sex industry). Give women good jobs with good wages & benefits, plus social programs that help women -- the jobs that pay *far better* than sex work; and then only women who actually like sex work will get into the business. That's the way to solve the problems of sexism and exploitation in the sex industry. -- Yoshie
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