February 1, 2006 at 07:55:30

The paradox of pornography

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By Robert Jensen (about the author) Page 2 of 2 page(s)

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The United States is a society that locks up more than 2 million people, a higher percentage of its population than any other country, disproportionately non-white. The everyday conditions under which many of those human beings are kept in this prison-industrial complex are so harsh and degrading that leading human-rights groups condemn U.S. prison practices. The culture celebrates this as evidence of the superiority of our system of justice.

And the United States is a society that has built thousands of glittering temples to unsustainable levels of consumption -- called shopping malls -- in this wealthiest nation in history, while nearly half the world's people live on less than $2 a day. The culture celebrates this state of affairs as the wondrous workings of the magical market.

So, there is no paradox in the mainstreaming of an intensely cruel pornography; pornographers aren't a deviation from the norm. Their presence in the mainstream shouldn't be surprising, because they represent mainstream values: The logic of domination and subordination that is central to patriarchy, nationalism, racism, and capitalism.

What pornography says about sexuality, intimacy, and gender politics in the contemporary United States is frightening. What it says about our entire society is even more disturbing.

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Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin and board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center. His latest book, All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice, was published in 2009 (more...)

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