Q&A with Robert Jensen

The results may mean that many of the people who use sexually explicit material that is openly misogynistic recognize that such images violate their own moral principles of respect, dignity and equality. These people might not endorse a feminist critique of that misogyny, or even know that such a critique exists, but they intuitively understand the power of that critical perspective.

If the joy and passion of sex is about human connection, then it’s clear why pornography will always be “boring,” in the sense that it turns a complex human practice into something dull and repetitive. That’s why the images continue to get more cruel and degrading to women, and also more openly racist—pornographers need to counter the banality of sexually explicit material.
But boredom in this case perhaps reflects a larger way in which the hyper-mediated experience of young people—not just pornography, but video games, movies, television and other kinds of screens—fails to satisfy our needs for meaningful connection. The lives of many people are saturated with various kinds of stimulation that don’t meet deeper human needs, and in the end that likely is experienced as boredom.

I would like to see us abandon our celebration of masculinity and ask how male humans can stop worrying about “how to be man” and concentrate on simply being human. My critique of pornography is part of a larger feminist project of challenging male dominance throughout society, which requires us to critique masculinity. unfortunately, increased pornography use by women doesn’t further that goal. If the pornography that women use simply replicates the male-supremacist values of most sexually explicit material, then nothing is gained. If alternative forms of sexually explicit material avoid the misogyny, that’s an improvement, but it still leaves people seeking intimate human experience through a screen, and there’s no reason to think that is helping us create a more humane and flourishing culture.