Advocates for ‘sex work’ say it is or should be about free choice and the empowerment of women. They claim that if prostitutes have troubled lives, this stems from the fact that many (unenlightened) people find prostitution offensive and the government doesn’t care enough about prostitutes’ working conditions, rather than anything inherent in exchanging sex […]
Feminist Perspective
Testimony from Northampton: “The murder of real women is being sold as sexual entertainment” (explicit language)
Massachusetts legislators heard testimony about peoples’ encounters with porn at a hearing on March 16, 1992. This account appears in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.399-401). Testimony from Northampton Resident I live in Northampton and I do educational slide shows about pornography and violence against women. I want to talk first about […]
Testimony in Massachusetts: Porn, Prostitution and Abuse Blended Together in This Relationship (explicit)
Massachusetts legislators heard testimony about peoples’ encounters with porn at a hearing on March 16, 1992. This account appears in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.381-382). Testimony of L. B. Once this videotape was on, he would make me submit to various sexual acts on the hardwood floors directly in front of […]
Testimony in Massachusetts: My Experiences with Men, Porn and Domestic Abuse (explicit)
Massachusetts legislators heard testimony about peoples’ encounters with porn at a hearing on March 16, 1992. This account appears in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.372-378). Blanket statements that porn shops are about “romance” or that porn “enhances couples sex lives” are hard to credit in light of stories like the one […]
Testimony in Massachusetts: “He took things straight out of the movies and used them on me”
Massachusetts legislators heard testimony about peoples’ encounters with porn at a hearing on March 16, 1992. This account appears in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.370-371). Testimony of Pat Haas My name is Pat Haas. I live in Brookline. I experienced from 1987 to 1989 in a two-year relationship with my batterer–from […]
Salon: Porn Isolates its Users, Erodes Civility and Love
Cary Tennis is Salon’s advice columnist. The key harm of porn, he argues, is that it saps users of their motivation to build human connections. Cary’s critique is also relevant to “sex work” in general. Even if it’s entirely consensual, it’s still problematic to have your sexual needs met by ‘vendors’ instead of a true […]
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Testimony in Los Angeles: Psychologists Underestimate the Role of Porn in Sex Offenses
Members of the Los Angeles County Commission for Women heard testimony about peoples’ encounters with porn at a hearing on April 22, 1985. This account appears in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.357-359). Testimony of B. J. Cling I am a clinical psychologist in private practice in Los Angeles… I’m also about […]
Testimony in Los Angeles: Psychiatrist Rapes Patient as ‘Therapy’ for Her Inhibitions
Members of the Los Angeles County Commission for Women heard testimony about peoples’ encounters with porn at a hearing on April 22, 1985. This account appears in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.353-354). Testimony of Elana Bowman I am a member of the WAVAW [Women Against Violence Against Women] Coordinating Committee [and] […]
Testimony in Los Angeles: Peter Bogdanovich on Porn and Hollywood
Members of the Los Angeles County Commission for Women heard testimony about peoples’ encounters with porn at a hearing on April 22, 1985. This account appears in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.351-352). Testimony of Peter BogdanovichSince Dorothy [Stratten] was killed, a lot of women have written to me or told me […]
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Mocha Club: Helping Former Sex Slaves Transition into Normal Life
This post does not have to do with porn per se, but the Mocha Club‘s Village of Hope is such a great example of love in action we wanted to call attention to it. The village is a safe community of huts, a workshop, a medical clinic, a community center and a school that [club […]
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