Harper Valley PTA Report

[Curt Gardner]

On Sat, 25 Jan 1997, Diana York Blaine wrote:

> As an industry, it involves male control of female sexuality--not the other
> way around.  This plays into centuries of historically-contextualized male
> control of female sexuality, so I'm hard-pressed to generalize about it as
> an accident of human sexuality.  The "somebody viewing the image" is
> almost always male or at least let's say the production of pornography is
> geared towards masculine spectacle.

As you point out, much pornography is geared toward a male audience.  But 
it seems to me that things have gotten a bit more complicated in recent 
times, with women getting into the porn industry as producers, with the 
emergence of porn for gays and lesbians.  I think the industry is trying 
to make money by producing porn for a variety of audiences.  Clearly that 
involves often using women as sexual objects, but also involves using 
men.  What gets produced is a function of the imagination of the 
producer, which is often quite limited, it seems.

I have long pondered the question of why porn has appeal for so many men 
and for so few women.  My personal conclusion was that men like orgasms, 
and it's a hard thing to fake - a man has to be excited on some level to 
produce - so I think the built in wiring supports quick visual (and other 
sense) stimulation.  Now not every male friend of mine will admit to 
using/enjoying porn, but I think many would (not to imply that those who 
don't admit it are lying).  

I think there are dangers to using "too much" porn, where the response 
to images becomes stronger than the response to people.  So then the 
question becomes - why are men getting addicted to porn?  What is it 
about our society that drives the massive porn industry?

Curt Gardner
gardner at haas.berkeley.edu