> i don't call anyone a prude here and rarely ridicule their views, but
> repeatedly, time after time, we are told we can't be leftists and
> feminists b/c of our views. people are just shocked, as if you have to
> agree that objectification is always and only bad and wrong. people just
> can't deal with the possibility that we actually have thought this
> through because, in fact, the mainstream feminist position, taught in
> women's studies texts and classrooms, and in the public in general is
> that pornography is wrong, harmful to women and men, that it leads to
> violence and rape, that it degrades sexual relations between hetmen and
> women, bad, blah blah.
I get a real kick out of being an open sex-positive anarcho-feminist. My position always manages to piss off the right people. I don't mind being called a pro-porn feminist, but that label makes as much sense as being a pro-science fiction feminist or an anti-bodice-ripper feminist. Porn is just a more explicit form of erotica, both of which are genres.
It might be unfair to call "anti-porn" feminists prudes, although that label may match their ideas about sexuality. The real basis for their stance is old-fashioned political correctness, the idea that leftists should have a correct line on some issue and if you don't agree or transgress, you are morally "bad." Leftists in this camp avoid moral arguments, but their attitude is basically similar to what I get from the religious right (including the times that the American Family Association and Dr. Laura went after me).
Carroll is right about how this issue is really a non-issue for leftists. The leftists who get upset about porn are few in number. Their bark is worse than the religious right's but, although it is kind of hard getting a ball gag into their mouths.
What I find ironic about the sex-negative camp is that they will adamantly claim that they support queer rights, but they turn around and condemn those of us who enjoy porn as somehow being a bunch of vanilla heterosexuals who only jerk off to Hustler. I haven't even seen an issue of Hustler in years--it doesn't match my tastes. I also know that other lefties are much more into porn than they let on--the younger generation is even more casual about this stuff.
And Yoshie, guys aren't going to give up porn just because they are getting laid often. I would find it hard to believe that women would give up their fantasy life just because they were getting sex often.
Chuck