There’s mainstream pornography–soft-core airbrushed fluff such as Penthouse and Playboy. The folks makin’ this stuff do men and their range of desires a disservice; their implication is that anything outside the “big hair, fake tits, tiny waste, no pores, limited body hair” aesthetic is deviant, weird, not normal–and not something that a red-blooded American man would be interested in. The common boys-will-be-boys explanation for porn–that men get turned on visually (in contrast to “feminine” mode of arousal, which is mental and emotional)–is nothing more than an insult, making men out to be Pavlovian dogs who salivate uncontrollably and strain at their trousers upon contact with nudie pictures.Antiporn arguments, however well-meaning, are no better. Folks like Catherine MacKinnon also believe that men are inherently drawn to porn. And to them, porn is by definition violent, suggesting that it’s somehow in men’s nature to be aroused by hurting others. Furthermore, antipornography activists think that porn leads men to commit violence–as if men have no self-control or capacity to separate fantasy from reality, as if an erection is a driving force that can’t be stopped once it’s started… The only difference is one of perspective: Antiporn folk believe that male sexuality is always threatening, while men’s-magazine editors think it’s always fabulous.
There’s mainstream pornography–soft-core airbrushed fluff such as Penthouse and Playboy. The folks makin’ this stuff do men and their range of desires a disservice; their implication is that anything outside the “big hair, fake tits, tiny waste, no pores, limited body hair” aesthetic is deviant, weird, not normal–and not something that a red-blooded American man would be interested in. The common boys-will-be-boys explanation for porn–that men get turned on visually (in contrast to “feminine” mode of arousal, which is mental and emotional)–is nothing more than an insult, making men out to be Pavlovian dogs who salivate uncontrollably and strain at their trousers upon contact with nudie pictures.Antiporn arguments, however well-meaning, are no better. Folks like Catherine MacKinnon also believe that men are inherently drawn to porn. And to them, porn is by definition violent, suggesting that it’s somehow in men’s nature to be aroused by hurting others. Furthermore, antipornography activists think that porn leads men to commit violence–as if men have no self-control or capacity to separate fantasy from reality, as if an erection is a driving force that can’t be stopped once it’s started… The only difference is one of perspective: Antiporn folk believe that male sexuality is always threatening, while men’s-magazine editors think it’s always fabulous.
