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Jaicee said:

Okay, one final aside on this topic of the sex industry. We've talked mostly about the consequences of the sex trade (prostitution, pornography, etc.) for heterosexual women, but not so much for lesbians. There was a story I was just now reading that I'd like to highlight: Google tweaks algorithm to show less porn when searching for 'lesbian' content.

The campaigners for this cause observed that "in their research, they found that only the word 'lesbian' was linked to pornographic sites, whereas searching for 'gay' or 'trans' linked to informative pages including Wikipedia, top news articles, and specialized blogs".

This is a real issue. Because lesbians are the only all-female group in the queer community, we are sexualized way more than anyone else. The top search term on both Pornhub and YouPorn is, in fact, been 'lesbian'. To judge by the leading search results one encounters (most of which seem to involve things like penetration with penile-shaped objects), one seriously doubts that it's mainly lesbians who are doing these searches. Even gay men sometimes participate in the sexual objectification of lesbians (example).

The consequences of people viewing lesbians more as entertainment than as people can get very real. To highlight a high-profile example of what I mean that made global headlines earlier this year, there was group of male teenagers who approached a lesbian couple on a bus in London and, on learning of their sexual orientation, demanded that they kiss for the group. When the couple refused, they were beaten and had to be hospitalized. Likewise, just the other weekend, a lesbian couple was physically attacked at Amsterdam Pride after refusing the advances of two men. In these sorts of ways, we can see how pornography fosters a dangerous culture of male entitlement to women, and not just the straight ones. So yeah, I'm very glad that Google has recently tweaked their algorithm for the term 'lesbian' to produce informative results comparable to what appears when one searches for 'gay' or 'trans'.

Just wanted to posit that as a final thought.

Yeah thank you for that. This should be made more aware, the type of sexism and objectification of lesbians isn't brought up much. Even straight women can engage/promote this problem.

I'd also like to point out that the conversation has been centered on cis white women as well and hasn't touched on the unique difficulties transwomen/transmen/gay men have and the hardships poc have in these fields.

These things are complex and raising awareness about them helps tremendously with the cause.

Last edited by tsogud - on 13 August 2019

 

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the-pi-guy said:
Jaicee said:

That's not how it works at all. They can stop at any time.  That's legally how it works.  

If you're in the middle of sex, you are free to leave at any time.  

Someone's consent is only given in the moment.  And it can be taken away at any moment.  

I'm sorry, but this is just incredibly dissociated from reality. Most women in the world can't walk away in the middle of consensual sex... let alone prostitutes.

It's like saying drug dealers and loan sharks will abide to laws of contracts and obligations.

Any sociologist and psychologist working in the field could tell you that, so I'm not talking about any feminist theory of rape culture here.



 

 

 

 

 

Even though I don't agree with all of Jaicee's points she's right about prostitution being bad for woman. For someone to turn to prostitution something must have gone wrong in their life and as a prostitute they're more exposed to an abuse lifestyle.



haxxiy said:
the-pi-guy said:

That's not how it works at all. They can stop at any time.  That's legally how it works.  

If you're in the middle of sex, you are free to leave at any time.  

Someone's consent is only given in the moment.  And it can be taken away at any moment.  

I'm sorry, but this is just incredibly dissociated from reality. Most women in the world can't walk away in the middle of consensual sex... let alone prostitutes.

It's like saying drug dealers and loan sharks will abide to laws of contracts and obligations.

Any sociologist and psychologist working in the field could tell you that, so I'm not talking about any feminist theory of rape culture here.

There have been way to many men finding themselves in prison who believe that once things get started they are free to continue until they are satisfied. I do know about anyone else but the first thing I taught my older son before heading into high school and again before going to college.  If a woman says no at any time during sex, you get up and leave.  Its was always foolish for men to believe they have unfettered access to continue sex if a woman says no.  To many guys during college found out that this leads to you pleading for your life in court and hoping the judge and your peers see it your way.



the-pi-guy said:
haxxiy said:

I'm sorry, but this is just incredibly dissociated from reality. Most women in the world can't walk away in the middle of consensual sex... let alone prostitutes.

It's like saying drug dealers and loan sharks will abide to laws of contracts and obligations.

Any sociologist and psychologist working in the field could tell you that, so I'm not talking about any feminist theory of rape culture here.

>I'm sorry, but this is just incredibly dissociated from reality. 

I don't mean that it's an easy thing to do.  Just that it's the legality of it.  If a woman isn't allowed to stop when she wants, it becomes rape.  

Unfortunately there is a lot wrong with our justice system that make it unlikely that rape would be convicted. 

Ask Mike Tyson.  Trust you me, men do get convicted over this stuff and I have witness a few incidents when I was in college.



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Person - An individual should be able to choose where to work no matter the conditions, however much that earns them.
People - Wrong. The Gov must force basic standards and wages that are outrageously high because individuals are weak and/or misguided.

Person - The Gov shouldn't allow an individual to sell their body as work because they are weak and/or misguided.
People - Wrong. An individual should be able to choose where to work no matter the conditions, however much that earns them.

Person - WTF?



EricHiggin said:

Person - An individual should be able to choose where to work no matter the conditions, however much that earns them.
People - Wrong. The Gov must force basic standards and wages that are outrageously high because individuals are weak and/or misguided.

Person - The Gov shouldn't allow an individual to sell their body as work because they are weak and/or misguided.
People - Wrong. An individual should be able to choose where to work no matter the conditions, however much that earns them.

Person - WTF?

cool strawman.



sundin13 said:
EricHiggin said:

Person - An individual should be able to choose where to work no matter the conditions, however much that earns them.
People - Wrong. The Gov must force basic standards and wages that are outrageously high because individuals are weak and/or misguided.

Person - The Gov shouldn't allow an individual to sell their body as work because they are weak and/or misguided.
People - Wrong. An individual should be able to choose where to work no matter the conditions, however much that earns them.

Person - WTF?

cool strawman.

good orangeman.



Jaicee said:

Okay, one final aside on this topic of the sex industry. We've talked mostly about the consequences of the sex trade (prostitution, pornography, etc.) for heterosexual women, but not so much for lesbians. There was a story I was just now reading that I'd like to highlight: Google tweaks algorithm to show less porn when searching for 'lesbian' content.

The campaigners for this cause observed that "in their research, they found that only the word 'lesbian' was linked to pornographic sites, whereas searching for 'gay' or 'trans' linked to informative pages including Wikipedia, top news articles, and specialized blogs".

This is a real issue. Because lesbians are an all-female group by definition, we are sexualized way more than anyone else. The top search term on both Pornhub and YouPorn is, in fact, 'lesbian'. To judge by the leading search results one encounters (a large percentage of which seem to involve things like penetration with penile-shaped objects), one seriously doubts that it's mainly lesbians who are doing these searches. Even gay men sometimes participate in the sexual objectification of lesbians (example).

The consequences of people viewing lesbians more as entertainment than as people can get very real. To highlight a high-profile example of what I mean that made global headlines earlier this year, there was group of male teenagers who approached a lesbian couple on a bus in London and, on learning of their sexual orientation, demanded that they kiss for the group. When the couple refused, they were beaten and had to be hospitalized. Likewise, just the other weekend, a lesbian couple was physically attacked at Amsterdam Pride after refusing the advances of two men. In these sorts of ways, we can see how pornography fosters a dangerous culture of male entitlement to women, and not just the straight or even bi ones. So yeah, I'm very glad that Google has recently tweaked their algorithm for the term 'lesbian' to produce informative results comparable to what appears when one searches for 'gay' or 'trans'.

Just wanted to posit that as a final thought.

Yet again a wrong conclusion based on shallow research.

"Lesbian" has been for the longest time a category in porn, one of the most popular even. It is natural that the most things you'll find with that search term is porn, because that's the category on most sites and porn, as you might know, is kind of a big deal on the internet.

"Trans" is not a porn category, as such you won't find much if any porn under that search term. Try to search for "shemale" and be amazed because it will all be exclusively about porn because that's what the porn category is called.

"Gay" certainly is also a porn category but in the porn community it is only applied to male homosexuals. Before you call sexism again this is just out of tradition and convenience because there is already a term for female gay porn. Now the reason why you won't find nearly as much porn under that term is that gay porn is about 1000th as popular as lesbian porn is. It is actually quite a niche due to the low demand compared to other categories. It also is a very familiar and frequently discussed topic outside of porn. The term "gay" itself is also about 1000 times bigger in non-porn communities than it is in porn. It's also generally applied to both genders outside of porn.

What you are calling sexism or an attack on females is basically just a mix of linguistics, tradition and simple demand and supply.

One funny thing I would add is this. It is very well known that males are generally regarded as more forceful, brutal and dominant than females. Part of it is genes and hormones but another big part is actually society. Men are very much built by society to be exactly like that. And funnily enough, people like you are exacerbating and pushing the issue by trying to put a wedge between genders. The constant reminder of all the differences in genders and the strict division between them is what very much enables toxic behavior from both men and women. It is in some way legitimizing toxic behavior because people like you who are pretending that it is just like this because of gender.

How about we remove gender altogether and treat people as they behave instead of what their gender is? How about we stop saying "men attacking women" and instead say "violent idiots attacking innocents"? That way we would also avoid all of that silly generalization.

It feels like the men you are criticizing about their opinions about porn and prostitution know a lot more about those subjects than you because they actively engage in them on a regular basis. I can't talk much about prostitution but believe me when I say that your view of porn is about as shallow as it gets.

Last edited by vivster - on 14 August 2019

If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.

vivster said:
Jaicee said:

Okay, one final aside on this topic of the sex industry. We've talked mostly about the consequences of the sex trade (prostitution, pornography, etc.) for heterosexual women, but not so much for lesbians. There was a story I was just now reading that I'd like to highlight: Google tweaks algorithm to show less porn when searching for 'lesbian' content.

The campaigners for this cause observed that "in their research, they found that only the word 'lesbian' was linked to pornographic sites, whereas searching for 'gay' or 'trans' linked to informative pages including Wikipedia, top news articles, and specialized blogs".

This is a real issue. Because lesbians are an all-female group by definition, we are sexualized way more than anyone else. The top search term on both Pornhub and YouPorn is, in fact, 'lesbian'. To judge by the leading search results one encounters (a large percentage of which seem to involve things like penetration with penile-shaped objects), one seriously doubts that it's mainly lesbians who are doing these searches. Even gay men sometimes participate in the sexual objectification of lesbians (example).

The consequences of people viewing lesbians more as entertainment than as people can get very real. To highlight a high-profile example of what I mean that made global headlines earlier this year, there was group of male teenagers who approached a lesbian couple on a bus in London and, on learning of their sexual orientation, demanded that they kiss for the group. When the couple refused, they were beaten and had to be hospitalized. Likewise, just the other weekend, a lesbian couple was physically attacked at Amsterdam Pride after refusing the advances of two men. In these sorts of ways, we can see how pornography fosters a dangerous culture of male entitlement to women, and not just the straight or even bi ones. So yeah, I'm very glad that Google has recently tweaked their algorithm for the term 'lesbian' to produce informative results comparable to what appears when one searches for 'gay' or 'trans'.

Just wanted to posit that as a final thought.

Yet again a wrong conclusion based on shallow research.

"Lesbian" has been for the longest time a category in porn, one of the most popular even. It is natural that the most things you'll find with that search term is porn, because that's the category on most sites and porn, as you might know, is kind of a big deal on the internet.

"Trans" is not a porn category, as such you won't find much if any porn under that search term. Try to search for "shemale" and be amazed because it will all be exclusively about porn because that's what the porn category is called.

"Gay" certainly is also a porn category but in the porn community it is only applied to male homosexuals. Before you call sexism again this is just out of tradition and convenience because there is already a term for female gay porn. Now the reason why you won't find nearly as much porn under that term is that gay porn is about 1000th as popular as lesbian porn is. It is actually quite a niche due to the low demand compared to other categories. It also is a very familiar and frequently discussed topic outside of porn. The term "gay" itself is also about 1000 times bigger in non-porn communities than it is in porn. It's also generally applied to both genders outside of porn.

What you are calling sexism or an attack on females is basically just a mix of linguistics, tradition and simple demand and supply.

One funny thing I would add is this. It is very well known that males are generally regarded as more forceful, brutal and dominant than females. Part of it is genes and hormones but another big part is actually society. Men are very much built by society to be exactly like that. And funnily enough, people like you are exacerbating and pushing the issue by trying to put a wedge between genders. The constant reminder of all the differences in genders and the strict division between them is what very much enables toxic behavior from both men and women. It is in some way legitimizing toxic behavior because people like you who are pretending that it is just like this because of gender.

How about we remove gender altogether and treat people as they behave instead of what their gender is? How about we stop saying "men attacking women" and instead say "violent idiots attacking innocents"? That way we would also avoid all of that silly generalization.

It feels like the men you are criticizing about their opinions about porn and prostitution know a lot more about those subjects than you because they actively engage in them on a regular basis. I can't talk much about prostitution but believe me when I say that your view of porn is about as shallow as it gets.

Hmm... Good points, good points. Bolded being particularly truthful. Men do have a lot of pressure from society to act/be a certain way just like women.

Her research may have been shallow and her views on porn are antiquated but her observation holds some truth. Lesbians, particularly in the western world, really are sexualized and objectified a lot but I do disagree that porn is the sole cause or even a major factor at play here. It's pretty complex.

I hope you don't feel all feminists "try to put a wedge between genders" and exacerbate the issue though.