Feminism and Porn

I feel like I've had a lot of conversations lately about why I find the rampant spread of internet porn so problematic, and why I don't really find stripping to be an empowering profession for women.

Ariel Levy, author of Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, was on the Colbert Report the other day, and she said this during the interview:

"...strippers, like Porn Stars...those are women whose job it is to fake lust, and so I think that if we're going to have sexual role models, as women, it should be the women who have the most pleasure in sex, not the women who get paid the most to pretend they're engaged with it."

She continued,

"...if we start as women who aren't pros, imitating women whose job it is to fake lust, so we're imitating an imitation, I think we are getting pretty far from any authentic expression of sexual liberation."

Couldn't have said it better myself.

The full interview is on the Colbert Report website as Ariel Levy Pt. 1 and Pt. 2.

I recently checked out Pornified and Net.seXXX from the library, so expect more writings on this topic. :)