Pleasure is not Free

Event Name: "Price of Pleasure" film
Date of Event: Thursday, November 20, 2008

I went to the screening of the film “Price of Pleasure: Pornography, Sexuality, and Relationship,” and had the great opportunity to hear Robert Jensen’s talk on the pornography industry. While the film contained some very sexually explicit images (and left me literally numb afterwards) I thought that it was especially important to see everything. As I continue to watch the distributing images in front of me, my hands clenched in fists, and my body tensed, but I could not force myself to look away. I watched on as images of women’s face soaked in cum and scenes of men forcing their genitals down women’s throat appeared onscreen. I was disgusted and horrified. No matter how much I think, I can not come to terms with the fact that pleasure and sex is so often times, associated with brutality.

Before showing the film, Jensen highlighted some very important facts about the pornography industry in which he described as this over-commercialized business that has become mainstreamed. Today, porn is at its peak with mass consumption from all over the world, depicting different genres that targets specific groups of people. For example, with the growing use of the internet today, porn can easily be access by anyone and as a result, kids today are being exposed to porn more than ever before. Little boys learned early on in life that women’s role in the world is to fulfill men’s sexual needs. They are taught that women should be view as sex objects and to believe that they have the power to assert their masculinity over women’s right to be treated as a human being. As a result, little girls are also told that they must exploit their bodies to be considered beautiful.

One of the biggest problems with pornography is that it helps perpetuate male dominance. Proponents of the porn industry argued that they should have “free speech” to express their sexuality. “There’s nothing wrong with having an orgasm!” they said. However, the truth is that pornography has been abused and sex, exploited. Sex is supposed to be a very intimate and somewhat, sacred act between two loved ones. Porn, however, depict derogatory images of women as animals or the hypersexualized schoolgirl who f**** her teacher. A woman from the film expressed her concerns with pornography and how it has affected her relationship with her partner. She talked about her role as a woman to fulfill her partner’s need and the insecurities that arises from it when her partner watches porn.

The most popular type of porn generating the web today is anal sex. Most of the men interviewed in the film were very arrogant of the injustice that porn does to women. According to one of the man, performing anal sex on a woman is a great way to punish her. As porn continue to be incorporate into our everyday life, the line between “fantasy” and “reality” merged and overlapped. As a result, women become victims to rape, domestic violence, and sexual abuse. One interesting point that the film brought up is the fact that pornography dictates sex life instead of enhance it. For example, the more exposure to porn, the more men are unable to receive orgasm. In other words, instead of helping increase sexual pleasure, porn has done the opposite by making it harder to reach sexual gratification.

Even though the film was tough to watch and like Jensen pointed out, one not for the feminist anti-porn movement, the film convey a strong message that was painful, but necessary for discussion. It helps us “see” and reexamine how we look at porn in a way that makes us realize how corrupted our culture is. One thing that I felt has been overshadow is the idea of agency and the right of choice. While it was evident that a lot of female porn stars choose to work in the business by so-called “selling their bodies”, it was also clear that to some of these women, choice was not an option. The point is, choice is not the problem. The problem lies in the content and the context of the pornography industry and how it has shaped our identities and relationships with each others. As a result, this film is a woman’s wound, a men’s guilt, and a society’s responsibility.