A poll on attitudes to pornography

[missymoo73]

Porn isnt to be taken seriously - to some it can be just a bit of fun....You dont like it dont watch it - its not really that difficult.

[Conrod]

Surely the difference is that piercings etc tend to be purely personal choice and normally felt to be an enhancement by the Woman for the Woman herself.

There is a whole lot of pressure upon Women today to look and behave a certain way, and it seems to me that it is more done for the acceptance of men and often other women than it is for the woman's personal image of herself, although of course that will not always be the case.

Personally what does worry me a lot is the way that young teenage girls are dragged into this insecure way of thinking, the media is exploiting their already fragile and undeveloped self image...the pressure on young people these days must be immense, and leaves many wide open to all kinds of exploitation.

Make your mind up time!!

 

Anything that people do for their image is for the benefit of others, unless they spend all day admiring themselves in a mirror. Any 'personal' enhancement they might feel is a result of how they perceive others to view them.

[Cyclone]

Self image and how we think others see us are intrinsically linked, there's really no way to separate whether you're doing something for yourself or for others because 'for yourself' really means the same thing as for someone else.

[Suffragette1]

My partner who is a midwife has seen her fair share of lady bits, and readily states that some ladies gusset bacon (not her words) looks awful (her words). If a woman feels this herself and it gets to her, and she wants to have a minor procedure to sort it out, then she shouldnt be made to feel like she is a silly sheep, brainwashed by the porn / beauty industry. Why is it any different to having pimples / warts / birthmarks removed / breast reduction etc?

 

She's not looking at it from a sexual perspective though is she (well, I certainly hope not), so that's hardly a fair assessment.

[Moonbird]

She's not looking at it from a sexual perspective though is she (well, I certainly hope not), so that's hardly a fair assessment.

 

Thats what I was trying to say, fairly badly probably

 

Actually I get what you are saying Conrad and Cyclone and yes perhaps you do have a point but it seems to me that there is a lot less peer pressure to have an ear piercing etc than there is to appear like an off duty porn star.

[Suffragette1]

I'm sure there were plenty of women who didn't enjoy sex long before the widespread availability of pornography - within our parents’ lifetimes, remember the adage 'lie back and think of England'.

As well as blaming porn, maybe blame the oyster platter at Hooter's?

But what's the difference between trimming their livery bits and having an ear pierced? Or nose, or navel? Many people are desensitised to 'accepted' piercings but shocked by alternatives, I struggle to see the difference.

 

I think this article would shock feminists less if it were about tummy tucks or nose jobs - both more intrusive surgery, but not encroaching on that feminist sanctum, that insistence on having a hairy growler like Brain May's shower plug hole.

 

Reread my post, I was not 'blaming' porn, merely asking whether there was a link. Big difference. There is also a huge difference between women being brought up with the notion that sex is something to be endured within the confines of marriage and being brought up in a hypersexualised culture where they are expected to look and perform like porn stars to the extent where they feel that acting or looking in any way 'normal' makes them feel freakish and/or abnormal. What is the common denominator here? Sexual expectations of women, far more so than there are of men.

 

Furthermore, another huge difference, which by your own admission, you are struggling with, is between self adornment and having bits lopped off.

 

I do so hope that all you men ouit there who keep moaning about 'the pube in the throat problem' shave before performing oral sex on a woman as well as trim and wax your nether regions so that she doesn't have to suffer the same 'pube in the throat' mishap:P

[Suffragette1]

It isn't, except that some people choose to turn it into a gender politics issue.

 

It is a gender politics issue because pornography has far more of a negative impact on women than it does men and I don't see many men challenging this, ergo, it is by default almost, a feminist issue.

[Cyclone]

Thats what I was trying to say, fairly badly probably

 

Actually I get what you are saying Conrad and Cyclone and yes perhaps you do have a point but it seems to me that there is a lot less peer pressure to have an ear piercing etc than there is to appear like an off duty porn star.

 

I'd suggest the opposite. You hardly ever see a woman without an ear piercing, and I think that's entirely because it's expected

[Chris_Sleeps]

pornography has far more of a negative impact on women than it does men

To use Bill Hicks:

 

I guess a lot of women's attitudes - is that those movies are degrading to women. And I say: "Pfft, look at the guys! Are they exalted? I couldn't make a face like that if a car ran over my foot. She looks great. He looks like a doofus!"

 

[Bulgarian]

I'd suggest the opposite. You hardly ever see a woman without an ear piercing, and I think that's entirely because it's expected

 

and I would suspect it's mothers that have their babies ears pierced, I can't see fathers being bothered.