This is not a full discussion, but here is my point: the freedom to "do" something also implies the freedom to "not do" something. Freedom implies not being forced. An example some would find not related but I will use it anyways: People used to smoke cigarettes anywhere and everywhere. Even doctors smoked....even inside hospitals. Think about it. Smoke was forced on potentially wounded and dying patients. Now, we don't smoke in hospitals. Hmmmm. Freedom to do something implies freedom to not do something. Freedom to see something potentially objectionable implies the freedom to not see that thing. That is my point, and the only point I will make about freedom in this paragraph.
I was just thinking about how PETA is using pornographic types of imagery to sell their supposed message of fighting cruelty to animals. I read where people have written to PETA to complain about their degrading ads, and have gotten a response. Besides making my blood boil, I was interested in one of PETA's responses to a complaint, and I quote: "Consider that it is the societies that allow women to wear revealing clothing in which women have the most rights and the most power. Likewise, it is the societies that punish women for wearing revealing clothing in which women have the fewest rights and the least power—they are considered chattel who must do as they are told"
O.K. here is my response to their response: If men are needing to use their power to dominate women in "repressive" cultures ...they are also, after losing that power over women, in cultures considered less "repressive" to women, are using another tactic....... porn. THEY ARE BOTH DEMONSTRATING THE OPPRESSION OF WOMEN. In some ways, men who are threatened by female "power" ...after losing the battle of just shoving them into situations where they have no rights, are now using porn (once again, in the name of "free speech") dominate and control women. Same thing, different methods. They claim that it is "feminist women" who are behind their porn/PETA campaign. Is that like when you go on a social media site and some middle aged male claims to be a "hot" young female or male? Do people always reveal their true identities online? How do we know who is really putting out these ads? According to research by Judith Reisman, Playboy magazine tricked its readers into thinking there were actually young females writing letters into their magazines, with raunchy themes...when it was actually their own MALE staff! Ha! I ask again, who is really behind these ads? Is it porn industry men pretending to be "feminists"? Or is it men who "identify" as "women"? It has already been demonstrated that males and females experience life differently. You can go to the gay community and see it in a huge way. Living in the greater Portland Oregon community, I have paid attention to this, plus I have learned through reading. Women (gay or straight) find relational and sexual satisfaction in vastly different ways than men, in general. There are always exceptions, but in general men can be satisfied with much less depth in a relationship (and more likely to engage in those one-night-stands) than women. Gay men are still MEN. And gay women are still WOMEN. Either way, it is straight women who have the most to lose from the current porn culture, now being promoted even by PETA. Lesbian women who only are visually oriented and only want to objectify other women are the MINORITY. I would guess that most women know better than to think or expect their partners to look like the latest super model or centerfold pin-up. Most visual porn is sold to the male gender, whether they are straight or gay. Marketers also know that sexual imagery sells to men, mainly, (you can know that the advertising industry has spent a lot of time and money figuring that one out), and if women buy into it, it is still with the hope of a deeper relational satisfaction. The whole porn industry has created by now, since its inceptions, many, many unsatisfied males who can't figure out why they shouldn't have what they see on TV and in the movies and in the ads and in their porn magazines. Those wives and girlfriends just don't measure up. I see much with my keen observation skills. I know that all this imagery everywhere is infecting relationships, and hurting mostly women.....straight women. I see. I hear. I observe. And I read. Like I said...there are always exceptions. But you CANNOT ask the cat how the mouse is feeling...you CANNOT ask the perpetrator how the victim is feeling, and you CANNOT ask men how it feels to be a women. You can't even ask a gay man how it feels to be a gay woman OR a straight woman. This is not gay-bashing. This is truth-telling. If PETA is being run by anyone other than porn-kings I would be surprised. Only now, they can get volunteers, instead of actually paying someone to degrade themselves! Wow! What a feat! Maybe one of them made a bet? |