Editing Sexism (section)

=== Pornography ===
{{See also|Feminist views on pornography}}

Anti-pornography feminist [[Catharine MacKinnon]] argues that [[pornography]] contributes to sexism by objectifying women and portraying them in submissive roles.<ref>MacKinnon, Catharine (1987). ''Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law''. Cambridge, MA: [[Harvard University Press]]. p. 147.</ref> MacKinnon, along with [[Andrea Dworkin]], argues that pornography reduces women to mere tools, and is a form of sex discrimination.<ref name="Papadaki 2012">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Papadaki |first=Evangelia |title=Feminist Perspectives on Objectification |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2012/entries/feminism-objectification/ |encyclopedia=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=December 1, 2013 |date=June 28, 2011 |edition=Winter 2012}}</ref> The two scholars highlight the link between objectification and pornography by stating:

<blockquote>We define pornography as the graphic sexually explicit subordination of women through pictures and words that also includes (i) women are presented dehumanized as sexual objects, things, or commodities; or (ii) women are presented as sexual objects who enjoy humiliation or pain; or (iii) women are presented as sexual objects experiencing sexual pleasure in rape, incest or other sexual assault; or (iv) women are presented as sexual objects tied up, cut up or mutilated or bruised or physically hurt; or (v) women are presented in postures or positions of sexual submission, servility, or display; or (vi) women's body parts—including but not limited to vaginas, breasts, or buttocks—are exhibited such that women are reduced to those parts; or (vii) women are presented being penetrated by objects or animals; or (viii) women are presented in scenarios of degradation, humiliation, injury, torture, shown as filthy or inferior, bleeding, bruised, or hurt in a context that makes these conditions sexual."<ref name="Dworkin 1988">{{cite book |author1=Andrea Dworkin |author-link1=Andrea Dworkin |author2=Catharine A. MacKinnon |author-link2=Catharine MacKinnon |title=Pornography and civil rights: a new day for women's equality |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J69HAQAAIAAJ |date=August 1988 |publisher=Organizing Against Pornography |isbn=978-0-9621849-0-1}}</ref></blockquote>

[[Robin Morgan]] and Catharine MacKinnon suggest that certain types of pornography also contribute to [[violence against women]] by eroticizing scenes in which women are dominated, coerced, humiliated or [[sexually assault]]ed.<ref>Morgan, Robin. (1974). "Theory and Practice: Pornography and Rape". In: ''Going Too Far: The Personal Chronicle of a Feminist''. (1977). [[Random House]]. 333 p. {{ISBN|0-394-48227-1}}. (1978 ed, {{ISBN|0-394-72612-X}}.)</ref><ref name="Jeffries 2006">{{Cite news |last=Jeffries |first=Stuart |title=Are women human? (interview with Catharine MacKinnon) |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=September 1, 2009 |date=April 12, 2006 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/apr/12/gender.politicsphilosophyandsociety |location=London}}</ref>

Some people opposed to pornography, including MacKinnon, charge that the production of pornography entails physical, psychological, and economic [[coercion]] of the women who perform and model in it.<ref name="Shrage 2007">Shrage, Laurie. (July 13, 2007). [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminist-sex-markets/#Por "Feminist Perspectives on Sex Markets: Pornography"]. In: ''[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]''.</ref><ref>Mackinnon, Catherine A. (1984) "Not a moral issue." ''[[Yale Law and Policy Review]]'' 2:321-345. Reprinted in: Mackinnon (1989). ''Toward a Feminist Theory of the State'' Harvard University Press. {{ISBN|0-674-89645-9}} (1st ed), {{ISBN|0-674-89646-7}} (2nd ed). "Sex forced on real women so that it can be sold at a profit to be forced on other real women; women's bodies trussed and maimed and raped and made into things to be hurt and obtained and accessed, and this presented as the nature of women; the coercion that is visible and the coercion that has become invisible—this and more grounds the feminist concern with pornography"</ref><ref name="Wattenberg 1995">{{Cite episode |last=Wattenberg |first=Ben |title=A Conversation With Catherine MacKinnon (transcript) |series=[[Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg|Think Tank]] |network=PBS |access-date=18 Feb 2024 |date=1995 |url=https://www.pbs.org/thinktank/transcript215.html}}</ref> Opponents of pornography charge that it presents a distorted image of sexual relations and reinforces sexual myths; it shows women as continually available and willing to engage in sex at any time, with any person, on their terms, responding positively to any requests.

MacKinnon writes:
<blockquote>Pornography affects people's belief in rape myths. So for example if a woman says "I didn't consent" and people have been viewing pornography, they believe rape myths and believe the woman did consent no matter what she said. That when she said no, she meant yes. When she said she didn't want to, that meant more beer. When she said she would prefer to go home, that means she's a lesbian who needs to be given a good corrective experience. Pornography promotes these rape myths and desensitizes people to violence against women so that you need more violence to become sexually aroused if you're a pornography consumer. This is very well documented.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/apr/12/gender.politicsphilosophyandsociety |location=London |work=The Guardian |first=Stuart |last=Jeffries |title=Stuart Jeffries talks to leading feminist Catharine MacKinnon |date=April 12, 2006}}</ref></blockquote>

Defenders of pornography and anti-censorship activists (including [[sex-positive feminists]]) argue that pornography does not seriously impact a mentally healthy individual, since the viewer can distinguish between fantasy and reality.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Strossen |first=Nadine |date=1993 |title=A Feminist Critique of "the" Feminist Critique of Pornography |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1073402 |journal=Virginia Law Review |language=en |volume=79 |issue=5 |pages=1129 |doi=10.2307/1073402 |jstor=1073402 |issn=0042-6601 |quote=By insisting that "pornography" instills misogynistic attitudes, or even behavior, in viewers-or at least male viewers-the feminist pro-censorship faction ignores the subjective, complex nature of the interactions between an individual and a text or an image. This reductionist approach denies the existence of ambiguity, subtlety, and irony. It overlooks the boundary between fantasy, imagination, and ideas, on the one hand, and behavior on the other.126 Ultimately, it denies individual autonomy, assuming that at least some viewers of "pornography" will automatically react to it in a simplistic, "monkey-see, monkey-do" fashion. In the words of Professor McCormack, pro-censorship feminists "reject the distinction between thought and deed which is both the cornerstone of liberal democracy and the foundation of a humanistic model of human nature."}}</ref> Some also contend that both men and women are objectified in pornography, particularly [[Sadomasochism|sadistic or masochistic]] pornography in which men are objectified and sexually used by women.<ref>[http://www.seejane.org/downloads/Hatton_Trautner_Sexuality_and_Culture.pdf] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130123115712/http://www.seejane.org/downloads/Hatton_Trautner_Sexuality_and_Culture.pdf|date=January 23, 2013}}</ref>