I’ve been watching forensic shows for the bulk of the day as I worked on this week’s lectures. It is truly fascinating how forensic science can lead to the capture of criminals even after a decade has gone by!
After the kids went to bed, I put on the last 2 Forensic Files I had TiVoed. My husband has been watching them with me and he never watches these shows. It sparked a discussion about how depraved these people are and how 99% of the cases the victim is female and is sexually assaulted and murdered. Some of the women are killed by men they knew or had a previous relationship with, but what is especially sickening is when they are killed by a total stranger. It is so unfair that so many of these women are killed simply because of their anatomy. Some sicko is horny and a young woman with a vagina walks by and he just has to get to it.
I remember reading that many serial sex offenders/sexual predators have pornography addictions. That makes sense. I know our culture embraces pornography but why? It is so unrealistic and objectifies women. They are not a living, breathing, human with a mind, a personality, and a history. They are a mouth, a vagina. They are a receptacle. A moaning receptacle. It is disgusting. What I don’t understand is why feminists often embrace pornography. As feminists, shouldn’t we be fighting against this presentation of women as sex objects? I understand the desire to embrace sexually and not be repressed in that way, but when the depiction is harmful and removes the humanity from sex – shouldn’t we object to it?
Pornography is like a gateway drug. It would seem that for those that become addicted, they need more and more depravity to feel satisfaction. Perhaps they begin to view the women they come in contact with as ever-ready for sex. Maybe they get shocked when they find this is not true. Somewhere something snaps and they take what they believe is theirs and should have been offered up in the first place. They take and then dump the body as trash because to them it is only a body, not a human being. There is no life or humanity in that face, vagina, and set of breasts. I used it and like a candy bar wrapper, I’m done with it so I’ll throw it out. They have the presence of mind often to dump their ‘trash’ in the woods or in a lake or somewhere just out of public view because for some reason, people get upset about this.
Why do we embrace pornography? Why does the U.S. continue to produce and celebrate it? Sitcoms joke about it like it’s a part of daily life. I would argue that it is dangerous and should be stopped or regulated somehow. I realize that I am only identifying a perceived problem here and not shelling out solutions. I don’t have any yet.
I’m simply starting the discussion. Or jumping in, rather. I believe the discussion has already begun.
