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“Pornography is the theory, rape is the practice” means that pornography causes rape and other violence against women. That's why I can get closer to this approach. Radical feminists believe that violent pornography is more than symbolic, since there are real victims used and abused by the makers of pornography
"The “ecstasy” of objects is their great proliferation and expansion; ecstasy as going outside of or beyond oneself: the beautiful as more beautiful than beautiful in fashion, the real more real than the real in television, sex more sexual than sex in pornography…". Jean Baudrillard
Introduction
In an overview we can consider that nothing's changed in the contemporary world culture compared with Ancient times about the essence of obscenity which is crystallized in the best way in pornography. The word Pornography, derived from the ancient Greek porne and graphos, means ‘Writing about whores’. Porne means ‘whore’, specifically and exclusively the lowest class of whores, which in ancient Greece was the brothel slut available to all male citizens. Although nowadays porn industry involves both sexual exploitation of males and females, yet women are still under a double oppression.
It is quite obvious that the word has not changed its meaning and the genre is not misnamed. The only change in the meaning of the word is in respect of its second part, graphos: now there are cameras—there is still pornography, film, video…. (1)
To clarify as to what kind of opposition will I face with regard to Pornography, I shall briefly illustrate the base of my argument:
Two main opposition sources against Pornography have been feminist and religious points of view; nevertheless among the feminist currents we can see a variety of outlooks which in fact is a split in the left and the right concerning pornography.
In the right wing of feminist movement, we can consider slight differences which are not much significant for scrutiny. Pornography is historically defended in the name of freedom of expression as one of the fundamental human being’s rights which liberal-feminists have tried to defend it in a broad context. Human rights fans believe that taking into account the interests of speakers and listeners would help determine the proper limitations on the scope of this right. In the Kantian tradition as these are deontological, the facts do matter. There is an absolute right of people to decide whether they want to read this material (regardless of child pornography), and the government should deal with sex discrimination and sexual assaults by taking action as permissible under the law.
According to Mill who defended the human right to free expression, individuals are entitled to express themselves in whatever way they wish, to find happiness and truth in their life. The only exception for imposing restriction is to protect people from harmful effects of those expressions. Nevertheless, Mill did not define the term; hence it is interpreted so differently. Indeed, there is no crucial definition of harm and in many cases it would be defined as based on the individual’s taste. Hate, racist, obscene and blasphemous speeches are known as harmful expressions which are excluded from free expression. In a general manner, whatever the term harmful would mean; the main point is it must not be abused to restrict unreasonably the significant freedom of human being to express himself. (2) Hence others whom we can put in one wing of the Millian tradition believe that if pornographic material harms the interests of women it should be outlawed. As regards to these two theories Pornography might be permissible and only under certain conditions it should be restricted.
On the other hand, radical-feminists and part of left-feminists have a serious discrepancy concerning pornography which is related to the concept of "censorship". The main split over the pornography question has been within radical feminist circles. Liberal and socialist feminists, like the left, generally oppose censorship. But because socialist feminists have the added burden of trying to reconcile socialist and radical feminist thought, their position is particularly problematic.
Radical feminists like Dworkin argued that pornography can be defined objectively as material discriminating against women—in contrast to obscenity, which required a value judgment and which traditionally identified sexuality itself with filth.
“Pornography is the Theory, Rape is the Practice” means that pornography causes rape and other violence against women. That's why I can get closer to this approach.
Radical feminists believe that violent pornography is more than symbolic, since there are real victims used and abused by the makers of pornography. It also adds to the general social atmosphere that accepts violence against women. But to recognize this is the opposite of labeling pornography as the cause of male abuse of women. It is necessary to see that the link in connecting all forms of such abuse is capitalism. “Not all pornography is violent but even the most banal pornography objectifies women’s bodies. An essential ingredient of much rape and other forms of violence to women is the ’objectification’ of the woman. This is not just rhetoric. It means that women are not seen as human beings but as things. Men are reared to view females in this way, pornography thrives off this and feeds it, and rape is one of the consequences.”
The historical perspective accepts the radical feminist notion that porn is somehow more dangerous than other cultural images propagating anti-woman beliefs and behavior. In pornography it is the representation of imaginary women in such way that reproduces the discrimination and violent domination of women corpus.
"Porn appeals to the growing number of men already dehumanized by capitalism and deepens the divisions between men and women, and between races, through the use of stereotypes. The porn industry leads the assault. The mainstream media and advertising follow with their own slightly watered-down images of anti-female violence.” (Guardian, March 21, 1984)
Constant reproduction of violence
"All forms of Pornography are kinds of violence, but every violence is not necessarily pornographic", this is a principle.
Patriarchal societies typically link feelings of cruelty with sexuality, the latter often equated both with evil and with power. This is apparent both in the sexual fantasy reported by psychoanalysis and that reported by pornography. The rule here associates sadism with the male ("the masculine role") and victimisation with the female ("the feminine role'').
Hostility is expressed in a number of ways. One is laughter. Misogynist literature, the primary vehicle of masculine hostility, is both an hortatory and comic genre. Of all artistic forms in patriarchy it is the most frankly propagandistic. Its aim is to reinforce both sexual factions in their status. Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance literature in the Weset (as well as the East) has each had a large element of misogyny.
Since the abatement of censorship, masculine hostility (psychological or physical) in specifically sexual contexts has become far more apparent. Yet as masculine hostility has been fairly continuous, one deals here probably less with a matter of increase than with a new frankness in expressing hostility in specifically sexual contexts. It is a matter of release and freedom to express what was once forbidden expression outside of pornography or other "underground" productions, such as those of De Sade.
Pornography "caused" violence against women. Supposedly, tens of thousands of Americans have been brainwashed by the cult, which aims to create "mental robots who will do pornography, prostitution, smuggle drugs, engage in international arms smuggling. Eventually, those at the top of the satanic cult want to create a satanic order that will rule the world."
In reality, the oppression of women is inseparable from the bourgeois family as an economic unit. “Strengthening the family” has nothing to do with improving personal relationships; it means reinforcing the capitalist division of labor that condemns women to domestic labor and thereby denies their equality at home and on the job.
Women’s gains are being eroded, and inequality, degradation and the alienation of bourgeois life worsen. Man, not capitalism, is seen as the enemy, and porn is his weapon.
Emancipator movements can begin to lay the material basis for an alternative but it requires time. Religion and the bourgeois family will wither away; they cannot be “smashed” or obliterated through legislation or fiat. Likewise, pornography is reactionary and sexist, but men will not stop using it, or change sexist behavior, because of moral dictates. As class society disappears under the revolutionary workers’ state and as the division of labor becomes transformed, the cultural sexism rife among the masses can be
.successfully fought and will disappear into the garbage pail of history where it belongs.
Iran: territory of Islamic domination
I attempt to separate two subjects which are necessary to follow the discussion, the first is an observation on pornography usage and its span in Iran and the later is about the relationship between Islam and pornography. My analysis has focused on the fact that this relation is essentially paradoxical.
- Historically the Iranian has been desirous of pornography. There is considerable poetry, paintings and miniature in Iran depicting pornography. It indicates that pornography has deep roots in Iranian culture.
In addition, Islamic dictatorship has provoked the desire of porn by repression and oppression of sexual life and intensified the porn-watching addiction among youth. The possession of any type of pornography is illegal and is charged with a fine. Iranian made pornography is very limited but exists. Due to the widespread Internet access and introduction of worldwide satellites, porn is easily accessible in Iran. Although access to porn websites is blocked in Iran, many people manage to access them. One of the busted porn sites had 300,000 registered Iranian users and some of the adult video clips were downloaded at least six million times, according to the Guards.
With a population of over 70 million, Iran has 12 million internet users.
Over half of internet users in Iran have admitted searching for porn and about one third of them do it every day.
Since boys and girls are banned from socializing freely in Iran, demand for online adult content has exploded in big cities where internet access has become widespread. In a mainly traditional society like Iran, the internet has revolutionized young people's lifestyle so dramatically that some hardliners, including conservative bloggers, have called for much tougher regulation and policing of the web. Many of the right wings believe porn sites as the Trojan horse of his country's Western enemies and urged the government to combat them.
The primary reasons for widespread interest in porn sites can be:
- Relationship and interaction between girls and boys even in childhood is forbidden, not only by Sharia law, but also through customs.
- The first sexual knowledge is formally gained in the university or on the edge of marriage, and it's generally primitive.
- Most of the children face "the sex issue" through pornographic productions and understand the sexual relationship between males and females through pornography.
- In most cases, the first sexual experience is after adolescence and often after marriage.
It is therefore clear that the image of sex by means of pornographic productions is terribly exaggerated and may be associated with high degree of violence and aggression.
Iran’s coherent sex policy emerged from the Sharia law and that has contributed to the high demand for porn content, including child pornography.
The term, "corruptor of the world" is taken from the Quran, the Muslims' holy book, and ranks it among the highest on the scale of an individual's criminal offenses. Under Iran's Islamic Penal Code, it carries a death penalty. The "main elements" refer to in the draft include producers, directors, cameramen and actors involved in making a pornographic video.
Although due to the Sharia law pornography is absolutely forbidden, yet the image of women in Sharia texts and in pornography is symmetric. If we consider pornography as the theory of rape, it is provided in Sharia law:
- According the Sharia law it's the obligation of woman after marriage to "deign". It means that women must offer sex to men anytime they demand. This includes sex without agreement and satisfaction.
- According to the Sharia law man enjoys his wife's corpus in any order he wants.
- According to the Sharia law the man may have more than one wife and unlimited temporary marriages (Siqa/Mut'a) which is justified by Sharia law and it's far common especially in religious and holy cities of Iran.
- "Risala" is a pornographic text. Resalah Amaliyah is a book written by a Shia Marja that contains many issues and outlines the principles used to derive specific rulings. It also specifies the sex situation, condition and order of doing sex with women.
It seems that Iran is on the edge of social collapse. The rate and the daily news about rape and sexual violence indicate a social catastrophe. Pornography is the commissure of Iranian culture, dictatorship and the lack of social and political freedom and institutional corruption in Sharia law. Without democratizing the social structures and radical changes in political structure, there is no prospect of restriction on pornography. Sharia law and its agent, the Islamic Regime, based on the internal contradictions and paradoxes cannot open this tie.
Notes:
- Dworkin, A. (2003). Pornography. In Jones, E. (ed), The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader. London: Routledge.
- Firouzi nejad, M. (2011) What are the proper limits of the right to free expression?
- Iran rounds up 'porn site bosses',By Ali Asghar Ramezanpour ,BBC Persian
- Fixed-Term/Temporary/Pleasure Marriage are different names for the Arabic word of "Mut'a" which is a contract between a man and woman, much in the same way the Long-Term/Permanent/Conventional Marriage is. The main difference is that the temporary marriage longs only for a specified period of time, and man and woman will become stranger to each other after the expiration date without divorce. One misconception regarding temporary marriage is that some people think that the woman engaged in temporary marriage can have contract every other hour. This is completely misrepresentation of temporary marriage. After such contract has been expired, the woman has to wait for two months (Iddah) before which she cannot marry anyone else
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