Feminism, Pornography, and a Culture of Hedonism

Recently, Prof. Rae Langton of the University of Cambridge hosted a talk on ‘Pornography and the politics of desire.’ She was hosted by the Wright Center for the Study of Computation and Just Communities at Dartmouth. She presented the feminist perspective on how pornography is damaging to society.

Rather than condemn pornography in and of itself, Prof. Langton only condemned a subset of pornography: that which is said to degrade women. She concludes that what is harmful about pornography is that it promotes a sort of “inequality” between the sexes. In principle, it can be an expression of the supposed inferiority of women. In practice, it can lead to a more generalized misogyny amongst men – particularly young men – who are exposed to pornography.

Her main idea was correct. She analyzed one aspect of how pornography can be or is a negative entity. The portrayal of the objectification of women is harmful, and it does negatively impact young men’s perception of women.

However, pornography does more than merely degrade women; it degrades sex and all human participants. The feminist perspective only seems to denounce degradation if it happens to show women as inferior within a hierarchy. This means that they are being portrayed as submissive or mere objects to be enjoyed by men. The legal and political implications, therefore, are unclear. Every woman involved with pornography and its “prurient interests” is reduced to an animal. This is true for men as well. The feminist considers women to be objectified or degraded only if they are depicted as inferior within a sexual hierarchy. This gives the feminist critique of pornography no real merit in any sort of political debate as to how to legally address pornography. Determining when women are explicitly depicted as sex objects for the enjoyment of men would be impossible on a widespread scale. An outright ban on pornography for its inherently degrading nature of both men and women would be a more relevant political discussion. At least this hypothetically could be achievable.

The feminist perspective won’t make the conclusion that all pornography involving women degrades women. The problem is that whether there is an explicit hierarchy established in pornography or not, any and all depictions of women in this manner lead men to internalize women as mere sex objects. Feminists must understand that it is not only certain types of pornography, but all forms of pornography that are leading to this unequal result of men objectifying women. Part of the reason why women have been objectified more than men is that straight men consume the most pornography. Therefore, women are most often the objects of objectification. This is not merely because certain types of pornography show women as submissive, etc., but because it is impossible to depict women as anything more than sex objects in any form of pornography. Given that straight men consume the most pornography, women will most frequently be internalized as sex objects. This is part of why we see unequal outcomes across society, in which pornography has most often served to degrade women.

If feminists want to address the societal inequalities that have resulted from legalized and readily available pornography, they need to revisit the question of whether any porn can be considered a non-harmful entity to society. If the feminist wants to see results toward a more just and equal society, he/she must admit that any and all depictions of women engaged in pornography are harmful to society. They must admit that hedonistic depictions of human beings can have negative effects. The feminist who admits this puts himself/herself into a daunting political position that must simultaneously defend hedonism and seek to address its clear negative effects. This is an uncomfortable political position. Feminism defends hedonism. Pornography is hedonistic. Pornography also produces harmful, unequal results in which women are naturally objectified more than men. Feminism must come to terms with this harmful product (pornography), which has arisen from its own culture of hedonism. This is why, ironically, the feminist movement will not contribute meaningfully to any political discussions aimed at creating a society in which women are given the dignity they deserve. The feminist has yet to learn that you cannot have your cake and eat it too.