Pornography Research Paper

Saria Khan

3-21-14

Argument I: Pornography

In the today’s society, social media has gone out of hand. Most people these days have a cell phone, Ipad and/or laptop and most definitely a television at their home. Therefore, access to pornography has become extremely easy and can be available to any individual in less than 5 minutes. The best definition of pornography can be explained as sexually explicit words or images intended to provoke sexual arousal. The easy access to porn has raised many people to question if porn is harmful, if it should be censored, and if it is unsafe. Many debates have been going on about porn concerning freedom of rights, speech, and entertainment and right of privacy. The main people to have argued on this point are Catherine Mackinnon and philosopher J.S. Mill.

Mackinnon has three points to which she argues that porn should be censored. Firstly, she believes that porn greatly harms women and violates their civil rights. Second, it degrades and subordinates woman through sexually explicit portrayal and simultaneously it endorses that demeaning view. Porn is not speech so it should not be protected as freedom of speech. Finally, it makes women look inferior and therefore, conditions the people who are watching porn to treat women the same way as being shown. The male-dominated porn has suppressed women’s viewpoints on the issue.

Mill, on the other hand, does not believe porn should be censored. He advocates freedom of speech, and believes that the government along with society should not overpower or control the actions and opinions of individuals who are not directly harming other people. As said by him, “[T]he only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilize...

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...raising our voices and using freedom of speech will make more of a difference. I also agree with Mill because though Mackinnon talks about how women are oppressed because of porn, I am sure there are a number of other causes that lead to oppression, not just porn. For instance, if porn was to be censored, I doubt that would immediate abolish rape cases and sexism. I feel like if we let the government control what we watch, we, as a society, will let the government control our lives. We may even lose the simplest privileges and rights we have as individuals. I believe porn is not immoral because, again, it does not cause harm to individuals in society, besides the individual watching it their self. Many people may think that people should not spend money or time on porn but the opinions of the majority should never control the individuals right to choose.