Read other letters about this article
Men always complain that women or feminists in particular alwasys try to restrict their access to porn. I think men are more likely to believe this based upon thing that they read rather than in actuality. Moreover, when men here at Broadsheet complain about this, they never actually define porn. They act as if all porn is the same when it is really quite wide ranging.
Dworkin (whom I think dickie obscenely named himself after) and McKinnon mostly tried to rally women to oppose a certain type of porn: Violent, exploitative porn. It didn't actually work as a movement because lots of women actually like or at least are prepared to tolerate some types of porn. Lesbian women, in particular, and free speech feminists opposed this and the movement broke down.
When men go on and on about this, they never ask themselves why it failed. It failed because feminists stopped it.
Therefore, when men say feminists oppose porn, they are only making fools of themselves.
My generalizations:
Women with fundamentalist religious beliefs -- almost always oppose any porn that they can't control. Rarely, they might tolerate playboy -- because men are so weak -- but they will never sit down and watch it and they oppose internet browsing of it in their men.
Women in general -- varies completely with the woman.
Feminists -- some feminists oppose any porn in which real violence seems to be used against women. All feminist whom I know oppose porn in which it cannot be validated that the women in it are of age. I, frankly, am glad Max Hardcore was found guilty of obscenity.