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

declaration that neither woman has ever before made love with awoman (so this is just for you, dear boy) and the assurance that menare magnificent. T he exposed ass is an emblem for the values in thephotograph as a whole. T he contact between the women does notexclude the male; it explicitly invites him. T he woman on herknees, legs spread open, conjures up the propitiating, submissivegesture of the animal who takes the same stance (ethologists takenote: without the spiked heels) allegedly to appease an aggressivemale. T he photograph is the ultimate tribute to male power: themale is not in the room, yet the women are there for his pleasure.His wealth produces the photograph; his wealth consumes thephotograph; he produces and consumes the women. T he maledefines and controls the idea of the lesbian in the composition of thephotograph. In viewing it, he possesses her. T he lesbian iscolonialized, reduced to a variant of woman-as-sex-object, used todemonstrate and prove that male power pervades and invades eventhe private sanctuary of women with each other. T he power of themale is affirmed as omnipresent and controlling even when the malehimself is absent and invisible. This is divine power, the power ofdivine right to divine pleasure, that pleasure accurately described asthe sexual debasing of others inferior by birth. In private, thewomen are posed for display. In private, the women still sexuallyservice the male, for whose pleasure they are called into existence.T he pleasure of the male requires the annihilation of women’ssexual integrity. There is no privacy, no closed door, no selfdeterminedmeaning, for women with each other in the world ofpornography.