Sociology

Instructor Name An Informal Analysis of Some Articles from Reconstructing Gender
Robert Jensen speaks of the normalization and mainstreaming of the most misogynistic forms of pornography. Jensen is in favor of censorship of pornography.

The fact that pornography is an abasement of the women involved in it is without question. I am not convinced by arguments that these women are actually smart, empowered, entrepreneurs exploiting their natural talents and public demands.

Is it possible to have pornography based on gender egalitarian values The idea seems quite doubtful. Even the mainstream pornography market abounds with misogynistic and male chauvinistic depictions of sex.

One type of pornography, banning which most people can get behind is child pornography. Some months ago Max Hardcore conviction made the news. This was a company involved in the production torture pornography and pornography in which adult actors were depicted as children. The company defended itself on the basis of free speech rights and quite a few commentators were willing to defend the actions of the company on the same basis.

It seems that many people deify Freedom of Expression in the United States. To them fact that the actresses involved in the production consented to all the degradation visited upon them and were not physically harmed means that the government and the society has no right to try to censor this sort of pornography or to prosecute those involved in its production.

With respect to censorship, another issue is enforcement. As long as there are people who wish to see this sort of stuff, someone out there will keep trying to cater to it.

Perhaps such forms of pornography cater to the conscious or unconscious beliefs of some men who may be concerned that the traditional male privilege is being destroyed by the rising forces of gender egalitarianism.

Since misogynistic speech in the public sphere is increasingly being made socially unacceptable and politically incorrect and it is no longer considered OK for someone to refer to women with demeaning language or to objectify them and refer to their attractiveness etc. in the professional life depictions of such things in pornography may thus becomes a way for such men to give vent to such feelings.
People also defended pornography on the basis that it allows men to vent misogynistic feelings in a fantasy word rather than having them act these feelings out on real women, but this defense is unconvincing. The more people watch something, the more they become inured to it. Thus watching pornography is more likely to give people the idea that their misogyny is socially acceptable than to give release to their negative feelings regarding women.

Don Sabo, in The Myth of the Sexual Athlete talks about the sexist nature of male athletic culture. To the young men in this culture, women are at once highly desirable and objects of contempt. In common parlance sports metaphors for various facets of sexual relationships abound, for example the use of the word bases to designate progressive levels of sexual intimacy.

Sabo says that these young men view male-female relations as a type of contest. In their minds, if they are successful in having sexual relations with a woman, she loses. There is competition between the male members of the culture over the number of young woman each of them has had sex with, the number being designated as the score.

To these young men, to have emotional intimacy with women would be a threat to their masculinity, many of them cannot ever outgrow the sports paradigm of male-female relations and go through life viewing women as opponents. These young men crave emotional intimacy, but the only sort of intimacy their culture permits them is emotional intimacy with other young men based upon shared expressions of contempt for women. I think the institution of female cheerleading has quite a big role to play in the creation and the perpetuation of this culture. Dressing young women in skimpy clothing and making them perform for the benefit of these sporting heroes cannot give these young men anything but a deeply corrupt and distorted view of themselves and of women in general.

Passing is a term with a long history in the African American community. Passing means trying to get others to believe that you are White. Lighter skinned mulatto slaves who managed to run away from their owners would often try to stay free by passing. In Passing Last Summer Bednarska takes a look at another type of passing. This is the passing of a disabled individual or crip trying to be seen as abled.
For a disabled individual to try to pass themselves off as abled, there are many physical barriers to overcome, this sort of passing may be even more difficult than members of one race or gender trying to pass as another race or gender.

Just because people are gay doesnt mean they cant be racists. Members of homosexual organizations may face discrimination on the basis of race from fellow members. Rust gives the example of lesbians from minority communities in a lesbian social network facing discrimination from lesbians of the majority communities.

In a racist society people often gain certain privileges by acting in a discriminatory way towards minority communities. In this I am reminded of the post-civil war German Catholic and Irish communities, both of which gained legitimacy as Whites in the Southern United States by taking part in anti-Black politics. Some homosexual activists may likewise feel that being racist toward minorities would make them more acceptable to society.