The pretty lies...and the dirty truth

In the fight for women's equality, pornography has been a hindering block. It is dangerous because women in the porn industry have a false sense of being "empowered" and "in control of men". Dig a little deeper though, and pornography will rear its ugly head.

The industry wants you to believe that it is empowering, that it is good for women and good for sex. In reality, pornography is the objectification of women. They are called "slut", "whore", and "bitch". They must get breast implants to compete with other aspiring actresses. They must subject themselves to oral, anal, and multiple partner sex. In hardcore porn, women are beaten during sex. Some are even gang raped. In porn, women are portrayed as easy, willing recipients of such treatment. In every sense of the word, pornography (greek for "harlot" and "writing") puts women below men. They simply become objects of men's pleasure, empty shells of people with large breasts and kinky moves.

This is not empowering, this is humiliating.

One of the porn industry's biggest stars, Jenna Jameson, has recently come out with a cautionary book about the multi-billion dollar industry.

Jenna Jameson, courtesy of cnn.com

In her book, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star, A Cautionary Tale, she details "25 good reasons why no one would ever want to become a porn star". Some of these excerpts are very graphic, but help to serve the argument of how degrading the industry really is:

One of them details how women are treated:

6. The porn industry and the people in it do not treat women with decency, fairness and respect.

“Most girls get their first experience in gonzo films - in which they’re taken to a crappy studio apartment in Mission Hills and penetrated in every hole possible by some abusive asshole who thinks her name is Bitch. And these girls, some of whom have the potential to become major stars in the industry, go home afterward and pledge never to do it again because it was such a terrible experience.” (Pg. 132)

“In a worst-case scenario, a gonzo director will take a girl to a hotel room and have their friends shoot a cheap scene in which she is humiliated in every orifice possible. She walks home with three thousand dollars, bowed legs, and a terrible impression of the industry. It’ll be her first and last movie, and she’ll regret it – to her dying day.” (Pg. 325)

“In other scenarios, she’ll work for two weeks until she’s only getting paid seven hundred dollars a scene and then, finally, no one wants to use her anymore. So she’ll agree to do double penetration or drink the sperm of twelve guys just to stay working.” (Pg. 325)

“If you take the time to read it (a sample adult-film contract) carefully, you will notice many ways in which a female performer can get shafted – both literally and metaphorically.” (Pg. 353)

“It was the most irritating shoot of my life. When I spread for him, he joked about there being an echo in the room. When I went into a doggie position, he commented on needing a fish-eye lens for my ass. All evening, he kept making comments that one shouldn’t make around a woman, especially if one wants her to feel sexy.” (Pgs. 359-360)

“For my first Wicked movies, I kept my mouth shut and absorbed everything that was going on. I looked at how the other girls were being treated (basically like Tinkertoys) and what type of people got to call the shots (the male directors). I was determined not to just be a fuck toy but also retain as much power as possible off camera.” (Pg. 368)

“When they were finally ready to shoot, J.B. came into the makeup room and ordered: ‘Get your whore ass on set and do what you do best.’ He had just used the wrong word. I ran after him in a Tasmanian Devil frenzy. The crew had to pull us apart. It was late and my nerves were frayed, but nonetheless J.B. was out of line. And I was right: they were wasting time arguing about the lighting. When he left, I collapsed in my makeup chair and started crying.” (Pgs. 453-454)

Awhile ago, I wrote a haiku about how I feel the obvious and subliminal messages that pornography sends affect all of us. It is titled, "The Message". I couldn't get a file with just audio to work, so I had to add a video track.