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

an assault charge, but to solemnly label him a sex offenderwould be to reduce our study to a ludicrous level. 6Rather than “reduce [their] study to a ludicrous level, ” which wouldbe unthinkable, the honorable scientists chose to sanction asnormative the male commitment to the use of force documented bytheir study.Men are distinguished from women by their commitment to doviolence rather than to be victimized by it. Men are rewarded forlearning the practice of violence in virtually any sphere of activityby money, admiration, recognition, respect, and the genuflection ofothers honoring their sacred and proven masculinity. In maleculture, police are heroic and so are outlaws; males who enforcestandards are heroic and so are those who violate them. T heconflicts between these groups embody the male commitment toviolence: conflict is action; action is masculine. It is a mistake toview the warring factions of male culture as genuinely distinct fromone another: in fact, these warring factions operate in near-perfectharmony to keep women at their mercy, one way or another.Because male supremacy means precisely that men have learned touse violence against others, particularly against females, in arandom or disciplined way, loyalty to some form of male violence,its advocacy in language or action, is a prime criterion of effectivemasculine identity. In adoring violence— from the crucifixion ofChrist to the cinematic portrayal of General Patton— men seek toadore themselves, or those distorted fragments of self left over whenthe capacity to perceive the value of life has been paralyzed andmaimed by the very adherence to violence that men articulate aslife’s central and energizing meaning.M e n r e n o u n c e whatever they have in common with women so asto experience no commonality with women; and what is left,according to men, is one piece of flesh a few inches long, the penis.T he penis is sensate; the penis is the man; the man is human; the