Pornography Turns All Participants Into Commodities

To the editors:



RE: “Pondering Porn,” editorial, Oct. 28, 2007

The editorial board’s response to Catherine MacKinnon’s speech on pornography in American culture does no justice to her argument. It is a misrepresentation to suggest that her approach consisted merely of “shock tactics.” The pervasive ties between the porn industry and illegal sex-trafficking, and the wide range of statistical evidence demonstrating that exposure to pornography increases an individual’s propensity to commit sex crimes, were but a few of the many points she raised to demonstrate the societal harm caused by pornography.

It is also a distortion to connect her anti-pornography position to the belief that “women are always coerced into sex.” The argument is not that women cannot be trusted to give consent, but rather that mere consent does not necessarily make an arrangement just, especially when assent is driven by economic desperation. I imagine that The Crimson writers would see injustice in the conditions of third world sweatshops, where laborers “voluntarily” work 16 hour days in hazardous working environments. It is curious, then, that they are so uncritical of the degrading character of the sex industry. Pornography commodifies and cheapens one of the most intimate encounters two people can share, and in the process harms both the viewer and the participant.



JASON C. MURRAY ’08

Cambridge, MA

October 30, 2007