Dire Straights Is porn a scapegoat for patriarchy?
The adult industry has turned into a popular scapegoat for nearly every problem in hetero life and culture right now. Pornography is blamed for everything from the “male loneliness epidemic” to women’s heteropessimism.
Some of these arguments are coming from feminist-minded folks who are reckoning with the cultural influence of pornography. But there’s also a decidedly anti-feminist contingent that is focused on the idea of porn as a tool of men’s oppression.
These attitudes are even circulating within the manosphere and among right-wing pundits. Figures like Andrew Tate, Jordan Peterson, Tucker Carlson, and Theo Von have all joined the anti-porn chorus. Meanwhile, conservatives are attempting to ban porn while bowing at the feet of a president who paid hush-money to porn performer Stormy Daniels.
There are certainly valid critiques to be made of porn as an industry. In this episode, we separate the legitimate from the illegitimate, the feminist from the anti-feminist, and we highlight where critiques of porn are overly simplistic, shame-based, anti-sex work, or just doing patriarchy’s dirty work.
We also get into our personal histories with porn—from how Amanda felt as a teen and in her twenties watching boys and men get sucked into tube sites, to Tracy’s experience as a teenager using porn as a guidebook to hot sex. Tracy also shares some behind-the scenes secrets from her years reporting on the industry as a journalist—including how they make fake cum shots.
And you’ll hear our uncensored thoughts about recent anti-porn arguments made by fellow feminists.
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Show highlights…
02:58 Porn is a scapegoat for hetero problems right now…
03:43 … from jackhammering to low-effort men to women’s heteropessimism.
06:50 We will refrain from relitigating the feminist sex wars. For now.
08:11 Amanda reluctantly asks Tracy to explain “gooning.”
15:20 Tracy talks about reporting as a journalist on a porn set and having an eye-opening conversation with a performer that she had come of age watching.
17:33 We don’t just learn “sexual scripts” from porn. One of us learned as much about sex and gender roles from “The Real World: Seattle” as YouJ*zz.com.
23:32 The right-wing crackdown on porn—from age-verification laws to fantasies of an all-out ban.
33:49 Tucker Carlson has some big feelings about cuckold porn.
35:44 Andrew Tate says that porn—as opposed to, say, accused sex traffickers like himself—are ruining society.
37:07 Let’s not forget Jordan Peterson calling porn “deadening” and “parasitical.”
37:52 Amanda ties in Scott Galloway to all of this nonsense.
40:10 We dig into current anti-porn arguments among feminists. (And “feminists.”)
41:39 Tracy reminds us that the “pro-porn” feminists were often critical of porn! They had a lot of questions and no easy answers.
42:55 Amanda reminds us that Andrea Dworkin’s arguments are often oversimplified.
47:40 These debates usually boil down to a simplistic “good” or “bad.” We can probably thank the gender binary for that.
50:34 One day we’ll have to do an episode on Substack feminism.
52:25 Amanda talks about her “anti-porn” phase.
58:02 Tracy talks about her youth watching early internet porn and trying to figure out how to get good at sex.
01:01:14 She found great role models in porn, actually.
01:04:40 Tracy talks about the behind-the-scenes of porn sets—and you will never think of Cetaphil the same way again.
01:11:29 Let’s critique porn, sure, but let’s not lose sight of how anti-porn arguments are being used in conservative, right-wing, and reactionary feminist attacks that are transphobic, homophobic, racist, misogynistic, and whorephobic.