Pornography: Men Possessing Women, by: Andrea ... - Feminish

used, a resolute assertion, a serious assertion by seriouswomen. W hat are serious women; are there any; isn’t serousnessabout freedom by women for women grotesquelycomic; we don’t want to be laughed at, do we? W hat wouldthis politics o f liberation be like? W here would we find it?What would we have to do? W ould we have to do somethingother than dress for success? W ould we have to stopthe people who are hurting us from hurting us? Not debatethem; stop them. W ould we have to stop slavery? Not discussit; stop it. W ould we have to stop pretending that ourrights are protected in this society? W ould we have to beso grandiose, so arrogant, so unfem inine, as to believe thatthe streets we walk on, the homes we live in, the beds wesleep in, are ours— belong to us— really belong to us: wedecide what is right and what is wrong and if som ethinghurts us, it stops. It is, o f course, gauche to be too sincereabout these things, and it is dow nright ridiculous to beserious. Intelligent people are well m annered and m oderate,even in pursuing freedom . Sm art women whisperand say please.Now imagine C herry T art or Bunny or Pet or Beaversaying, and m eaning, that a man who expected to succeedin whipping must also succeed in killing her. She says it;she means it. It is not a pornographic scenario in whichshe is the dum m y forced by the pimp-ventriloquist to saythe ubiquitous No-That-M eans-Yes. It is not the usual sexualprovocation created by pornographers using a w om an’sbody, the subtext o f which is: I refuse to be whipped sowhip me harder, whip me m ore; I refuse to be whipped,what I really want is for you to kill me; whip me, then killme; kill me, then whip me; whatever you want, howeveryou want it— was it good for you? Instead, the piece onthe page or in the film steps down and steps out: I’m real,she says. Like Frederick Douglass, she will be hesitant andembarrassed. She will feel ignorant. She will tell a firstpersonstory about her own experience in prostitution, inpornography, as a victim o f incest, as a victim of rape, assomeone who has been beaten or tortured, as someone