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

expresses an authentic and commonplace relationship of the malestrong to the female weak, wherein the hunt— the targeting,tracking down, pursuing, the chase, the overpowering of, theimmobilizing of, even the wounding of—is common practice,whether called sexual pursuit, seduction, or romance. T he photographexists in an immediate context that supports the assertion ofthis physical power; and in the society that is the larger context,there is no viable and meaningful reality to contradict the physicalpower of male over female expressed in the photograph.In the photograph, the power of terror is basic. T he men arehunters with guns. T heir prey is women. T hey have caught awoman and tied her onto the hood of a car. T he terror is implicit inthe content of the photograph, but beyond that the photographstrikes the female viewer dum b with fear. O ne perceives that thebound woman m ust be in pain. T he very power to make thephotograph (to use the model, to tie her in that way) and the fact ofthe photograph (the fact that someone did use the model, did tie herin that way, that the photograph is published in a magazine andseen by millions of men who buy it specifically to see suchphotographs) evoke fear in the female observer unless she entirelydissociates herself from the photograph: refuses to believe orunderstand that real persons posed for it, refuses to see the boundperson as a woman like herself. T error is finally the content of thephotograph, and it is also its effect on the female observer. T h atmen have the power and desire to make, publish, and profit fromthe photograph engenders fear. T hat millions more men enjoy thephotograph makes the fear palpable. T hat men who in generalchampion civil rights defend the photograph without experiencingit as an assault on women intensifies the fear, because if the horrorof the photograph does not resonate with these men, that horror isnot validated as horror in male culture, and women are left withoutapparent recourse. Rim baud’s devastating verse comes to mind:“One evening I seated Beauty on my knees. And I found her bitter.And I cursed her. / I armed myself against justice. ” 5T he threat in the language accompanying the photograph is alsofierce and frightening. She is an animal, think of deer fleeing the