As a porn enthusiast, your article in the Feb. 27 edition of the Daily Illini raised a series of flags in my head. I found the feminist stance on porn more funny than serious. Do men really look to pornography as a framework for their sexuality? Is porn art, and is it influencing the men who view it? Certainly not. I believe myself qualified to make such an assertion. I own literally days of pornography footage. My friends have even given it a pet name of sorts: “The Collection.”

To criticize the “message” sent out by pornography is a futile endeavor. Pornography is not some kind of Scorsese masterpiece or a “Juno.” It is, simply put, a means to an end. Men do not look to pornography for advice: they look at it to get off. Not surprisingly, the feminists in your article say that pornography charges men with a kind of energy that makes them go out and rape unsuspecting women. Of course, there are those who might see something happen in a pornographic movie and try to reproduce it in real life, but that was probably the result of a previous psychotic condition, not the result of watching a semi-violent porno. Essentially, the viewer of an adult movie that knows what is going on knows it is not “real,” no more real than when Sauron tries to take all of Middle Earth in “The Lord of the Rings.” Watching the great epic will not convince me to do the same.

The real failure of the feminist’s anti-porn agenda comes with their lackluster answer of the “so-what?” factor. If porn is so dehumanizing to women, what are the consequences? By watching porn, am I more likely to spank my partner’s rear while making love? Maybe, but so what? Sex is not a one way street, and pornography will never change that. If my lover should allow me the simple pleasure of spanking her, then so what? The feminists would say this is just another form of male aggression, making the woman submissive. Remember, however, that she has to OK whatever I do to her. Last time I checked, we were both adults, and could make responsible decisions. I call their “aggression” biology playing itself out in a form of “Rough Trade,” as the great Adam Carolla would call it.

Jonathan K. Contrades

Porn Aficionado

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