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

urden and a curse. I knew how women were hurt bypornography. My knowledge was concrete, not abstract: Iknew the ways it was used; I knew how it was made; I knewthe scenes of exploitation and abuse in real life— the livesof prostitutes, daughters, girlfriends, wives; I knew thewords the women said when they dared to whisper whathad happened to them ; I could hear their voices in mymind, in my heart. I didn’t know that there were suchwomen all around me, everywhere, in Minneapolis thatfall. I was heartbroken as women I knew came forward totestify: though I listened with an outer detachm ent to thestories of rape, incest, prostitution, battery, and torture,each in the service o f pornography, inside I wanted todie.T he women who came forw ard to testify at the hearingsheld by the M inneapolis City Council on December 12 and13, 1983, gave their names and specified the area of thecity in which they lived. They spoke on the record beforea governm ental body in the city where they lived; therethey were, for family, neighbors, friends, employers, teachers,and strangers to see, to rem em ber. They described indetail sexual abuse through pornography as it had happenedto them . They were questioned on their testimonyby Catharine M acKinnon and myself and also by mem bersof the city council and sometimes the city attorney. T herewere photographers and television cameras. T here were acouple o f hundred people in the room. T h ere was nosafety, no privacy, no retreat, no protection; only a net ofvalidation provided by the testimony of experts— clinicalpsychologists, prosecutors, experim ental psychologists, socialscientists, experts in sexual abuse from rape crisis centersand battered wom en’s shelters, and those who workedwith sex offenders. T he testimony o f these experts was notabstract or theoretical; it brought the lives o f m ore women,more children, into the room: m ore rape, more violationthrough pornography. They too were talking about realpeople who had been hurt, sometimes killed; they hadseen, known, treated, interviewed, num bers of them . A