Terror rhymes with orange
Friday, June 15, 2007
— Vol. 30, No. 4
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It used to be the stuff of back-alley movie theatres and dimly litstores, but since the rise of the internet, pornography is everywhereand readily accessible. The role that pornography plays — or doesn’t — in the ongoing misogyny of our society is a raging debate infeminist circles always prompting the question, “Does pornography degrade women?” The easy answer is “yes,” but the more balanced one is, “It doesn’thave to.” While most porn these days is inarguably chauvinistic — fea-turing buxom blondes who relish being coated in cum from head to toe — not all of it is, and it doesn’t have to be. The detrimental effects of porn are debatable, but an article recently published by the
Associated Press
raises interesting questions regarding the role of the internet inthe rise of pornography, the sexualized nature of our society, its effecton young women and porn’s potential to be empowering.
The article, entitled “Experts: Porn Conates Sexual Behaviour
with Power,” by Martha Irving, argues that, with the rise of reality television and the internet, young women — now more than ever — are being encouraged to take their clothes off to gain some kindof notoriety. It argues that homemade porn has become a standardof modern sexuality and that it has a detrimental effect on the young girls performing in it.“It doesn’t have anything to do with their sexual pleasure … It hasto do with pleasing somebody else — the grasping for attention,” saidMichael Simon, a high school counsellor and therapist in the article.If they aren’t, in fact, performing these acts out of an actual desire
to do so, but to please someone else or ll some kind of social
requirement, then that
is
wrong. If they are, however, viewing or performing in pornography for their own pleasure then thedetrimental effects are diminished.“It’s a big topic among researchers. A 2007 report from the
American Psychological Association compiled the ndings of
myriad studies, showing that the sexualization of young womenand girls, in particular, can hurt them in many ways. Problemscan include anything from low self-esteem and eating disordersto depression and anxiety,” states Irvine. The problem with this statement is that it focuses on the
sexualization
of young women as the negative effect of thisphenomena — they don’t discuss the increased sexuality of young men, because it has always been assumed thatyoung men are sexual whereas young women aren’t, or atleast
shouldn’t
be. It’s not the sexuality of the material that iscausing young girls to develop eating disorders, but the depic-tions of women they see in porn. Porn stars are “perfect:”hairless, cellulite-less, perfectly coiffed, painted and styled
— even while engaged in a Chinese nger trap.
The thing is, the aspects of pornography that are de-meaning to women are not the cause of the problem, but asymptom. “Anti-pornography feminism fails to address theelementary point that the role of commercial pornography indepicting a crude, imperious and promiscuous male sexuality, alongsidefemale receptivity and vulnerability, is
completely
overshadowed by, and
entirely
dependent upon, the ofcial discourses and imagery of science,
medicine, religion and mainstream cultural productions (high or low),prevalent all around us,” writes Segal in her article “Contradiction of Anti-pornography Feminism.”Porn just isn’t the problem. The attitudes and depictions that anti-
pornography feminists nd offensive are merely a manifestation of
deep-rooted cultural beliefs, and they won’t magically disappear if pornis prohibited. Until female sexuality is equated with male sexuality, the“problem of porn” will continue.
acaad@mp.uwaoo.ca
Porn isn’t the problem
WATERLOO, ON — The University of Waterloo has been upgraded to terror alert“orange” after a “kamikaze” automobiledriver recklessly rammed into a campusresidence on Sunday, June 10.
The 22-year-old, who is unidentied
— and likely to maintain some sort of eth-nic immunity throughout the endless legalproceedings of the crash — smashed hisLexus SUV into the side of St. Paul’s Col-lege residence at about 6:30 p.m. Sunday evening. Apparently, the young man became dis-
traught after a ght with his girlfriend. How
-ever, always common-sense
Toronto Sun-
stylejournalists immediately — and accurately — dubbed the incident a terrorist attack. The assailant bore down on the brick building with clear intentions of initiating a holy war, said an onlooker who may ormay not have been guessing, and who may or may not have been an onlooker. In fact,the car struck the building with such forcethat the front fender and hood were severely damaged.Body shop workers, notorious for being inherently shallow, were noted to have sali- vated at the revenue oppurtunities presentedby the wreck. In fact, one garage ownerpurportedly had his pupils replaced withdollar signs complete with accompanying cash register sound effects. Allegedly, the air bag of the luxury utility vehicle did not deploy, a claim that — again
— may or may not be ctional. However,
speculation is rampant that the protectivebag’s explosive device — used primarily forlife-saving purposes during motor vehicleaccidents — could have been detonated asan attempt to ignite the fuel tank and create
a aming, leather-detailed missile.
The air bag will also likely be inspectedfor traces of anthrax.
The coloured alert system, rst introduced
in a post-9/11 act by the U.S.’s department of Homeland Security, is new to UW. In fact, this
column is the rst mention of such a system
at Waterloo. According to the introducer, Waterloo has been elevated to an “orange”alert level, meaning “heightened possibility of the chance of dangerous activity in thenear-to-close vicinity.” Once the danger haslapsed, Waterloo’s campus will be demoted toa “magenta” security level, cautioning citizensto “act with ambiguous concern despite ap-parent lack of anything harmful.”Sources also say that the domestic incidentthat triggered the attack has been added toDalton McGuinty’s upcoming provincial po-litical campaign. Apparently, Ontario Liberalsare keeping a close eye on the subject, and wish to adapt the “beware of the terroristseverywhere” attitude that has become the pre-dominant in 21st century Western psyche.In response to the growing sentiment thatthis was just some misdirected kid intention-ally hitting a building at speeds barely greatenough to injure the grass beneath the tires,an unnamed source had this to say:“Sure, it
looks
that way. But anyone whodoesn’t see this as a serious internationalsecurity gaffe is gullible; just like those people who will believe anything they see or read inthat sensationalistic, paparazzi-laden CNN-style news coverage.”
...it has always been assumed that young men are sexual whereas young women aren’t, or at least shouldn’t be.
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