Gender, Fucking, and Utopia: An Essay in Response to John Stoltenberg's Refusing to Be a Man
1990; Duke University Press; Issue: 27 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/466305
ISSN1527-1951
Autores Tópico(s)Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction
ResumoPornography, according to John Stoltenberg, lies about women. But pornography tells truth about men. Here on my desk is Leatherwomen 89 calendar, created by lesbians and given to me by one of pictured women who happened to be a member of FACT (Feminist Anti-Censorship Task Force) while it was active. It is open to April: a close-up photo of a leather-vested, barebreasted woman whose hand is gloved in another woman's ass, her cunt also visible with two rings through her labia. Pornography lies about women, so file this image under Lies. Does this image fit definition of pornography spelled out in Civil Rights Anti-Pornography Ordinance created by Andrea Dworkin and Catherine MacKinnon, and defended at length in Stoltenberg's book? Using terms from Ordinance and Stoltenberg, it is graphic and sexually explicit, to be sure. But does it portray specific genital acts? Well, no. Does it portray sadomasochism? If we call act fist-fucking it may or may not be in repertoire of certain sadomasochists; but those who enjoy act as a form of anal yoga quite distinct from SM prefer to call it hand-balling. Is this a depiction of the act of making subject or subservient? Perhaps, though these women acted in mutual consent. Are these women dehumanized as sexual objects, things or commodities? Any and all image-making dehumanizes human models to some degree; and to some degree humanizes material film, ink, paint, paper, canvas, clay, stone, whatever it may be. Are these women presented as sexual objects who enjoy pain or humiliation? Their faces aren't visible, but would their feelings be unambiguous even if we saw smiles or grimaces? Are these women reduced to body parts? The sense of sight itself is selective and reduces all bodies into parts less than wholes; real world is always partly opaque and hidden; pure transparency would leave no visible forms.
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