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

pornography as message, thing, and experience. T he strains of malepower are embodied in pornography’s form and content, ineconomic control of and distribution of wealth within the industry,in the picture or story as thing, in the photographer or writer asaggressor, in the critic or intellectual who through naming assignsvalue, in the actual use of models, in the application of the materialin what is called real life (which women are commanded to regard asdistinct from fantasy). A saber penetrating a vagina is a weapon; sois the camera or pen that renders it; so is the penis for which itsubstitutes (vagina literally means “sheath”). T he persons whoproduce the image are also weapons as men deployed in warbecome in their persons weapons. Those who defend or protect theimage are, in this same sense, weapons. T he values in thepornographic work are also manifest in everything surrounding thework. T he valuation of women in pornography is a secondarytheme in that the degradation of women exists in order to postulate,exercise, and celebrate male power. Male power, in degradingwomen, is first concerned with itself, its perpetuation, expansion,intensification, and elevation. In her essay on the Marquis de Sade,Simone de Beauvoir describes Sade’s sexuality as autistic. H er useof the word is figurative, since an autistic child does not require anobject of violence outside of himself (most autistic children aremale). Male power expressed in pornography is autistic as deBeauvoir uses the word in reference to Sade: it is violent and selfobsessed;no perception of another being ever modifies its behavioror persuades it to abandon violence as a form of self-pleasuring.Male power is the raison d ’etre of pornography; the degradation ofthe female is the means of achieving this power.T he photograph is captioned “BEAVER H U N T E R S . ” T w o whitemen, dressed as hunters, sit in a black Jeep. T he Jeep occupiesalmost the whole frame of the picture. T he two men carry rifles.T he rifles extend above the frame of the photograph into the whitespace surrounding it. T he men and the Jeep face into the camera.Tied onto the hood of the black Jeep is a white woman. She is tiedwith thick rope. She is spread-eagle. H er pubic hair and crotch are