Pornography and Civil Rights: A New Day for Women's Equality

women’s is, they are often used in pornography in ways similar to the ways women are used. The Ordinance makes it possible for them to sue. The Ordinance also permits civil suits

against the use of children in pornography. Specific subgroups

of men, particularly gay men and Black men, would also have

strong potential cases. For both, their civil status is made lower

by their sexualization in pornography and in society. For both,

one can see a direct relation between their use in pornography

and their low social status. Gay men are often used literally in

the same ways women are in pornography; their status being

lowered to that of a woman is part of the sex. Abuse of gay men

is also eroticized in pornography, promoting self-hatred of an

oppressed group as its pleasure and identity. Black men in heterosexual pornography are presented through the same sexual stereotypes that have pervaded the racist use of the rape

charge and that have arguably increased the likelihood that

Blacks wil receive the death penalty when they commit a crime

against a white. Pornography sexualizes racism against them.

Black men are reduced to the racist view of their sex: the out-

sized rapist penis, the color of the colonized and the chain

gang. They are animalized, huge and promiscuous and amoral

and out of control. Black men are also shown in chains, in sexualized slavery. The connection between violence against such men in pornography and violence against them in the world

has not yet been fully documented, but would be possible to

at empt under the Ordinance.

Force

Forcing pornography on a person: It shall be sex discrimination to force pornography on a person, including child or transsexual, in any place of employment, education, home, or public place. Only the perpetrator of the force or institution responsible for the force may

be sued.

Pornography conditions the working environment of

countless of ices, construction sites, shipyards, hospitals, and

homes. It pervades hierarchical arrangements. Doctors use it

The Ordinance

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on patients in therapy or in gynecologists* of ices; men use it

on wives and children in homes; teachers use it on students in

schools; males use it on females in factories, nursing homes,

day-care centers, everywhere. Sometimes the pornography is

“just there, ” but escape is impossible short of being deprived

of a job or a class. As is sometimes recognized in cases of sexual

harassment, being deprived of a setting you have a right to be

in can be a form of force in itself. Other times pornography

is overtly forced on victims by physical or psychological terrorism. The Ordinance is designed to make possible suits against those who force pornography on others, but not

against the pornographers themselves.

Assault

Assault or physical at ack due to pornography: It shall be

sex discrimination to assault, physically attack, or injure any person, including child or transsexual, in a way that is directly caused by specific pornography.

Complaint(s) may be made against the perpetrator of