Is Erotica Ethical?

Pornography has a long-winded history that extends as far back as the silent era, but one of the first major "pornographic" films to make a significant impact was the 1972 movie Deep Throat, directed by Gerard Damiano and starring an unknown actress credited by the name of Linda Lovelace. Prior to the success of Deep Throat, pornography was in large part an underground movement confined to specific experimental filmmakers like Andy Warhol. Deep Throat started as an independent low-budget film that became an astonishing box office success and not only opened the gates for the porn industry but also for more explicit films to make it into the mainstream.

Sexual themes have existed in film as long as it has been around. It was the prominence of sexual ideas that contributed to the public outcry that resulted in the Production Code. Many of these films seem odd by modern standards. When looking at a "sexual" pre-code film like The Divorcee one quickly notices that the sex is never actually seen and only implied. The same goes for the handful of films that did manage to get under the Production Code's restrictions, such as Frank Capra's It Happened One Night, James Whale's The Bride of Frankenstein or Stanley Kubrick's Lolita. In all of these cases, the sexual themes are conveyed through undertones and innuendos, far from the more explicit sexual themes of movies that would come after it, including several of Kubrick's later films as well as those of David Lynch and David Cronenberg. Deep Throat was arguably the film that helped bring sexuality to the forefront and cleared a path for more explicit films.

In addition to subverting the rules in ways unprecedented even for 1972, Deep Throat would become the subject of an extensive controversy. In the process it would launch into the public a dispute that still goes on today: the ethics of pornography and whether it should be recognized as a valid genre of filmmaking. Many viewers were amazed by Deep Throat but others demanded it be pulled from theaters. President Richard Nixon was among its detractors, and he made every possible effort to bring an end to pornography in general. He even went as far as to finance a series of experiments to determine if pornography was harmful to viewers. When he got the results scientifically proving that it was not, he withheld them and went out of his way to keep people from seeing Deep Throat.

A more curious development in the controversy comes later on, starting in the 80's and 90's. During this time, an anti-porn movement began to emerge among feminists who came to see it as a civil rights violation. Their rationale was that "pornography" was based on objectifying women, usually glorifying violence and fulfilling a male fantasy of how a woman should behave. Director Bonnie Sherr Klein attempted to demonstrate this perspective in her documentary film Not a Love Story: A Film About Pornography. Her film makes a variety of claims about the porn industry, all of which are based on the assumption that simply watching it is promoting misogynistic ideals. Among other things, the film claims that pornography both depicts and promotes actual violence, that women do not do it out of choice, and that the majority of men are perverts and idiots. It then goes on to claim that pornography is detrimental to social progress and needs to be eradicated.

The thing about a movie like Not a Love Story: A Film About Pornography is that it is based on misinformation and generalizations. Klein attempts to persuade the viewer that pornography is violent by showing clips of erotic films that depict torture. She and others like her go on to claim that the women are always bound and gagged, and "silenced". They also assume that the torture depicted is real, and therefore a glorification of male superiority when in fact it is usually staged. What people making these assumptions also ignore is that this is only one of many different types of pornography, and that the genre itself is not inherently violent. 

Now this is not to say that there are no issues that need to be addressed in porn, but these feminists are going about it the wrong way. Even if we are to assume that porn is male-dominated by nature, that does not mean its eradication is necessary any moreso than any other predominantly male genre such as war or action. While it is true that there are specific cases of women being mistreated on the sets of pornographic films (including Linda Lovelace, the star of Deep Throat), what needs to happen is that working conditions need to improve. More women should become involved in the industry producing and directing films, and in fact this has happened.

A prominent misconception about pornography (as demonstrated by Not a Love Story: a Film About Pornography) is that it is something that can only be enjoyed by men. This is not in fact the case. There is also such a thing as "feminist porn" and has existed as long as there has been porn. Pornographic actress and feminist Annie Sprinkle has made a career out of her sexual experience, including one short simply titled Annie where she displays her body and invites the viewer to examine it (including a scene where the camera displays her cervix in extensive detail). Barbara Hammer got in on the act by making lesbian pornography as early as 1974.

In a way, pornography became, and still is, a scapegoat for social problems.Even considering the (admittedly few) examples cited of women being mistreated in pornography, it really means that actresses in those films need to be given better working conditions. It is worth mentioning that the alleged misogyny that these feminists claim to be present is not exclusive to porn and even appears in mainstream cinema. For instance, none of these women ever think to attack James Bond, one of the most iconic movie franchises of all time despite its misogynistic themes. The Bond most fans argue is the best, Sean Connery, is in fact the worst offender among them, and Goldfinger even had a glorified rape scene that went unnoticed by fans of the series.

In short, Connery's Bond films, which make up a series of mainstream blockbusters, do precisely the very things porn is being singled out for allegedly depicting. In these films, women really are objectified and used to convey visions of male dominance. They are basically nothing more than disposable sex toys whose only function is in giving pleasure to Bond before being discarded. Unlike pornography, the Bond franchise is also not meant to be about sex. It is meant to be a thrilling adventure of which sex is only one of many parts, and yet the series insists on treating women in a certain way.

Nobody tries to demand the eradication of the entire James Bond franchise. The solution to the problem is simple: as awareness of these issues grew the films subsequently had to make an effort to change the way they treated women. Compare the character of Pussy Galore in Goldfinger to Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale and there is a very clear difference. Pussy is basically the last in a long line of disposable sex objects for Bond to enjoy, to the point where a rape scene is played as charming. By the time Casino Royale was made, this was no longer an acceptable way to treat women, so instead Bond's habit of discarding women is reworked into a character flaw and Vesper is actually given a personality.

The same could arguably be said for a lot of action movies. The action genre is indeed predominantly male and even today it is sometimes guilty of objectifying women (these same feminists never seem to consider protesting against any of Michael Bay's films). The solution is simply to encourage more female protagonists like Sarah Connor, the Bride, and Lara Croft. While there are cases of actresses being mistreated during the production of pornographic films, this is no call for the eradication of the genre. What needs to happen instead is that porn needs to stop being recognized as a genre exclusively for men and that there should be an effort to encourage more women to make porn films and to promote better treatment of actresses in the business.

Action movies are not usually based around sex, but a lot of mainstream productions are. Several critically acclaimed directors such as David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick, have explored their share of sexually-driven material. Lynch's Blue Velvet explores erotic themes and depicts the same kind of violence against women that porn has been accused of, as is especially evident with the introduction of Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth who proceeds to violently and disturbingly abuse Isabella Rossellini's character Dorothy Vallens.

However, unlike the "violent" pornographic films most audiences can recognize that Hopper and Rossellini are simply actors performing for a camera, and that Lynch is not filming an actual rape as it happens. Kyle MacLachlan's character of Jeffrey Beaumont also goes through similar abuse. When Jeffrey and Dorothy first meet, she immediately pulls a knife on him and forces him to remove his clothes. If not for Frank's arrival at that moment, Jeffrey could very well have been raped by Dorothy. Frank also inflicts similar sexual abuse on Jeffrey, even going so far as to basically rape him in the middle of an open road. This is far more explicit than the average pornographic film.

This controversy that surrounds the pornographic industry is a complicated situation. Say what you will about the quality of porn. Personally, I prefer to watch movies with an actual plot, but I see nothing about the genre that makes it wrong for a person of either gender to enjoy watching. It has a reputation as being a sort of "lower film" but that is in large part because it is constantly being used as a scapegoat for broader social issues. Better representations of women in film does not mean the eradication of a genre, it means making an effort to better represent women within all kinds of filmmaking.