Do you mean actual rights like bodily autonomy or protections from discrimination in medical settings, housing, or the workplace?

Or do you means “rights” like allowing men to walk into female only changing rooms, baths, and restrooms without question? “Rights” like being allowed to censor any opposing viewpoints, including academic studies? “Rights” like male rapists being housed in female prisons with only self-ID? “Rights” like shutting down female music festivals, closing lesbian bars, and getting rape crisis centers defunded for not centering you? “Rights” like controlling language women are allowed use to talk about their bodies or how people are supposed to perceive you?

So I told him, yes actually, what do you think November is the month of awareness of?

And he paused and said…. “No nut november?”

In our society, women with mental health issues and trauma are frequently sexualized because of the perceived vulnerability and powerlessness that we associate with mental illness(in women). The reality of course is different, which is that mental health problems and trauma are experienced in a multitude of ways.

In pornography–similar to youth–mental illness is sexualized and depicted as something that makes some easier to take advantage of and control. What is even more sinister is that mental illness is also used as something to further mock and degrade women. Think of the mental health issues that our society often associates with women–eating disorders, panic attacks… “daddy issues”–which is a disgusting term to begin with, but the way it’s sexualized is even worse. 

Below are a couple examples of the sexualized misery seen in porn. Porn is all about encouraging people to get off on the suffering of women.

Look at the way they depict “daddy issues” (stay tuned for rant about that term/concept)

Easier to take advantage of

Fun to ridicule

Not worthy of empathy (duh)

Vulnerable, low self-esteem=great opportunity for men

Needs men to feel worthy (as she should, right?)

Of course there is the added layer of sexualizing incest/abuse/child rape.

Anorexia

Thin/skinny is always better, no matter what the cost to her health is

Easy to dominate

Easy to coerce

A lot of homemade anorexic porn–a perfect example of why even homemade porn is terrible. Can you imagine what people do to convince a young woman with anorexia that porn is a good idea?

New level of degradation: call them fat, since of course that will make them feel worse.

Encourage other girls to be anorexic “as a joke”

Mental breakdowns/Panic attacks

I have been naive to think that if people actually saw these women getting upset during a shoot, then porn users might have more empathy.

Porn star breakdowns have become a genre of their own

They are categorized as bloopers. We’re supposed to look at their pain and find it funny

In a decent world, people would see someone having a breakdown, and it would cause them to feel some empathy. The porn industry has just turned it into another aspect of “entertainment”

When degrading someone physically isn’t enough, this is what the industry turns to. There will never be anything that makes people think that these women are worthy of compassion. In fact, they make it so people will be entertained and even turned on by women’s misery.

The whole genre is basically saying: look at how miserable these women are. Isn’t that funny? Isn’t that sexy?

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