Need for More Artful and Realistic Porn Essay

1. Introduction For a long time, pornography has been viewed as something exclusively for men. In the 1980’s, pornography was a feminist issue in which feminists claimed that pornography was a form of violence against women (Sun et al., 2008). Often enough, it has been claimed that women do not have any interest in explicit representations of sex. However, in the past years, women have increasingly started to become interested in pornography. But most pornographic materials are made for and by men. However, there are even some pornography magazines aimed at women readers (Smith, 2007). Not only the consumption of porn, but also the production and direction of pornography seem to be activities where women are involved in more than ever before. Pornography has been a subject of philosophy for a number of philosophers. Some of them, including Larry May, believe pornography harms groups of people. In contrast to Larry May, Sallie Tisdale argues that pornography can be of help to individuals. THESIS: There should be different kinds of porn (more artistic/realistic/made by womenmore artistic) so that porn has no negative effects / to enlarge the positive effects of porn / abolish / diminish the negative effects. 2. Exposition -How porn can help Tisdale argues that porn can help in many different ways. First of all, she emphasizes that porn is part of our sexuality. The first advantage Tisdale discusses is that porn can help to see how many different things sex can mean. Secondly, being able to expose your true self makes it easier to expose yourself to others. Thirdly, being exposed to pornography helps letting go judgments about yourself, which, in turn, makes you let go of judgments against the desires and acts of others. Also, porn clarifies your interests (only aware of it after exposure to it) and might create new interests. It reveals aspects of yourself that you were unaware of until then. The last advantage of porn Tisdale discusses is that it can lead to the realization that none of your thoughts are bad, that anything goes. -How negative affects/emotions can get in the way of porn’s helpfulness Even though Tisdale argues that porn can help individuals, she is still sometimes surprised, or even shocked, by her own reaction to pornography. Shame Disgust of own response to porn ‘Disliked my own response’ ‘I felt a heady mix of disgust and excitement’ (p. 423) Body versus mind. Depressed Nausea Why does she even have these reactions? 3. Furthering Tisdale’s project Tisdale wishes for a more craft, a more artful packaging of pornography. (p 426) Furthering Tisdale’s project by establishing how porn could be less negative by being more artful or more artistic. Richard Summer’s ‘Local Porn Project’. Summer desires more realistic porn. He wants people to be able to identify themselves and recognize what is happening in porn. He argues that right now, porn is detached from reality. This is a problem, because sex is actually a very real thing with real benefits, experiences and consequences. Porn right now, does not express sexuality in the right way. Summer’s Local Porn project aims to make thoughtful and genuine porn. Will more artful/realistic porn help to prevent these negative emotions? Tisdale wishes for more artful pornography. There are two ways in which this can be realized: either by making more realistic porn or by having more female directors and producers. As aforementioned, Women are now making films for women viewers. Sun et al. (2008) investigated how the context of pornography made by female and men directors differ. Their results show that, indeed, the content of pornography produced by women differs significantly on several aspects from pornography made produced by men. Pornography produced by women more frequently contained objects designed for genital stimulation. It presented women performing oral sex on men and ejaculation on the face and mouth less frequently. Also, pornography made by women more frequently has a female as main character and more frequently show only women. Pornography produced by men hardly ever contained women only. Female directed porn and male directed porn did not differ in the number of aggressive acts. However, male directed pornography show twice as many men perpetrating. Overall, one can say that pornography produces by  women and men differ significantly.