Andrea Dworkin's Testimony Before the Attorney General on Pornography (2/4)

Andrea Dworkin's famous speech before the attorney general on the effects of pornography on women's civil rights.

[@Michael-cl9mb]

she unveiled the truth at its core

[@muntelevenu5]

Dear reader: ignore the opinions of dudes on here. They are not the ones being exploited in porn; in fact, they are the ones profiting from it. The porn industry is owned and controlled by men in its entirety, men are the overwhelming demographic consuming it and it’s also men who inflict abusive atrocities onto women in porn. If you are at least tiny bit rational, don’t listen to what men have to say about Dworkin or porn. They’re a walking self-serving bias.

[@flyingdiscproductions]

"The porn industry is owned and controlled by men in its entirety, " this seems to be an unprovable statement.

[@3rdhand712]

@@flyingdiscproductions Regardless of who is making money off of it, the pornography industry primarily caters to heterosexual men. Money has little to do with the social context and consequences of porn.

[@flyingdiscproductions]

@@3rdhand712 do you have some scientific studies that demonstrate that?

[@fma3105]

She does not mince words. I really appreciate that about her. We're all so inundated with gaslighting that it's difficult to see clearly but when someone talks with such precision and conviction, that all melts away for at least a moment. I guess that's how it is with inconvenient truths in general, huh. Reminds me of speakers like Kwame Ture and Malcolm X, who refuse to continue appeasing the bullshit lies and speak the truth openly and honestly.

[@themej313]

Dehumanization of victims is a major reason why people get murdered by strangers for things like hate crimes or sex-based crimes. Pornography in it's modern form does degrade women (and sometimes men) it's based on power and not on love or humane values. It is about treating people like objects, and if someone has a great hate inside them, because adrenaline and testosterone as so closely linked to emotions, hate and sex become intertwined, it's just a small step into violence with porn.

[@flyingdiscproductions]

that seems to be more about how you are as you have pointed out.

[@themej313]

We are "forced" into behaviors due to social pressure, to be "popular". So, now in the music industry a kind of "soft porn" look is what gets women considered "beautiful", and it makes them more marketable. From there the jump to loveless sex with undertones of porn becomes outright pornographic sex, where women and men play roles they have learned in the media. So, it's not forced per se, but social pressure is a force that controls people's behavior.

[@flyingdiscproductions]

so tell us about how so many people comment "oh, you child is so beautiful " and how is that related to what you claim"?

[@DanielMazahreh]

LMAO on KZbin not suggesting part 2-4. Says a lot about how disgusting KZbin is in censoring and suppressing inconvenient truths like this. Thank you so much for uploading these! This brutal industry must be held accountable for violating human rights of women through torture and rape.

[@grafzeppelin4069]

Inconvenient truths like Dworkin being a Jew?

[@DanielMazahreh]

@@grafzeppelin4069 You obviously didn't get the overall point of Andrea's testimony regarding pornography. You bringing up "Jew" has nothing to do with what I just said. You're pathetic!

[@vanizorc]

... makes entering porn a route to garnering attention -- recognition which these women would otherwise not get anywhere else in a male-dominated cultural context. Indeed, "consent" is a very contentious concept in academia. OF COURSE people can make their own decisions, but that doesn't mean those decisions were not previously influenced by a multitude of societal factors. The fact that there is such a demand for misogynistic mainstream porn is very alarming: it reflects our hateful ...

[@flyingdiscproductions]

and the fact that 70 million voters voted for Trump after all his blunders .... is very alarming.

[@vanizorc]

... attitudes towards women, as a populace. Sure, we can let people watch porn if they want to, but the fact that they find the abusive treatment of women sexually-arousing is a call for concern. ALSO, I find that way too many people mis-read Andrea Dworkin. She is NOT protesting against sex itself -- she is actually saying that, since violence and sex have become so interwined, when people (including her) protest against the violence aspect, they are accused of protestng against sex itself.

[@flyingdiscproductions]

yet who would with her?

[@AA-cf4es]

@@flyingdiscproductions of course you are a male. ew.

[@flyingdiscproductions]

@@AA-cf4es so are you being sexist?

[@mickyvionsellinas6743]

@@flyingdiscproductions Brilliant one

[@lunalinguine]

Of course it's personal. She's a woman. That's like saying MLK wasn't personally frustrated with racism, and there was no indication of his frustration in his speeches. Both were eloquent, moving speakers and activists. The fact that it was personal for both makes the messages all the more powerful. But I realize it's hard for most white guys to grasp this.

[@OtherSideOfTheVoid]

I must disagree with you. That is not a protest against sex, that is a protest against internalised and damaging gender roles. she is speaking of boxes, assigned roles to each gender, making opposing teams out of groups, that no matter what their gender is, above all, are HUMAN.

[@themej313]

I believe Dworkin was assassinated by poisoning, which made her bloat up and become huge. Her voice is tired because she was dying and very sick when she spoke. Many activists like her are dead now because there is an FBI assassination program called Cointelpro. Listen to what she is saying and not the exhaustion in her voice. Also, imagine the hate and hostility she was up against in her crusade against pornography.

[@flyingdiscproductions]

haha this is entertaining - tell us some more!

[@OtherSideOfTheVoid]

and who makes those generalisations? in my opinion, the gender roles we see in society today are a direct result of unsupervised exposure to some very malicious visual media cultures at a young age. again, no one is trying to say that sexuality is bad, just that the way it's approached, through pornography, not just as a product, but as part of a wider social context, leads to some very invasive and dangerous distortions of what it actually is, and intertwines it with some very cruel behaviours.

[@OtherSideOfTheVoid]

(continued) she is infringing on the boardrooms, and she is absolutely correct.

[@yehmen29]

She knows her subject. I wish French senator Laurence Rossignol had been 10% as eloquent and knowledgeable when she headed the commission of the French Senate which was asked to look at pornography (specifically, why so many female students resort to pornography to pay the rent, then drop out of uni, develop mental health problems etc.)

[@vanizorc]

... the moronic excuse that since sex is a so-called "private" matter, anything that occurs within that context is exempt from scrutiny. Indeed that is not the case -- all private relations are simultaneously political; sex is not "just sex," but a representation and reproducer of sexist power relations that necessitate analysis and criticism.

[@rasverixxyleighraq1509]

Her voice sounds different to what I imagined

[@rasverixxyleighraq1509]

yeah I guess that part fits. I just thought her voice would be angrier, i thought she'd have an old angry voice

[@zapatoshigs5792]

No her voice is very soft and passionate, she was a very sensitive and empathetic person

[@reecechaplincartoons1506]

You are obviously a fool.

[@vanizorc]

No, the porn industry is not "just sex" -- maybe it might have been more so decades ago, but the porn we have now in the modern era is blatantly misogynistic. Today's porn actresses are treated like shit by the male actors in porn scenes, being gangbanged and engaging in dangerous forms of penetration, etc. Simply put, male actors are paid to get off, while female actresses are paid to suffer. Even if porn didn't have an agenda, it is nevertheless a reflection of our culture's deep-seated ...

[@sexobscura]

*Andrea was probably THE pinnacle of what TRUE beauty is and what SHOULD be strived to be achieved and worshipped*

[@vanizorc]

... declined over time, as a matter of fact. Have you seen the numerous commercial advertisements over the years which have portrayed bruised up, beaten, dismembered, or even dead women, while we the consumers are supposed to interpret as "artistic" or even sexually-exciting (in cases where the ad illicits a soft-core porn aura). It's not an accident that sex and violence against women are mushed together by the powers that be. They want it that way, because then people are allowed to make ...

[@vanizorc]

If you had any semblance of reading comprehension, you would know that the idiotic strawman interpretation you made of my argument is completely erroneous. First off, the statement "What people do behind closed doors is their business" is incredibly vague -- what about cases of domestic violence, which also 'happens behind closed doors'? We certainly wouldn't let a crime like that slide by the law. If, on the other hand, you mean to say that CONSENTING ADULTS should be allowed to do ...

[@vanizorc]

... whatever they've agreed with each other, provided that no coercive force was involved, then I AGREE with you. However, you still cannot deny that decisions are not made in a vacuum -- our decisions are usually constrained within the context of existing societal values. Whatever a person chooses is based upon what society has deemed valuable; in the case of porn, it may seem an attractive option for some women because the cultural sexual objectification and eroticization of female bodies ...

[@anomos1611]

hero

[@reecechaplincartoons1506]

When was this?

[@nathanpollard1223]

I believe it was 1986.

[@mikeesernia4281]

From what I read on Wikipedia, this was from January of 1986.

[@Moncantha]

Is there a way sex should be? No its up to the two (or more) individuals engaging in it and what they are comfortable with. I understand you might think that with such sex acts available to view, some men might expect this of their girlfriends. But the saying still rings true, no means no. Don't you think that the reason some of these more exotic 'sex acts' are popular on porn is because it's the only way for some men to for fill their fantasies as they do not expect them to be performed.

[@mickyvionsellinas6743]

a d was quite a hateful character , ust ask s brownmiller , all her quotes are verifiable ... plus , her whole premise , especially eliding her innate hysterical misandry , is completely ficticious ... re Maluth a Donnerstein . Having 'dreas' , and the transposing them as academic fact is utterly ludicrous ....

[@BigPapaBear1000]

"A commitment to sexual equality with males is a commitment to becoming the rich instead of the poor, the rapist instead of the raped, the murderer instead of the murdered." "You think intercourse is a private act; it's not, it's a social act. Men are sexually predatory in life; and women are sexually manipulative. When two individuals come together and leave their gender outside the bedroom door, then they make love."-Andrea Dworkin That sure sounds like protest against sex...

[@macphallic]

second part

[@BigPapaBear1000]

Well, there kind of is a generalization of what a man is supposed to be like. Same for women. I think gender roles are perfectly fine and arent damaging at all. I think she is making this way more complicated than it is.

[@andrealopez4361]

Sailor Man for you it isnt complicated you wont have to face it ever.

[@1gladdis]

I think my argument was a bit more nuanced than you give me credit for. I have no problem with her using her personal experiences as the basis for her campaign against pornography. I'm just not convinced by it, that's all. It might be powerful but I feel it is less convincing because it is not the result of reasoning and balanced analysis. You let yourself down with an ad hominem attack at the end, and you also assume I am white. Please stick to the arguments and issues and omit name-calling

[@BigPapaBear1000]

She's overanalyzing. She compared the porn industry with nazism...I can't understand that at all...It's just sex...the porn industry doesn't have some secret agenda to overthrow women and whatever. Porn has been around for THOUSANDS of years in one shape or form...we're still here, and women have much better rights today than even 50 years ago.

[@andrealopez4361]

Sailor Man hahahaha really thousands of years?? Since the camera was invented? Dumb dick

[@flyingdiscproductions]

and I wonder what her response to all the violence in mainstream media is? (well, not really interested)

[@deerheart87]

It’s just sex …. 🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 hilarious

[@alexandert696]

Yes that it feminists, dont be ashamed of showing what kind of monsters you worship. Be honest and then cry about people dont want to be associated with genocidal hate movements.

[@andrealopez4361]

Alexander T hahahahahaha

[@andrealopez4361]

You are a dumb fuck

[@raddixe7044]

Girl what the fuck is you talking about , taking your porn away is considered a monster behavior ?

[@PipByMac]

It's interesting that she feels men force women to do these things. Last I checked, women were their own people with their own minds. She must think women very incapable and stupid, if she believes them so easily coerced.

[@nunyabisnass1141]

James Cole his research was the contextual basis of this single video. So you're mostly just lashing out without considering just cause. If we want to talk about research, we can shine a light on Dworks depth if research, which was primarily a mix of projecting her experiences and fantastic narrative interpretations of other feminists, onto any facet of society she disagreed with.

[@PipByMac]

James Cole By your logic, decision are simply made for an individual with no expectation of responsibility from the person whose choice was made for them. No one chooses to be in pornography, they were raped and can't help but jump naked in front of a camera? Please.

[@Xelpherpolis]

+Pip BoyMac Careful. Look at women as people with wills and agencies of their own long enough and feminism will find SOME way to label you a misogynist.

[@PipByMac]

KashelGladio Sad, but true. It wouldn't be the first time.

[@1gladdis]

I've never heard a more glaring example of personal frustrations, personal unhappiness, and self-contempt projected on to a political issue. You can hear it in her voice. It is almost tangible, and subverts her argument, which is weak in any case - she is mixing up causes with symptoms.

[@andrealopez4361]

Gordon Bannerman maybe you are the one projecting on her so called projections. This woman said the truth and it stings men, hearing that their so beloved porn is actually another form of oppression. Whatever, not like she expected ur little male simple brain to understand she wanted to wake up women to join her fight

[@flyingdiscproductions]

I concur.

[@flyingdiscproductions]

@@andrealopez4361 she says "her truth" not "the truth"

[@brittanyw7546]

@@flyingdiscproductions she speaks 'the truth', it just happens to not be 'his' truth.

[@flyingdiscproductions]

@@brittanyw7546 nope - she speaks "her truth"

[@hedleypanama]

#Objection! This is the first time I listen her statement. I finished the first part and I am still waiting when she state the truth!!

[@lunalinguine]

Holy projection. Read the book White Like Me.

[@sweetgyy]

you need to eat another cow ma'am

[@kategrey2147]

Jabba likes to hear her own voice.

[@flyingdiscproductions]

all I have to do is look at her