11/15/2009

The Price of Pleasure - report

About 100 people came to see the fantastic documentary The Price of Pleasure by Dr. Chyng Sun on November 12 2009 in the Student Union Theater which was organized by the Akron chapter of Sociologists for Women and Society and the new local chapter of Campus Coalition for Sexual Literacy founded by Darlene Forrest. It revealed some quite shocking facts about the 13 Billion dollar industry of pornography in the US (the revenues are bigger than those from NFL, NBA and major baseball league together). 13,000 porn videos are produced in one year; 900 million rentals were counted for the year 2003. Porn is cultural and economic mainstream promoted for example also by Time Warner who earns a million Dollar by cooperation with porn producers.
The nucleus of the film was a content analysis Dr. Chyng Sun carried out, in which she examines the top sellers of mainstream pornography in the US. The research team finds that in 98% of their sample verbal and physical abuse of women and 94% actual violence against women is the thrill for the spectators. Although the link between watching porn and acting out violence is scientifically not clearly examined, we know today that in 70% of child abuse porn was used in the setting. The documentary does a good job in not going into the “let’s abolish porn” corner, but in revealing that sexualized violence against women – through porn – is clearly rendering violence against women invisible. It also wisely deconstructs the argument that being critical of porn is being against sex, after all, “being critical about McDonalds does not mean you are against eating,” as one interviewee states.
About 50 people stayed for the Q and A session with Chyng which was moderated by Marie Bozin who also brought in own findings of qualitative projects on this topic. The discussion was characterized by the powerful impressions the documentary had left in the audience and brought – among other topics –to light the contradiction between illegal prostitution and the flourishing porn industry in this country and the overall missing critical discussion of porn. Clearly the argument that it is a good job opportunity for uneducated women is not as convincing, as only very few women gain wealth with pornography and can sustain a career in this business.
For those who could not make it, a DVD of the 60 minute documentary will be available in the Teaching Resources Lab in the sociology department of Akron. Also, you can check out a full length online preview online under this link in smaller resolution): .
Pictures and comments are shared on the facebook site of the event: A big thank you goes out to Dr. Chyng Sun who was more than a pleasant guest! More information on this outstanding scholar and person can be found on her website . I am really excited to thank the best SWS troupe I have ever worked with on this campus: Jennyerin Steele-Staats, Mike Steiner, Marci Cottingham, Monica Oliva, Darlene Forrest, Hannah Furnas (the undergrad gem in the round) and Jodi Ross, who made this event possible! The new cohort is totally rockin’ us! There is certainly more to come!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, I'm from the feminist undergrad organization Women's Liberation Collective. We want to work with you and especially combine our take back the night marches. We really want to work with you. Some of our members are sociology majors. My email is ahendri1@kent.edu and the group email is womensliberationcollective@gmail.com.

Unknown said...

That is friggin coooool! we will be in touch shortly!