Pornography?

Published: Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Irish Examiner 11th May 2010

It is strange how we take pornography for granted as part of our daily lives. Reaching for our Examiner, our eyes meet the looming breasts of the models in the "Lads mags" on the upper shelves at the newsagents. Walking to work, we pass "Adult Shops" with their paraphernalia of whips and black plastic and cheap red lace. Some men are comfortable about coming in to work on a Monday morning and asking, 'Anyone see any good porn at the weekend?' Googling anything about women, we get used to ads which are essentially about women for sale: "African Chloe, very petite tanned chocolate delight, petite, slim size 8, 34C but leggy, flexible, kinky, Chloe enjoys nudism and exploring her body and yours, making the sessions fun and intimate."

The quote about Chloe is actually from a report in this paper about the conviction of a man convicted of running brothels in this country and in the UK. Forget images of Soho or Red Light Amsterdam, Irish brothels are in everyday flats and houses in places like Athlone, Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford, Drogheda, Newbridge, Mullingar and Sligo. The women who work in them may be Irish, or, they may have been trafficked into this country from poor countries around the world. Their job is to act out pornography.

Pornography can be translated as writing about whores. Whores are women made up by men, women who cater to male fantasy. Overwhelmingly, it is men who create, market and consume pornography. The image of porn is female, and most 'sex workers' are women, but some 96% of internet searches including the word 'porn' are made by men.

The sex industry now uses words like 'empowerment' and 'self expression' to describe women's participation, as if we are talking about women enjoying sexiness, lingerie,and pleasure. The reality is that most women in the sex industry are there because of poverty, drug addiction or because they think they are fit for nothing else, often because of damage done to them during an abusive childhood. Some studies show that 85% of prostitutes have experienced violence in their families, with almost half having experienced sexual violence. Many women get involved when they are under the age of 18.

Some of the many migrant women who are working in the sex industry here in Ireland were trafficked here under false pretences. They are powerless to exit this work because they are in this country illegally. Some women are encouraged to work as pornographic models or as lap dancers or hostesses, only to find that they are expected to do more and can only make money if they sell sex. Most women do not make a lot of money, and many make little or none, as they are effectively owned by pimps, or because they are up to their eyes in debt.

Women are portrayed enjoying behaviour which women do not, in the context of sex within relationships, generally find enjoyable. Most pornography is explicitly aggressive to women, and scenes of slapping, bondage and choking are common. In some of it, women are shown enjoying pain. In some, their distress and lack of consent is evidently part of the turn on. One woman working for the Carlow brothel owner referred to above was reprimanded by him because she was always crying, "as it put clients off". As Banyard notes, porn makes sexism sexy.

Pornography is located in a realm where women's sexual and emotional needs are irrelevant. Here's what one woman said told author Kat Banyard about her job as a lapdancer: "You have to play dumb...be agreeable, submissive, charming, seductive, alluring, feign interest...pretend to find them attractive when you do not find them attractive. The whole transaction is entirely false." This doesn't sound much like empowerment - it reflects a deeply misogynistic view of women as lesser beings there to serve the all important needs of men. Small wonder that a favourite item in so called Adult Shops is the blow up female doll. The woman as dominatrix within this world is misleading - the man knows that at the end of the day he is actually in charge. He is paying - she is doing his bidding.

Those who defend pornography ignore the fact that it has a relationship with reality, casting a lurid light over the social communication of sexuality. A couple of weeks ago, Primark withdrew padded bras aimed at pre-pubescent girl children, admitting that they were not appropriate.

By Susan McKay, director of the National Women's Council of Ireland