The sophisticated, critical thinking

that underlies the best of left politics

can give way to simplistic, politically naïve,

and diversionary analysis that leaves

far too many leftists playing

cheerleader for the pornography industry

It's long been understood on the left that

one of the most insidious aspects of capitalism

is the commodification of everything

There is nothing that can't be sold in

the capitalist game of endless accumulation

In pornography, the stakes are even higher

what is being commodified is crucial

to our sense of self

The Need for a Consistent Analysis of Power

Leftists who otherwise pride themselves on analyzing systems and structures of power, can turn into extreme libertarian individualists on the subject of pornography.

The sophisticated, critical thinking that underlies the best of left politics can give way to simplistic, politically naïve, and diversionary analysis that leaves far too many leftists playing cheerleader for an exploitive industry.

In those analyses, we aren't supposed to examine the culture's ideology and how it shapes people's perceptions of their choices, and we must ignore the conditions under which people live. It's all about an individual's choice.

Commodification

It's long been understood on the left that one of the most insidious aspects of capitalism is the commodification of everything. There is nothing that can't be sold in the capitalist game of endless accumulation.

In pornography, the stakes are even higher; what is being commodified is crucial to our sense of self.

Whatever a person's sexuality or views on sexuality, virtually everyone agrees it is an important aspect of our identity.

In pornography, and in the sex industry more generally, sexuality is one more product to be packaged and sold.

When these concerns are raised, pro-pornography leftists often rush to explain that the women in pornography have chosen that work.

Although any discussion of choice must take into consideration the conditions under which one chooses, we don't dispute that women do choose, and as feminists we respect that choice and try to understand it .

But, to the best of our knowledge, no one on the left defends capitalist media -- or any other capitalist enterprise -- by pointing out workers consented to do their jobs.

The people who produce media content, or any other product, consent to work in such enterprises, under varying constraints and opportunities.

So what? The critique is not of the workers, but of the owners and structure.

Why Leftists Should Reject Pornography

As leftists, we should reject the sexism and racism that saturates contemporary mass-marketed pornography.

As leftists, we should reject the capitalist commodification of one of the most basic aspects of our humanity. As leftists, we should reject corporate domination of media and culture.

Anti-pornography feminists are not asking the left to accept a new way of looking at the world but instead are arguing for consistency in analysis and application of principles.

On the other hand, there are those who consider themselves to be on the 'libertarian' left. It becomes a conflict between culture and politics.

One can be an ardent critic of capitalism, but more 'postmodern' when it comes to culture. It is a clash that I have to deal with in myself

Pornography Is Just Another Medium

Leftists examine mass media as one site where the dominant class attempts to create and impose definitions and explanations of the world.

We know news is not neutral, that entertainment programs are more than just fun and games. These are places where ideology is reinforced, where the point of view of the powerful is articulated.

That process is always a struggle; attempts to define the world by dominant classes can be, and are, resisted.

The term “hegemony” is typically used to describe that always-contested process, the way in which the dominant class attempts to secure control over the construction of meaning.

The feminist critique of pornography is consistent with -- and, for many of us, grows out of -- a widely accepted analysis on the left of ideology, hegemony, and media, leading to the observation that pornography is to patriarchy what commercial television is to capitalism.

Yet when pornography is the topic, many on the left seem to forget Gramsci's theory of hegemony and accept the pornographer's self-serving argument that pornography is mere fantasy.

Apparently the commonplace left insight that mediated images can be tools for legitimizing inequality holds true for an analysis of CBS or CNN, but evaporates when the image is of a woman having a penis thrust into her throat with such force that she gags.

In that case, for unexplained reasons, we aren't supposed to take pornographic representations seriously or view them as carefully constructed products within a wider system of gender, race, and class inequality.

The valuable work conducted by media critics on the politics of production apparently holds no weight for pornography.

Pornography is fantasy, of a sort. Just as television cop shows that assert the inherent nobility of police and prosecutors as protectors of the people are fantasy.

Just as the Horatio Alger stories about hard work's rewards in capitalism are fantasy. Just as films that cast Arabs only as terrorists are fantasy.

All those media products are critiqued by leftists precisely because the fantasy world they create is a distortion of the actual world in which we live.

Police and prosecutors do sometimes seek justice, but they also enforce the rule of the powerful.

Individuals in capitalism do sometimes prosper as a result of their hard work, but the system does not provide everyone who works hard with a decent living.

Some Arabs are terrorists, but that obscures both the terrorism of the powerful in white America and the humanity of the vast majority of Arabs.

Such fantasies also reflect how those in power want subordinated people to feel. Images of happy blacks on the plantations made whites feels more secure and self-righteous in their oppression of slaves.

Images of contented workers allay capitalists' fears of revolution. And men deal with their complex feelings about contemporary masculinity's toxic mix of sex and aggression by seeking images of women who enjoy pain and humiliation.

Why do so many on the left seem to assume that pornographers operate in a different universe than other capitalists?

Why would pornography be the only form of representation produced and distributed by corporations that wouldn't be a vehicle to legitimize inequality? Why would the pornographers be the only media capitalists who are rebels seeking to subvert hegemonic systems?

Why do the pornographers get a free ride from so much of the left?

After years of facing the left's hostility in public and print, we believe the answer is obvious:

Sexual desire can constraint people's capacity for critical reason - especially in a patriarchial culture, where sex is not only about pleasure but about power.

Leftists - especially left men - need to get over the obsession with getting off. Gail dines & Robert Jensen