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Jianwei Tan

Unique Perspective on Pornography - 13 views

pornography debate abcnews face-off

started by Jianwei Tan on 01 Sep 09
  • Chen Guo Lim
    #2 Chen Guo Lim on 02 Sep 09
     
    In my opinion, I believe that the salience is always constructed by the people in discussion. Hence, I do not think that we have neglected about women's protection, because if this is so, then what of the Feminist movement?

    If I must protest, what about the men?
    Why are we not protecting the men, and instead criminalising them?

    There are examples of how porn stars made it big in the film industry, for example, Shu Qi?

    The question lies, what is the motivation behind protection? Does protection really breed protection, or could there be a possibility that (over)protection can lead to innocence, and naive thinking, thus simplifying our thought processes?
  • Weiye Loh
    #3 Weiye Loh on 03 Sep 09
     
    "These women will have forever have to live with the social stigma of being a "porn star" and whatever negativity that is associated with that concept. "

    The patriarchal ideology is the underlying cause of such a stigma. The idea that women should somehow by virtue of some higher being, be pure and innocent, untainted by sex. That women should be devoid of sexual agency.

    The stigma, in this case, will not be eliminated by eliminating the pornography industry. It can only be eliminated by educating people against patriarchy.

    Indeed, we can start questioning the women who have benefited from the industry. Without which, they might suffer worse due to poverty or other underlying circumstances. At least we can be certain that the industry protects them to a certain extent by having them go for STDs tests regularly. =)

    Which brings me to my question, which is better - a porn star or a sex worker?


    Jianwei Tan wrote:
    > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3dDXppgUpI
    > http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Story?id=4320649&page=1
    >
    > ABC News hosts a face-off debate about the pornography industry at Yale. Arguing against pornography were Craig Gross who runs an online community for people addicted to pornography and Donny Pauling who was an ex-producer of pornography. The 2 people arguing for pornography were Monique Alexandar who is an adult actress with the world's largest adult-film producer, and Ron Jeremy, an adult actor who has appeared in more than 1,900 pornographic movies.
    >
    > The entire length of video is quite long but both sides brought up many issues about pornography that are less debated about but just as important.
    >
    > One particular point that I want to bring up is how little we think about protecting the women (not being sexist here, it's just that they mostly brought up female examples) who end up in the adult industry. When people think about exploitation of a group of people in pornography, the most salient issue is usually child pornography. However, I think it's important to think about the women who got into the adult industry due to naivety or misjudgments. Everybody makes mistakes. Should these women have no opportunity to start over? Due to P2P file sharing networks, these pornographic titles will continue circulating until who knows when. These women will have forever have to live with the social stigma of being a "porn star" and whatever negativity that is associated with that concept.
    >
    > Should we do something to stop the pornography industry? What if we can destroy the industry? Could the next possible solution be to stop descriminating against them and recognise "pornographic actress" as just another occupation?

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