Pornography

Last night I was watching a Law and Order SVU marathon and one of the episodes was dealing with a debate on pornography.  Two of the main detectives in the case got into a heated debate on whether or not porn was degrading to women, and it reminded me of the discussions we had in class dealing with pornography.  The female detective, Olivia Benson, was arguing that porn is degrading to women and that because of porn women feel that they have to live up to the “porn star” image and do the things that the women in the videos are doing for their man to be happy.  She argued that because of these films, men also expect women to be like these women they are seeing and if they are not, their men aren’t satisfied.  She talks about how it puts ideas in men’s heads that they can overpower women and controlling them.  The other male detective, Odafin Tutuola, argues against Benson's ideas and says that he has watched porn along with millions of others in the world, and it is only degrading if women let it be.  He states that all of the women in the films are willing to engage in the activities they do, and if for some reason they are looked down upon it was their own choice to do what they did.  He claims that maybe both men and women get ideas from porn, but that it does not have a negative impact on them or society.  I found this section of the episode to be very interesting, because it seems to cover some of the most common arguments on pornography.  I sided with detective Benson, because I do believe that the pornography industry is degrading to women and sets a standard in society that women feel they need to, but should not have to, live up to.  Also, I found it interesting that none of the other detectives that were around during this debate were willing to throw in their beliefs to aid in the discussion.  I have a feeling that because Benson was the only female detective, and all the rest are men, the other men standing around would have most likely sided with Tutuola.  I was extremely frustrated while watching the episode, because I know that there are so many people out there that would side with Tutuola instead.  It makes me really angry because this is just another way that women are looked down on and lowered in society, and without people recognizing this it will be nearly impossible to have equality of the genders.