The grotesque absurdity of left-liberal support for porn and prostitution needs to be questioned after Minassian's misogynist attack

Warning: At the end of this piece are disturbing screenshots from Porn Hub. These were taken from the front page of Porn Hub 28/04/18. They are included solely to provide an example of the type of misogyny that is commonplace on the most popular porn sites in the world



How to do you square an irreconcilable circle?


In the wake of the vicious, misogynist attack by Alek Minassian it has been important and long overdue to see people and the mainstream media talking about toxic masculinity and the danger of online misogyny.

Some of us have been writing and warning about this for a very long time.

It is important and long overdue to see people and the mainstream media talking about how objectification and the sense of entitlement by so many men to women's bodies and to "sex" (it is really rape they are interested in) leads to exceptionally dangerous outcomes.

But it amazes me that so many remain unwilling to draw the obvious and direct line of this type of misogynist thinking by men to the racist, colonialist, misogynist and degrading institutions of pornography and prostitution in which countless women and girls (as well as some boys and men) are brutalized in horrific ways daily by men around the world.

It takes mere seconds to show this.

This is a terrible, depressing blind spot in much of the liberal and left analysis of the societal horror of violently misogynist views of women and girls.

Given the appalling, misogynist, racist and colonialist depictions of women and girls that are just an internet click away and given the access to women's bodies as sold commodities that is being pushed as a North American left-liberal ideological line, why would we expect many men and young men growing up in this context to not see women this way?

Is it ok for men to masturbate to images of women and girls being violated and abused? Is it ok for men to find sexual gratification in  the humiliation of young women who participate in videos for money?

Have we really debased ourselves in our analysis so far where we equate the most empty liberal narratives with "freedom"?

When is the left going to wake up to the reality of what the ideological underpinnings of porn and prostitution actually mean in reinforcing and consolidating systemic misogyny and the brutal objectification and oppression of women and girls?

Until that day comes the left has been little but an ideological handmaiden to the grotesque and vicious.

It is impossible to support the principles of "Me Too" and to really oppose the vile and debased narratives of Men's Rights or "Incel" groups or other men who feel that women or girls exist for or owe them sex while supporting the porn and prostitution industries that say the exact same thing.

There is no liberal or left case for porn or prostitution that is not simply aiding and abetting the worst and most dehumanizing aspects that have led us here.

Warning: Below are disturbing screenshots from Porn Hub. These were taken from the front page of Porn Hub 28/04/18. They are included solely to provide an example of the type of misogyny that is commonplace on the most popular porn sites in the world:

See also: We all could have seen Minassian's misogynist attack coming if we had wanted to look