NON-FICTION
DEAD MAN for human trafficking with the demand for pornography and other forms of commercial sex . Though the dots seem obvious now , I had never connected them before that morning . Perhaps I was reluctant to see it because it would mean facing up to the fact that for a large part of my life I was part of the problem . I ’ d be lying if I said it was an easy thing to face up to , because it wasn ’ t , it isn ’ t . The connection between pornography and human trafficking isn ’ t simple , it ’ s complex and nuanced . On one level , pornography is part of an enormous industry that survives off of the commodification of sex . On another , it ’ s part of an enormous industry that survives off of the abuse and exploitation of men , women , and even children .
This past summer as part of the documentary film , Hope for the Voiceless and I had the opportunity to interview Gail Dines , a professor at Wheelock College in Cambridge , MA . She ’ s an anti-pornography activist and scholar , and she opened my eyes to a level of violence in pornography I ’ d never acknowledged before . She described , “ Pornography is an industry , it is not sex . It is the commodification and industrialization of sex . It is a particular representation of sex . And the problem with this is that the representation of sex in pornography is what drives demand for trafficked women and for prostituted women . It tells men that sex is about degradation . It tells them that it is about humiliation . Indeed , the more in porn you degrade and dehumanize her , the greater the sexual sizzle .” When consuming pornography one rarely stops to consider the messages being disseminated from the images you ’ re seeing . The racism , sexism , and violence is rendered invisible because of the biological response and intended purpose of pornography consumption . It ’ s not meant for analysis , it ’ s meant for enjoyment . When you do stop and analyze it , however , the results are disturbing .
What does it say about the fact that we are supposed to be aroused by violence and power ? And it ’ s not just in pornography . In strip clubs you have barely clothed or unclothed women dancing for fully dressed men . The level of vulnerability for women in strip clubs becomes overt . They are exposed and there for the explicit purpose of providing a bunch of men with entertainment . Similarly , in the case of prostituted and trafficked women and children , the imbalance of power is evident . Men who solicit sex control the situation more often than not . They feel entitled , not just because they paid for it , but because they ’ re men and pornography tells men that they ’ re entitled to sex . Typically there is little regard for the people being exploited . When talking about the effects of pornography and commercial sex it becomes easy to focus on concepts like power and violence and forget they exist at a human level . The thing pornography producers and pimps have in common is their desire for you to forget that the people being used in the commercial sex industry are just that , people . They have mothers and fathers , many of them have children . They have wants , desires , dreams , and hopefully lives outside of the industry ( though , tragically , that isn ’ t always a reality ). The reason porn producers work so hard to objectify people is to make it easier for consumers to separate themselves from any potential guilt they might have at the violence and abuse pornography contains . Robert Jensen puts it this way , “ men turn women into objects in order to turn ourselves into objects , so that we can split off emotion from body during sex , in search of a sexual experience in which we don ’ t have to feel .” From Jensen ’ s point of view , men ’ s use of pornography is an indication of the extreme brokenness in concepts of masculinity , which translates into extremely broken men . One man interviewed by Jensen said this about his use of pornography , “ There is no vulnerability , no risk , and therefore — no growth .”
If men do not grow , ending violence against women seems like a pipe dream . While it might be a stretch to say that men are victims of pornography ( because I do not believe we are victims in the same sense that women are victims of pornography ), we certainly do ourselves no favors by being mindless consumers , and the porn industry is doing us no favors by telling us that the ultimate pleasure in this world is found by using women for their bodies . Oppression is built on lies , and the longer we buy into the lies the longer we sustain the oppression of others . If we continue to support and patronize the pornography industry we continue to support the exploitation and degradation of women , as well as men as . A friend once told me about an idea he had for an anti-pornography campaign with the slogan , “ Just look her in the eyes .” His premise was simple : if we begin to see each other as human beings instead of objects we might start treating each other with respect . Can you imagine what would happen if we all embraced the radical idea that other people are just as important as we are ? ◆
9 10