As Father Orthoduck has mentioned, the early feminist movement was completely against Playboy magazine, and was against pornography. So, how did it become acceptable for women to declare themselves feminist precisely by posing for Playboy? Yesterday Father Orthoduck pointed out that the answer is similar to and in parallel to what happened to the Radical Reformers. Both the Radical Anabaptists and the feminists had the same reaction against misused and exploitative authority. And, the USA is a country in which many aspects of the Radical Reformation have taken strong root.
Let Father Orthoduck make it clear that the Roman Catholic Church of the time of the Reformation was decidedly and inappropriately misusing authority and exploiting it for its own means. The Roman Catholic Church has self-acknowledged that, particularly in the apologies tendered by both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. Let Father Orthoduck also make it clear that men were decidedly and inappropriately misusing authority and exploiting it for control over women for too many centuries. In the Christian countries, the Scriptures were used by both the Roman Catholic Church and by men in order to support their laws and their actions, leading to the strong rejection of Scriptures by many feminists.
Both the Anabaptists and the feminists ended up with the same solution, which was individualism. There is no authority save the individual and what authority the individual may freely give to a group–this is the social compact theory of government–whether secular or congregational church. Though Anabaptists claim to have Scripture as their authority, it is actually the individual’s interpretation of Scripture and the individual’s conscience that rules. If one does not agree, one simply founds one’s own church. This is 180 degrees away from the early Anabaptists who formed very strong communities–think of the Amish, the Mennonites, etc. The early Anabaptists were against the founding of multiple denominations. They were also very morally conservative. Just look at what they wrote about dress and belongings. But, there was no way to control that, once one takes away any possibility of an authority larger than the individual. And with no outside authority, why anything that one thinks is the correct interpretation must be. And, so, today we have pastors doing preaching series on wealth and the acquisition of it, when any early Anabaptist would have chided them for leaving the simplicity of Christ.
In the same way, the Gloria Steinem’s of the world would have been horrified that many of today’s women think that posing for Playboy is showing their pride and their feminism. But, there is no “official” feminism. If a woman wants to be erotic publicly and freely chooses that without any coercion, then the very freedom to choose and be pleased with her choice does supposedly make her a feminist. Thus one can now even watch interviews with women involved in the pornography industry–not Hollywood, but the hard-core pornography industry–in which those women proclaim their pride in their performance and the support of their parents. Thus it is not pornography but eroticism because they were not forced into it but they chose it. This is 180 degrees from the original feminists who wanted to stop men from viewing them and treating them as sexual toys.
So, how could Marge Simpson pose for Playboy and be a feminist? Because she freely chose to. It is now, supposedly, the epitome of feminism that whatever a woman chooses is an affirmation of herself, regardless of the choice.
A final note. Father Orthoduck wishes to point out, yet again, that the trigger to both the Anabaptists and the feminists was a terrible misuse and exploitation of authority. But, whereas the Reformers tried to bring back appropriate authority, both the Anabaptists and feminists responded by putting authority in the individual only. But, in the long run, that approach has also led to multiple problems, which are the opposite from the problems of misused and exploitative authority.
Very interesting and timely. I just spent this weekend reading a critical analysis of pornography culture, and listening to interviews with women who had left the pornography business discuss their experiences. The most startling thing was the extreme humiliation, degradation and violence which are now regular features of these productions. The boundaries have been pushed to such extremes that the violent depiction of revenge motifs is enacted in truly vile ways. It is estimated that 75% of the sex workers are drug and alcohol addicted, being unable to make it through the productions any other way but high. Moreover, they are continually infected and re-infected with sexually transmitted diseases and subject to severe injury.
That being said, the only way that many of the women and men can justify the extent to which they have allowed themselves to be commodified, exploited and serially degraded is to manufacture the illusion of empowerment.
This is one of the critical issues facing the church because porn culture has overtaken America.
Those studies never make it to the light outside a few limited professional venues. Unfortunately, the cross-ownerships between the news media and entertainment conglomerates tends to mean that this type of news would not tend to be placed high on the news cycle if they even make it at all.
I could wish that all those yelling heads, like Nancy Grace, Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck, etc., would take on this subject.
You are right about the cross-ownership and financial investments which keep the major media from accurately addressing this issue as the scourge it is. From a book published in 2009:
“According to the Internet Filter Review, worldwide porn revenues, including in-room movies at hotels, sex clubs and the internet, topped $97 BILLION in 2006. That is more than the revenues of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Apple, Netflix and EarthLink combined. . . . . General Motors owns DirecTV, which distributes more than 40 million streams of porn into American homes every month. AT&T Broadband and Comcast Cable are currently the biggest American companies accommodating porn users with Adult Pay Per View and other sex themed services. AT&T and GM rake in approximately 80% of all porn dollars spent by consumers.”
Add to that the PayPal itself was originally developed by the porn industry so that customers would be able to pay for internet porn without it showing up on an individual credit card bill! It’s never going to be seriously tackled. There’s too much money to be made.