Being that this site is in its infancy, and I am suspecting that most of you who have ended up may not have planned on it, I think it might be appropriate to give a little bit of background on the feminist pornography debate. Starting in the 1960's and continuing through the 1980's, feminism experienced what is now known as the "Second Wave." Unlike the First Wave which focused mainly only on legal inequalities that suppressed women, the Second Wave began to focus on social inequalities also. This included family, the workplace, sexuality, and reproductive rights. Coming with examining sexuality, feminists began to diverge on the issue of pornography. Radical, right-wing feminists started the anti-pornography movement. This cause held that pornography was degrading to women and lead to rape and violence. Feminists like Andrea Dworkin took examples of violence on the set of pornographic films like that from the movie "Deep Throat" to argue that pornography was harmful to even those involved in it.
On the other hand, the sex-positives argued that this was not the norm and that pornography is empowering and important to women. One part of this argument was that even though most mainstream pornography was at the time for men, there was nothing inherently objective about it. Sex-positives also argued that pornography could be made for women's tastes. As the links on this blog prove, today, the Internet is allowing for more of this pornographic material by women for women. Sites like ishotmyself and suicidegirls allow users to upload their own self-made material for the sake of empowerment and self-expression. Not only do these sites aim to give women a mode of liberation, they value the process of reforming mainstream pornography by depicting all body types.
This history is short and not all-encompassing, but I hope it helps you understand the purpose of this blog. If you would like more information on the feminist pornography debate, check out the links on the right side of this page.
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