Pornography
*Warning: contents may
give offense
Contains sexually explicit
language, but no images
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
1
Ethics
• Moral values or reasoning
• May be individual or social
• Imparted by religion, schools,
families ( agents of socialization)
• Approaches:
– Prior “rules”– deontological
– Assess consequences-teleological
– Situational-pragmatic
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
2
Ethics
• Informal and indirect social regulation
• Reside in law: human rights protections, criminal
behaviors
• Charter
• Or other laws ( eg. Human Rights Act, Criminal Code)
• Reside in codes of professional conduct: day to day
manufacture of news or entertainment
– “common sense” among gatekeepers
• Both formal law and informal self regulation are
‘reflective’ of society or ‘constructive’ of social
morality ( Fleras)
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
3
Definition of Pornography
• Porno: from the Greek root
meaning prostitution or captive
– I.e. subservient position
• Graphos: writing about, depiction
– I.e. separation, distance between
subject and object
• CC: 541.
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
4
Definition of Erotica
• From Greek Root: Eros
• Passionate love
• Pleasure, reciprocated
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
5
The Cultural & Political
Problem
• The goal must be to distinguish
objectionable material from sexually
explicit,
• Identify when it is legitimate to restrict
the former and not the latter
• Tests:
– If mutual consent
– If no harm
– I.e. positive, life affirming sexual depiction,
free will
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
6
Cultural Context
• A continuum between erotica and
pornography
• “Hard”
– Where graphic depiction of penetration and
genitals
• “Soft”
– Sex play: suggestive and arousing
– In Mass Media:
• A continuum of pornography: sex sells
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
7
The Political Economy
Context: The Industry
• “Adult Entertainment” Industry
– E.g.: Sextv, myriad websites,Hustler, etc.
– Blue movies
– Estimated at 15-20 b in North America; 50 billion
worldwide ( rough estimates)
– 10% of hotel revenues
– Telus: withdrew cell phone access to ppv porn
under social pressure
– Growing share of Email Spam
• Roughly 15 billion pieces of spam are distributed
everyday, accounting for over 50% of global emails. (2004)
• Estimated 30% sex service spam
• 1 in 20 act on receiving it: many times more
effective than other
kinds of ads ( eg. viagra)
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
8
Effects of Pornography
• Theoretical Basis for Critique
• Based on Cultivation Hypothesis
– Repeated exposure to stereotypes of
women may ‘condition’ a world view where
• Women are subordinate
• Women are defined by sexual display
• Women are sexually available ( see Signorelli of
the Annenberg school)
– Reinforcing patriarchal social values (
hegemonic/dominant cultural power)
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
9
Theory 2
• Effects studies: Pre and Post
– Tannis McBeth Williams
• Experimental study Notel, Unitel, Multitel
introduction of TV to a Northern Canadian
Community
– Found children’s play exhibited more sex-role
stereotyped behaviors after introduction of TV
– More dominant/aggressive male female interplay
– Perceptions more traditional
• Judge girls on the basis of what they look like
rather than what they do
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
10
Theory 3
•
•
Studies of Social Psychology
– Freud, Lacan
• Sexual fantasy: the male desire to control the mother
CC 553
– Premises of desensitization
– Emergence of violence against women
Studies of Semiotics
– Objectification of Body Parts
• Focus on genitalia, faceless, personless
• Fetishism of appearance: extreme makeover and focus
on sexual genitalia
– Elements:
• Male gaze defines the woman
• Male dominant positions
• Women always sexually available: want it even when
they say no
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
11
Ideological Perspectives
•
•
•
Social Conservatives
– See pornography as a threat to the social order and
morality
– A mockery of family values ( CC 547)
– Often tied to patriarchy, right to life
– “civil pollution”
Feminists
– See pornography as a threat to gender equality and
morality
– Tied to misogyny
Libertarians
– See right to pornography as individual choice
– Government censorship as the biggest threat of all
• Source: CC: 544.
• R.A. Hackett and Yuezhi Zhao. 1998. Sustaining
Democracy. Toronto: Garamond. 4.
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
12
The Social Costs
• Social psychological roots in
sadomasochism
• Asymmetrical sex power
relationships
• Violence implicated
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
13
Three Key Human Rights
• Inalienable, basic human rights:
– Freedom to decide
– Equality of Opportunity
– Dignity of Person
• Latter 2 are the focus of much
controversy over gender and the media
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
14
Leading Canadian Cases
• R. v. Butler ( 1992)
• R. v. Sharpe (2001)
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
15
R. V. Butler(1992)
• Three types of materials featuring
sex
– Explicit sex with violence
– Explicit sex without violence but
which subjects people to treatment
that is degrading and humanizing
– Explicit sex without violence that is
neither degrading or humanizing
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
16
R. V Sharpe ( 2001)
• Under the Criminal Code provisions in Canada,
– material that shows someone who is or is "depicted
as being" under 18, and is engaged or "depicted as
engaged" in explicit sexual activity, is classified as
"child pornography".
– Photographs of the genitals or anal region of
someone under 18, "for a sexual purpose", are
illegal, as are written texts that advocate sex with a
child.
• The penalty for making or distributing child
pornography is up to 10 years in prison. Possession or
"accessing" carries a potential sentence of up to 5
years.
• There is a defense for works that have artistic merit,
or an educational, scientific or medical purpose.
• In addition, the Supreme Court "read in" exceptions for
Spring
2007
CMNS 130
personal
writings and visual
depictions intended for 17
private use, including diaries, self-photography and
US Tests
• used to judge whether an image is child pornography.
– 1986 court case, "United States vs. Dost".
• whether the focal point of the visual depiction is
on the child's genital, pubic or anal areas
• whether the setting of the visual depiction is
sexually suggestive, i.e., in a place or pose
generally associated with sexual activity
• whether the child is depicted in an unnatural
pose, or in inappropriate attire, considering the
age of the child
• whether the child is fully or partially clothed, or
nude
• whether the visual depiction suggests sexual
coyness or a willingness to engage in sexual
Spring 2007 activity
CMNS 130
18
CBSC Sex Role Portrayal
Guidelines for TV
• Endorses non sexist language
• Realistic balance in use of women and men as
voiceovers and as experts and authorities
• Visibility and Involvement of women in broadcasting
on and off air
• Portrayal of women and men with diversity of age,
abilities, physical appearance, ethnic origin,
occupation,family structure,and household
responsibilities ( a broad demographic spectrum)
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
19
CBSC 2
• Injunction on ‘sex-ploitation’
– “TV and radio shall refrain from the exploitation of
women, men and children. Negative or degrading
comments… shall be avoided. Modes of dress,
camera, focus on body… should not be degrading to
either sex. The sexualization of children through
dress or behavior is not acceptable”
– Accepts complaints and rules on them: decisions
found on CBSC website
• Leading case against the Howard Stern Show (1997)
held that “women in this country are entitled to the
respect which their intellectual, emotional and
personal and artistic qualities merit. Nor more than
men. No less than men. But every bit as much as
men.”
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
20
Tests for Textual Analysis: Stereotyping
and Sexploitation
•
•
•
Is sexual commercial appeal ‘gratuitous’?( soft)
Are women depicted as obsessed with appearance?( soft)
Are women defined by relationship to the ‘male gaze’?
•
Are they depicted in domestic/maternal or social
relationships? Are power relationships unequal? Is one
clearly dominant/ another subordinate?
Narrative context for ads is ‘instant’: for news, drama,
comedy, more easy to discern
Contemporary Canadian norms accept if depiction of
‘sexploitation’ is central to the plot line or character
development, then it is permissible under certain conditions
•
•
–
–
–
–
–
Lack of face-ism ( soft)
Licensed withdrawal( fantasy) ( soft)
Unsolicited or unreciprocal touch ( verging hard)
Cant of head, eye contact ( soft) ( ‘fear’)
Bodily domination ( centre in picture)
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
21
Decoding Grrl Power
• Cannot underestimate ‘desire’–
pleasures of romance, male
attention, ‘sexual currency’
• Paradox of pleasure,
empowerment through sexual
display and fear of ‘ecstasy’
• Willing ‘consumption’ of popular
media images of women– younger
and younger
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
22
Taste
•
•
•
•
•
•
Cannot regulate taste * CBSC argues these decisions best
left to the marketplace
Liberal/libertarian ideology actually wants to maximize
‘choice’ or market of taste
“Reform” liberals accept freedom of choice may be subject
to defensible limits
Tastes, however, are culturally conditioned by attitudes
towards sexuality, tolerance for explicit sexual depiction
– Canada more ‘liberal’ than US
– Asia more ‘liberal’ than Canada
– Europe ( especially Northern) most liberal
Attitudes towards sexuality and permissiveness vary widely
by country and religion
Murdock, Star TV and other international sky channels tend
to police their own representations due to fear of offending
advertisers in Asian countries
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
23
Tests for Analysis:
Degradation and
Dehumanization
• Abusive and discriminatory speech
• Promoting hatred against a specific
group ( with risk of demonstrable
harm)
• Undue exploitation of power
relationship ( subjugation) ( hard)
• Violence against women: degradation
and dehumanization ( hard core)
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
24
ASC On Violence:
– Neither sex should be portrayed as exerting dominance
over the other by means of overt or implied threats or
actual force.
– Images or texts which imply domination, aggression or
violence or enjoyment of same, should not be used.
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
25
Tests 2
•
Toughest area: in the grey area between pornography,
erotica and popular culture
– Tolerance for graphic depictions of sex ( and deviancy) ( more
graphic, harder core)
– Turns on issue of consent, reciprocal interest ( mutuality of sex
play) ( use of force) ( unwanted ‘rape’ hard core)
– Protects against exploitation of children ( a universal Taboo, and
one where there are emerging conventions, and struggle to fight
predation on the Internet)
•
TV Industry Response
– So called “blue movie watershed: (9:00 pm)
– Also on “ informed consent” of viewer ( posting of viewer
advisories often enough that viewer knows what they are in for)
– But: viewer advisories often circumvented
• A study found more than 60% of R rated films are marketed to tweens
CC: 537
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
26
CBSC on Stern
• Received hundreds of complaints
• Many episodes of radio and cable TV show
• Found unrelenting sexist terms exploitive and
unacceptable
– Coyne: “ there is no disputing that much of what Stern
says is disgusting,puerile,even hurtful. But that does not
make it any less speech, or any less deserving of
protection as such”. Onus should not be put on the
speaker to prove speech useful. The rights of free people
precede the powers of the state.
• Tied to: exploitation of violence ( break legs at the
pool)( and mentally disabled)
– Issue: inciting violence against women?
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
27
Obscenity
• Radically different cultural interpretations over time
• Governed by the Criminal Codes
• Definition has moved from religious to secular
interpretation
– Religious: anything that dilutes moral standards
– Secular:
• Turns on ‘average person applying contemporary community
standards in finding that the material appeals to prurient
interests’
• Who is ‘average person’?
• What are contemporary standards?
• What is “prurient”?
• These are the stuff of ‘cultural politics’: democratic debates
over appropriate role and conduct of media
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
28
Modern Canadian
Definition:
• Depiction or description of sexual content in a
patently offensive way
• No offsetting serious literary, artistic or other
value
• This is the basis that Robin Sharpe’s prosecution
failed
• In Canada: RCMP raids on bookstores eg. Little
Sisters
• An active lobby against censorship ( Library
Associations, Writers’ Guilds, Civil Liberties
Associations) and for censorship ( CAVE,
Coalition Against Violence, MediaWatch)
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
29
Pornography
• 1993 act Bill C-128 makes child
pornography illegal ( Sharpe case
overturns act: now in revision)
• International Conventions on Rights of
Child, trafficking, sex trade tourism
makes it possible for other countries to
prosecute ‘johns’ travelling for child
sex, possession of child pornography,
and intent to traffic same
• Canadian Act now being brought into
line with International Law: extended
onto Net
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
30
Liberation Pornography
• Women, gays, transgendered
artists now moving into roles as
producers and consumers of
pornography
• Providing new spaces for the
articulation of desire
• Challenging new standards of
human decency, dignity of being
in media representations
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
31
Further Reading
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/fro
ntline/shows/porn/business/mainst
ream.html
•
•
•
•
•
www.mediawatch.ca/watching the watchers
Aronovitch, H.2002. “The Harm of Hate Propaganda” in
Citizenship and Participation in the Information Age, edited
by M. Pendakur and R. Harris, Garamond. 147-164.
Barker,C.1999. “ Sexed Subjects and Gendered
Representations” TV, Globalization and Cultural Identity
Gallagher,M.2001. Gendersetting
Martin. M. 1997.’Capitalism and Partriarchy as Concepts of
Media Consumption Analysis’ in Communication and Mass
Media
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
32
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
33