As I read through the chapter discussing pornography and culture, I was most interested in the "pornography as rape" section. At first glance, I was a bit surprised by the comment, thinking to myself, that's a bold statement. But it got me thinking, people have attributed suicide, bad behavior and even mass murders to rock songs and video games; how could we not consider the objectification of women in pornography as a potential influence to rape and rape culture. "Hustler made me do it", certainly sounds like something that could be said. But perhaps the ways porn is presented just like video games, can be modified/twisted to make the act less demeaning. I've heard recently about porn websites that showcase videos from real couples, maybe this is a little better than just dominating men and submissive women... but who's to say? At the end of the day, like the book says, it's really just dependent on what you're into.
Women in the news seems to be a battle that continually arises. I'm always reminded of a few girls that I grew up with that desperately wanted to be "weather girls", event the connotation that a woman could only present something like the weather is insulting. That's not to say that's all you hear of women doing, it's just interesting that a man might be called something like a meteorologist for doing the same thing. And as always, the media is attempting to urge the raped to stop being raped; shouldn't we be telling rapists not to rape? But as it so often happens, women are boiled down to their clothing, shoes, sexuality, or what coconut water they're trying this week.
I'm not exactly sure there's a black and white solution, as there isn't with many of the issues we discuss in this class; however, I do think noticing the issues is one of the largest steps to combatting it. As a global issue, we'll have to be exponentially more socially attentive before anything is achieved.
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