Rebel Grrrl Italiana

This was a paper I wrote during my graduate studies in Women’s & Gender Studies at DePaul University.

Introduction
Pornography has been a prominent issue in society. The presumed “fantasy” of pornography has turned into our reality. Our society oversexualizes young women and fetishises “women’s sexual subservience” through pornography (Valenti, 2009). When feminists confront the issue of pornography, the question often raised is whether or not the pornography industry is hurtful to women, and society in general. How and when was this “porning of America”* initially discussed? In Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality, Dr. Ann Russo states, “The feminist analysis of the pornography industry grew out of the U.S. grassroots anti-violence movement of the 1970s, when U.S. feminists met in small and large groups across the nation and began to speak out about the seemingly individual, private, isolated experiences of sexualized violence” (Dines, Jensen, & Russo, 1997).

Pornography didn’t gain mainstream publicity until noted feminist and anti-pornography activist, Andrea Dworkin, as well as lawyer Catharine MacKinnon, began their crusade against the production and consumption of pornography in Minneapolis in the 1980s. Their activism brought mass awareness to the issue. These women notably linked pornography to the perpetuation of violence against women. Dworkin believes that women are objectified, eroticized, and exploited in pornography. She states, “Pornography reveals that male pleasure is inextricably tied to victimizing, hurting, exploiting; that sexual fun and sexual passion in the privacy of the male imagination are inseparable from the brutality of male history” (Dworkin, 1991).

Attesting to Dworkin’s argument, men who view pornography become aroused by images of women being subordinated. Dworkin adamantly maintains the perspective that pornography encourages men to eroticize abuse and dominate women. This, in turn, is hurtful and can be seen as violence towards women, which is then perpetuated in society. The pornographic images and scenarios that men view eventually bleed into their psyche. Dworkin argues that a major theme of pornography is male power. She writes that this is demonstrated through, “the power of self, physical power over and against others, the power of terror, the power of naming, the power of owning, the power of money, and the power of sex” (Dworkin, 1991). This male power is applauded in our patriarchal society. Dworkin believes that men develop a loyalty to violence and power at an early age. Therefore, an excess use of pornography may set men up to be violent towards women, which leads to desensitization, and may lead to domestic abuse situations.

The goal of this research is to display the three major parallels between pornography and domestic violence. For this paper, the focus will be on heterosexual, mainstream pornography within heterosexual relationships. This paper will look at how the parallels stated below have been theorized by different analysts. The parallels that will be discussed here include: the power dynamic, verbal abuse, and physical aggression. (more…)