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

hunter, think of seals clubbed to death, think of species nearlyextinct. The men will stuff and mount her as a trophy: think ofkilling displayed proudly as triumph.Here is the power of naming. Here she is named beaver. In the.naming she is diminished to the point of annihilation; her humanityis canceled out. Instead of turning to the American Civil LibertiesUnion for help, she should perhaps turn to a group that tries toprevent cruelty to animals—beaver, bird, chick, bitch, dog, pussy,and so forth. The words that transform her into an animal havepermanence: the male has done the naming. The power of namingincludes the freedom to joke. The hunters will brake for BillyCarter. The ridicule is not deadly; they will let him live. The realtarget of the ridicule is the fool who brakes for animals, hereequated with women. The language on the bumper sticker suggeststhe idea of the car in motion, which would otherwise be lacking.The car becomes a weapon, a source of death, its actual character asmales use it. One is reminded of the animal run over on the road, ahaunting image of blood and death. One visualizes the car, with thewoman tied onto its hood, in motion crashing into something orsomeone.Owning is expressed in every aspect of the photograph. Thesehunters are sportsmen, wealth suggested in hunting as a leisuretimepursuit of pleasure. They are equipped and outfitted. Theircar shines. They have weapons: guns, a car. They have a woman,bound and powerless, to do with as they like. They will stuff andmount her. Their possession of her extends over time, even into(her) death. She is owned as a thing, a trophy, or as somethingdead, a dead bird, a dead deer; she is dead beaver. The camera andthe photographer behind it also own the woman. The camera usesand keeps her. The photographer uses her and keeps the image ofher. The publisher of the photograph can also claim her as a trophy.He has already mounted her and put her on display. Hunting as asport suggests that these hunters have hunted before and will huntagain, that each captured woman will be used and owned, stuffedand mounted, that this right to own inheres in man’s relationship to