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A·S) Sex, Sin, and Women's Liberation: Against Porn-Suppression CARLIN MEYER What's Porn Got to Do with It? .. IF PORN-SUPPRESSION reduced violence and aggression against women, thereby enhancing women's self-expression and power, it might arguably be a worthwhile effort , notwithstanding its harmful effects. Appealing as it may be to discover in pornography's vulgar phallocentrism the well-spring of male domination, porn simply is not that important.l Treating it as such merely deflects attention and inquiry from crucial economic, political, and social bases for sexual exploitation and inequality . The institutionalization of eroticized aggression against women takes place not merely through its depiction, but by locating and elaborating it in complex social structures.... Imagery does not exist or gain persuasive power in a vacuum. Its power depends upon and is inseparable from the institutions and practices that give meaning to its depiction and generate the real-life effects of that which is depicted. Although advocates of porn-suppression call it a "practice" reflected and institutionalized in eroticized male violence against women, that violence is not an institution in the sense in which that term is normally used.... Much has been written about the complex manner in which Western sexuality has been thoroughly institutionalized. The areas of religion, legal jurisprudence, science and technology, modern medicine, sports, military culture, and artistic and entertainment culture have all played a part. Each has institutionalized its viewpoints in daily practices as well as in its imagery. Among the many institutions that eroticize aggression against women, sports and militarism surely playa far more prominent role than porn. Both became closely linked in the late nineteenth century to combating the "feminization" ofAmerican culture by stressing "manly virtues" such as competition, combativeness, physical aggression, and domination.... Published originally in 72 Texas Law Review 1097 (1994). Copyright 1994 by the Texas Law Review Association . Reprinted by permission. 150 Copyrighted Material Sex, Sin, and Women's Liberation: Against Porn-Suppression I 151 Sports: Male Bonding in Erotic Aggression Sports has for more than a century been central to male education, entertainment, and bonding across and between generations, beginning in the earliest years and continuing throughout the lives of most males.2 Organized in its modern form as an all-male enterprise in reaction to the late nineteenth-eentury fear of "feminization" and to the increasing penetration ofwomen into previously male spheres ofpower, sports culture sought to inculcate in young males the values and attitudes that would prevent them from becoming "soft." "In promoting dominance and submission, in equating force and aggression with physical strength, modern sport naturalized the equation of maleness with power, thus legitimizing a challenged and faltering system of masculine domination .3 Beginning quite early in life, the vast majority ofmales engage in individual or team sports from which they "learn the dominant culture conceptions of what it means to be male."4 ... And what does it teach men to value? It teaches them that winning is everything, and that to win, competitiveness and aggression are essential skills-skills that are effectively mobilized by fostering male bonding through emphasizing and vilifying its opposite , femininity. Men learn a "masculinity based upon status-seeking through successful athletic competition and through aggressive verbal sparring which is both h9mophobic and sexist."5 Denigration of women and gay men is endemic; masculinity in sports depends on not being or appearing "feminine."... Competitive success is the route to recognized masculine status; winning is everything , and to get to the top, aggression and violence are both necessary and acceptable . And females frequently become targets of such male ambitions through being made the objects of a variety of masculine aggressions: of sexual conquest and harassment aimed at "gaining status in the male peer group,"6 ofjokes and loudly recounted stories (whether real or fictionalized) of such "conquest[s] ,"7 and of actual violence.... Certainly, much sports imagery reinforces these practices. From the annual "swimsuit" edition of Sports Illustrated, to the blatantly sexist advertising that inevitably accompanies sports events,8 to prime-time television's presentation of barely clothed, swaying cheerleaders at sports events, sports imagery epitomizes the view of women castigated by anti-porn feminists without displaying a single sexually explicit image. As with porn, however, the imagery's projection and reinforcement of the values it depicts is far more complex than simply direct promulgation and absorption. Yet, however complex may be the process by which sports culture affects men and women, it is surely far more significant and powerful...

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