This House believes that the feminist movement should seek a ban

on pornography

The feminist movement is difficult to define. In essence, it is composed of people who

adhere to an ideology, feminism, which originates from philosophical principles of equality. As
such, they oppose any kind of dehumanization or exploitation, in particular when targeted at
women. In practice, feminists are particularly opposed to the existence of patriarchal structures
in society and to the social construction of gender, as opposed to sex. This common ideology has
led to some great successes for feminism in the past, such as women’s right to vote since the 19th
or 20th Centuries, or equal pay in most developed countries

It is important to note that the feminist movement is, however, severely fragmented on
more nuances social questions. On particular issues such as prostitution or the burka, many
feminists disagree as to what empowers women and what oppresses them, as to what liberates
women because they do so freely, and what harms them because are pressured to do it by the
patriarchy.

Pornography is a particularly contentious issue. We take pornography to be any sexually

explicit material, usually commercially distributed, acted or containing acting with the intention
to arouse its viewers. It is currently legal in most liberal countries, although Iceland, for instance,
is attempting to ban it in the near future (Henscher). Where it is not yet illegal, it is under serious
scrutiny: its currently immense role in society (over 70% of young men are estimated to watch
porn at least once a month (Paul). gives it great leverage in promoting, or reverting, social
change. Social change, arguably, is the next key fight for the feminist movement. The question,
then, comes down to whether pornography is a causal factor or a potential solution of the status
quo of social oppression of women.

AFF NEG
1. The feminist movement should not allow Freedom of expression is essential for
women to sell themselves women

2 Porn is inherently dehumanizing. Pornography liberates women

3 Pornography fuels unreachable ideals Attempting to ban it would only cause

further problems

4 Pornography eroticizes violence The feminist movement cannot afford to

alienate itself from society
PRO

1. The feminist movement should not allow women to sell themselves

Point

In most cases, pornography is not entered into willingly. Similarly to prostitution, the sale
of one’s own body and one’s dignity is so drastic that consent is often not sufficiently informed
to be legitimate. There are patriarchal structures in society that force women into these
industries, particularly when they are vulnerable and this seems to be a good last resort. This
leads to a loss of integrity, a strong stigma in society, and most importantly, abusive conditions
in the production process. As well as high risks of unwanted pregnancies or sexually transmitted
diseases, violent sex practices and abusive conditions after filming often occur (Lubben).
Furthermore, the harms of pornography do not exclusively affect the consenting
participants. Other women across the world who are not supporting this industry are equal
victims of society and the norms promoted by pornography of how women should be, and how it
is acceptable to treat them. These people have not consented.

Counterpoint

What is the difference between working as a pornographic artist and working as a street
sweeper, or someone who unblocks the drains? Neither of those is an ideal job, and will rarely be
a youth’s first career option. Both involve the use of my body for a sometimes unpleasant task.
Yet one of them is considered dehumanizing, and the other a valuable service to society. The fact
is there is little difference between pornography and any other job. The comparison to
prostitution is invalid: the key problem faced by prostitutes is the lack of security, since it is set
in contexts that make them particularly vulnerable to violence and abuse.

In pornography, health and security risks such as STDs are addressed in many countries,
and can be done so more: in California, for instance, porn actors are required to wear condoms
on set. These problems can be tackled in the same way as is the failure to comply with
regulations in any other industry. Non-consensual sex, violence, extreme pornography, and child
pornography, are all illegal: the problems with pornography must go beyond these (Section 63 -
Possession of extreme pornographic images)

2. Porn is inherently dehumanizing

Point

Pornography necessarily objectifies people: it presents a sexual desire, an urge, which is

immediately attended by another person, often performing acts which we would find demeaning,
until the original urge is satisfied. The use of others for pleasure treats them as means to one’s
own ends, and denies them any value as rational subjects with a will of their own. This affects,
naturally, the participants in pornography, but also their viewers who adopt corrupted notions of
what to value in others, and furthermore other women who are later affected by men using the
same metric to interact with them.

Counterpoint

Pornography does not objectify people, for they are portrayed as acting. Objects do not
act, subjects do.
Telling people what they cannot do is a greater loss of identity than any way by which
they may be portrayed by pornography, for only the latter can be challenged.
Sex is not negative towards women, repression is, sex is liberating not dehumanizing!
The only thing that is dehumanizing is the belief that natural impulses as sex should have
negative moral connotation, including the expression of it(in this case porn).

3. Pornography fuels unreachable ideals

Point
Pornography presents a distorted perception of people, sexuality, and relationships, which
has a further effect on a broader societal level. It promotes unreachable ideals of how both
women and men should be in bed, and pushes both in the direction of what is idealised in
pornography. This may push men to be more dominating than otherwise and women to suffer
from anorexia, low self-esteem, and promiscuity. We can expect women to be the most affected
by this, simply because the porn industry is owned almost entirely by men, and because there are
pre-existing patriarchal structures in society ready to promote the idea that women are there to
serve men.
Altogether, pornography merely promotes a new stereotype: that women are generally
happy to have sex at any time, that they will respond positively to any man’s advances, and if a
woman does not, there is something wrong with her.

Counterpoint

Women may indeed be harmed through these ideals. However, all forms of media,
fashion posters, and razors, all carry the same risk of people potentially hurting themselves with
it. This is not grounds for a ban.

Furthermore, placing the blame on pornography for this kind of attitudes is very
problematic in that it removes responsibility from the real culprits in society, the men who treat
women in this manner when they are not acting.
4. Pornography eroticizes violence

Point
Many forms of media are often accused of inciting violence, promoting stereotypes, or
indoctrinating in some form or another. While this is contentious, the key principle that ‘sex
sells’ is more obvious. Pornography is not like other media in that, while most other films are
aimed at entertainment, this is aimed at arousal. That is, it is aimed at immediate and fully selfish
pleasure, which is much more forceful and addictive than mere laughter.

The psychological effect of pornography is harmful due to the associations it conditions

its audience to make. It eroticizes violence through portrayals (fake or genuine) of rape and a
general treatment of women that is comparable to torture, yet presented in a context that
necessarily biologically excites its viewers. Through continuous exposure to the link between
abuse and intense pleasure, this link is easily extended to personal relationships. The master-
slave dialectic suddenly becomes acceptable. Compulsive rapists, such as Ted Bundy, are often
found to have consumed mass amounts of pornography (Benson). More subtle, yet certainly still
present is the force of such associations on young teenagers who have not yet had a sexual
relationship and rely on pornography for guidance. This has a potentially massive impact given
that 11 is the average age of first internet porn exposure.

Counterpoint
We live in a society in which no judge will recognize “I saw it on the TV” as a valid
excuse for a crime. We allow people to watch violent films believing they will be able to
distinguish between pornography and reality. For cases such as Ted Bundy, clearly issues other
than pornography must have been at play: there have to be pre-existing anti-women values and,
in such extreme cases, mental instability.

Furthermore, the link between pornography and violence is not intrinsic; it is nothing the
feminist movement cannot change through greater influence and/or restrictions.

Cons

1. Freedom of expression is essential for women

Point

Social movements should limit themselves to pushing for the rights of social groups, not
restricting them. The feminist movement, as a social movement, should not limit the voices of
women in the same way their oppressors have throughout history. Banning pornography would
directly restrict the freedom of choice of women who want to manifest their sexuality and
express themselves in revolutionary ways in art and media. Examples such as amateur and
improvised porn, which are independent of a director, show the deep value of self-expression and
self-definition women can find in this form of art. The desire of some actresses to become
internationally recognised as ‘sex symbols’, become porn stars, or simply convey that sex is for
women too, is a legitimate one, and not an act of desperation. This must be taken into account in
cases of pornography between consenting adults, for consenting adults.

Counterpoint

The consent women supposedly show in the pornographic industry is no more valid than
it is considered in prostitution or sex trafficking. Non-pornographic actresses are often coerced
into pornography by their agents or producers. The pornographic industry preys on vulnerable
parties: poor, psychologically vulnerable, or dependent people.

Furthermore, even if some do give full consent, this does not apply to all the women who
are forced into prostitution or pornography, raped, sexually harassed, or generally oppressed as a
result of the harms produced by pornography. Pornography makes the emancipation of women
from men impossible, and the feminist movement cannot condone it even at the expense of a few
women who want to express themselves. Other safer forms of art exist for this purpose.

2. Pornography liberates women

Point

Pornography is massively produced and distributed: this provides women with a vast
platform through which to define their sexual identity. This has been a great tool in the past: in
the 1920’s America, the flapper became a great role model for women by promoting
revolutionary values of a strong, sexual woman: she danced wildly in jazz clubs, was openly
lesbian, and sexually active. This image spread throughout the country thanks to the boom of the
film industry in the Roaring Twenties (Rosenberg). Now pornography plays, or at least can play,
this same role.

Pornography breaks the taboo of sexuality for women, and promoting the continuation of
taboos is a label and a stereotype which the feminist movement must oppose. Instead, it should
use pornography to spread its values. There is nothing intrinsic about pornography that makes it
anti-women. There is female-friendly pornography, and in fact there are Feminist Porn Awards
granted every year since 2006. There is also homosexual porn and porn that presents women as
dominant: this can empower women and break current stereotypes, not only that women are not
sexual, but that women in general cannot be powerful in society. The feminist movement should
seek to promote this flow of ideas of what gender can be and allow women to influence the way
their sexuality is perceived by men.

Counterpoint

It is simplistic to assume that the problems women face now, are the same that they faced
in the 1920’s. All they have in common is that, in some sense, women are used for men’s ends.
In the 1920’s it was primarily as housewives, but now, it is as sexual objects. The kinds of
images of women employed in advertisement and most kinds of media testify to this, and in
pornography these views are expressed in a particularly forceful way.

Furthermore, it is a misconception to say that pornography can lead to revolutionary

gender stereotypes when fundamentally it depends on stereotypes, the sexy
teacher/nurse/friends’ mother being common themes. Through pornography, the best women can
achieve is to jump through one label to another. Why? Because it is an industry fundamentally
controlled by men, for men.

As a result, furthermore, there can be no self-expression when you are doing what a
director (often male) tells you to do.

Even if the feminist movement has in fact succeeded in promoting their values in a
portion of pornographic films, this will have no effect if people do not watch it. There is nothing
to indicate that soft, female-friendly pornography will be more appealing to men than what is
currently all over the net: over 100,000 sites offer illegal child pornography, and over 10,000
hard-core pornography films are released every year and the numbers increase exponentially.

3. Attempting to ban it would only cause further problems

Point

There is no guarantee that a ban on pornography would improve gender stereotypes: in

fact, it seems to be quite the opposite. Pornography is a flourishing industry with incredibly high
demand, and much like with prohibition in the past, it is naïve to believe a ban can make a
difference. It is actually even harder with pornography, because of the ease through which it can
be distributed through the net. Rather, a ban would expand the black market with all the
problems that come with it today: child and non-consensual pornography, violence, unhealthy
conditions, and a general lack of regulations. Furthermore, the extent that a ban could ever limit
pornography, this would lead to further problems. On one hand, the feminist movement sends a
worrying message that sex is harmful to women, and by extension that sex is for the benefit of
men. Restoring a taboo on sexuality actively confines women to being dominated in bed, and in
society in general.
Secondly, if pornography is limited, the vessels through which men can satisfy their
sexual urges are also restricted. This can lead, at best, to greater sexual harassment, greater
pressure on women to provide sexual services, and to more infidelity. At worst, and most
probably, it leads to higher levels of rape.

Counterpoint
Even if achieving a fully effective ban is impossible, it is the responsibility of the
feminist movement to take a stance and not condone practices that harm women in practice and
promote dangerous messages. Making it illegal will limit it at least an extent, and due to all the
harms pornography causes the smallest improvement is an important goal.
It is an exaggeration to claim pornography would have such an effect. The reasons for
banning pornography would be the same as for banning prostitution (coercion issues for the
participants) and other forms of media that incite to directly offensive acts towards particularly
vulnerable people.
It is, rather, the actual sexual culture and view of people’s relationships promoted by
pornography that leads to higher levels of rape and harassment.

4. The feminist movement cannot afford to alienate itself from society

Point

The term ‘feminism’ is often associated with men-hating and the radical view that women
are superior to men as opposed to gender equality. This happens because extreme feminists who
uphold such opinions are consistently given greater media coverage by virtue of having the
loudest voices and creating headlines that sell. As a result, the feminist movement is currently
lacking the support it deserves and even those who take feminist positions often don’t want to
call themselves feminists.

It would be a bad move for it to further radicalise itself and attempt to ban something as
present in society as pornography. It will never work, and it will merely make women and men
more reluctant to espouse feminist ideologies for fear of being associated with a ‘hate group’.

Counterpoint

The feminist movement must, above all, strive to protect the people who are oppressed by
anti-women structures in society: it cannot ignore the problems women face. Social movements
are there because the rights of minorities in society are being ignored: they are necessarily going
against the flow of public opinion, and sometimes they need to be radical in order to uphold the
rights others ignore. A big problem requires big changes.