Bridgewater Review Volume 4 | Issue 1 Article 9 Apr-1986 Two Cheers for Pornography Steven Sanders Bridgewater State College Recommended Citation Sanders, Steven (1986). Two Cheers for Pornography. Bridgewater Review, 4(1), 13-16. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol4/iss1/9 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. TWO CHEERS FOR PORNOGRAPHY Steven Sanders he existence of pornography from the beneficial in a number of ways: as a means T earliest times and in virtually every of employment, as a tool in therapy, as an culture attests to a remarkable universality escape from boredom. However, its main and persistence. Ofcourse, popularity is no claim to beneficiality is as a source of proof of legitimacy. How, if at all, can entertainment and recreation -- it gives pornography be justified? This question people pleasure. has no easy answer. Indeed, if one may What, then, are the pleasures of pornog­ judge from the controversy, consensus is raphy? There is first the pleasure ofviewing far from being reached on the question of persons we find attractive and activity we pornography. I shall suggest some things find entertaining. And there is ofcourse the that can be said in favor of pornography, pleasure of sexual desire itself. Closely tied though I am by no means giving my unquali­ to this is the pleasure of the recognition of fied endorsement -- hence, only two cheers the intention that one be sexually aroused, for pornography. Naturally, I expect some a pleasure not confined to pornography, readers to disagree with me, so I will also but found also in flirtation and other forms explain why recent objections to pornog­ of sexual play. In pornography, sexual raphy either neglect or obscure the issues. ar'ousal is produced by means of the read­ er's or viewer's recognition ofthe intention The Value of Pornography to produce this effect. This gives pornogra­ In attempting to justify pornography, phy a structure of reflexive recognition and let's first consider its value. It will be thus helps to explain how pornography as a obvious to anyone who has read Hustler representation of something might fall under magazine or seen the film Deep Throat that freedom of expression protection. Then pornography has a limited and narrowly there are the pleasures for which pornogra­ focused appeal. It caters to the desire to phy is often an impetus, pleasures which read about or view sexual display and have their locus in consensual sexual activi­ activity. Consequently, pornography can ty. In addition to these benefits, reading or be a benefit to those who have such a desire. viewing pornography can be a profoundly By a "benefit" I mean something that is normative experience, causing us to con­ itself, or leads to, an experience which sider what it means to be human. The anyone who cares about himself or herself distinctively human activities and practices may reasonably want. Now, pornography is depicted in pornography have, to say the 13 Two Cheers continued least, a certain meretricious buoyancy: they stimulate the imagination and provoke both the moral and aesthetic conscious­ ness. They open us to new erotic possibil­ ities, challenging us to reflect upon our ideas of beauty, normality, and sexuality. There are, of course, alternative sources of these experiences, as well as alternative experiences. What is more, the experiences to which pornography is instrumental are by no means the sole benefits in life. But that they are benefits seems indisputable, and one could only question them by referring to other values with which they might conflict. Pornography and Feminist Ideology The suggestion that pornography is bene­ ficial is not new, but it is one that many chewing such highly emotive terms as 'por­ verbal fiat. Similarly, since the very ques­ people are accustomed to dismiss very nography' and 'obscenity,' they instead tion at issue in recent debates over porno­ casually. Discussions of pornography used terms and expressions such as 'ero­ graphy is the substantive moral claim that tend to neglect its benefits and concentrate tica,' 'explicit sexual materials,' and 'sex­ pornography degrades women, this claim on its alleged harms. Most recently, radical ually oriented materials.' Whatever prob­ needs to be supported by reasons and not feminists have argued vociferously that lems this policy may have produced, it is by biased definitions. pornography is harmful to women, and clearly preferable to the most frequently The fact that there is so much disagree­ have proposed legislation in Minneapolis, employed alternatives. For example, in ment over the meanings of key terms Indianapolis, and Cambridge that would Take Back the Night: Women on Pornogra­ creates problems for opponents of por­ give a woman grounds to sue anyone who phy, a collection of feminist essays, Dr. nography. For example, a number of writ­ had anything to do with the manufacture or Diana Russell writes that "Pornography is ers have insisted that there's a difference sale of material she thought degraded her. explicit representations of sexual behavior, between pornography and erotica. And yet These proposals have met with some suc­ verbal or pictorial, that have as a distin­ no one, to my knowledge, has been able to cess, and the momentum clearly seems to guishing characteristic the degrading or provide criteria for distinguishing be­ be with anti-pornography activists. I have demeaning portrayal of human beings, es­ tween the two that isolates the former little sympathy with their approach -­ pecially women." In her contribution to without threatening First Amendment guar­ though I support the aim to eradicate anti­ the same volume, Helen E. Longino defines antees offreedom ofspeech and expression female violence -- for reasons which will be pornography as "verbal or pictorial materi­ with respect to the latter. Erica long's clear shortly. But let me note here that the al which represents or describes sexual contribution to a forum on "The Place of assumption of a direct causal connection behavior that is degrading or abusive to one Pornography" published in a recent issue between exposure to pornographic mater­ or more of the participants in such a way as of Harper's illustrates the lengths some will ials and violence against women has not, to to endorse the degradation." If we were to go to make the distinction. "Erotica," she date, been justified by reliable empirical accept these definitions, it would seem not writes, "celebrates the erotic nature of the studies. While the preponderance of evi­ unreasonable to call for the censorship of human creature, attempts to probe what is dence fails to support any such direct causal pornography. The problem is that these erotic in the human soul and the human connection, the controversy continues. definitions assume the very point that is mind, and does so artfully, dramatically. A major problem for those who advocate being disputed by those who would defend Pornography, on the other hand, serves censoring pornography is defining terms. pornography. There is a simple way to simply as an aid to masturbation, with no What does it mean to say that something is illustrate this question-begging procedure. artistic pretensions and no artistic value." pornographic? What makes a magazine or Would Russell and Longino be willing to Note the false opposition, as if the only film pornographic? How are we to define let conservative pro-life advocates define alternatives are art or masturbation. If pornography? If we cannot answer these feminist pro-choice literature as "material pornography has only a masturbatory intent questions, how can we possibly give any that describes the violation of the rights of and effect, of course it should not be meaning to the concept of pornography? the unborn child in such a way as to considered art. But why cannot pornogra­ According to some liberals and free-speech endorse the violation"? Surely these substan­ phy be artistic? Thi5 long does not tell us, absolutists, this is precisely what we cannot tive moral conclusions -- that the pro­ though by linguistic device she pretends to do. But before embracing any hasty conclu­ choice position endorses the violation of have proved it cannot. Her view implies sions, let's look at the way the 1970 rights, that the unborn have rights -- are to that "artistic pornography" is a self-contra­ Presidential Commission on Obscenity and be established, if they can be established at dictory expression. In consequence, when Pornography dealt with the problem. Es- all, by argument and evidence and not by critic and novelist Susan Sontag writes in 14 about pornography, some clarification is in order. But first we need some background. Radical feminists are prone to see such disparate activities and practices as fashion, science, prostitution, marriage, and pornog­ raphy as expressions of male hostility and contempt and thus as manifestations of male oppression. Bound up with this ten­ dency is another which, while not essential to feminism, is often found in tandem with it. Some feminists tend to argue a priori, ignoring empirical evidence and insisting that whatever the facts concerning, for example, exposure to pornography and violence, pornography is intrinsically bad. Now, when a priori arguments are put forward as if they were empirical, as some­ times happens under the pressure of ideo­ defense of the aesthetic value of the porno­ the same degree, in every instance of por­ logical consistency, the result can be argu­ graphic novel The Story of 0, she is contra­ nography. To be sure, some pornography ments designed to confirm what the arguer dicting herself, however persuasive her argu­ deals in bestiality, the use and abuse of already "knows" to be necessarily correct.