mehreenkasana:

I was having a discussion with several people on Twitter (mostly men and a few women) on how porn is not just dedicated to sexual gratification but a lot more than that. Little do viewers realize that the porn industry is notorious for its power in reinforcing ethnic stereotypes. A specific ethnic identity is limited and chained to a set of ‘traits’ and ‘characteristics.’ Asian women are shown as weak, easily dominated while Latina women are shown in roles of ‘spicy’ women with little control over their libido. In some clips, I have also seen Latina women portrayed typically as “illegal immigrants” in jail, indulging in sex with white police officers.

For an average man, the porn industry is simply about getting off to a few minutes of romping around in bed. For him, it is never about a women’s identity or control over her sexuality. It is never about ethnic stereotypes and reinforcement of racial images. But if you look closer, you’ll find financed racism in the porn industry where identities are toyed with and abused.

I remember viewing a clip shared by a friend once on how a white producer created a plot for a porn clip in which an “Iraqi” girl (read: a Latina girl wrapped in a hijab) had to “give her body” to a “brave” American soldier. It was beyond sickening.

You should read Darrell Hamamoto’s strong take on ethnic stereotyping in the porn industry. Here are excerpts of racial identities depicted typically in porn flicks:

Latinos and Hispanics

Pornography tends to stereotype Hispanic women as feisty, “hot and spicy Latinas”, sexy Señoritas, with a high sex drive and low impulse control. Many are portrayed as maids, illegal immigrants to the United States, or unfaithful wives. Since Latinos and Hispanics can be of any race (many are white Hispanic Americans, Mestizos etc.), cultural characteristics are sometimes portrayed via iconic items like South and Central American national costumes, sombreros, maracas, or Mexican dresses.

Asian women

Are viewed as sexually willing or submissive. Asian men are hardly portrayed in pairing with white women and not as common compared to white men with asian women porn. Asian women are mainly portrayed as the: “Dragon Ladies”, as servile “Lotus Blossom Babies”, “Innocent School Girls” in private school uniforms, “China dolls”, “Geisha girls”, war brides, or prostitutes. Japanese media have also at times sensationalistically promoted the stereotype of Japanese women overseas as “yellow cabs”. 

Black performers

Large penis size in Black men is consistently emphasized in pornography, often by exclusively casting actors with larger than average penises such as Lexington Steele, Kid Bengala, Jack Napier and Mandingo. Men are often treated to stereotypes of gang affiliation, working class labor, and are overrepresented in gang rape fetish films. Also, they are represented as overly aggressive and demanding, and are performing with white women. Similarly, black women are often portrayed with large breast and buttocks, or ‘booty’. They normally play a submissive role while performing with a white male.

 
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Homi Bhabha refers to this phenomena as racial fetishism as a fixation on other races being not different, but lesser or “mutilated” versions of the white male. Similarly, in her book “Racy Sex, Sexy Racism”, Gail Dines argues that “women of color are generally relegated to gonzo–a porn genre lacking any plot–which provides little glamour, security or status.”

I’m not entirely sure you can say this is a porn thing … have you switched on a TV lately? How many movies or TV shows can you name that don’t feature:

• A Black man with a massive cock and a thing for White women
• A sassy Black woman with a large ass
• A strict dichotomy between submissive and highly dominant Asian women
• A total lack of Asian men
• A “spicy” Latin@

A crude stereotype of an Iraqi woman throwing herself at the feet of a Flag draped American soldier? Illegal immigrants using morally dubious methods to get out of jail? Gang affiliated Black men raping White women? Hmm … sure sounds a lot like Fox News to me.

I’m not saying these things don’t occur in porn, I’m just saying these things don’t only occur in porn. Porn is not renowned for either its subtlety or it’s plot development, and yeah, it often relies on cheap stereotypes to set up a scene. But these stereotypes come from somewhere. The writers, such as they are, didn’t just pull them out of thin air.

Lets be honest here, if your plot can be summarised as “girl orders pizza, girl pays for pizza with sex”, expecting it to be more politically correct than a regular movie is, perhaps, asking just a bit too much. And in fairness to the medium, I’ve seen way more Black teachers and business men in porn than I have in regular TV shows.

This is something I find kind of awkward, this double standard between porn and TV. Black man is a rapey member of a violent gang is an understandably problematic premise for a porn movie, but put it on HBO and you have yourself a gritty, Emmy winning Crime Drama. College professor sleeps with student reinforces sexist ideas of power in porn, but have an awkward White guy do the same scene in Friends or How I Met Your Mother and it’s a heartwarming romantic comedy. Hot new Step-Mom woos her son just shows how low and morally bankrupt porn has become, but it’d make an excellent, taboo shattering plot line for a soap.

“Is porn racist?” feels like a very leading question. Yes, of course porn is racist, what were expecting? A magical Utopia where racial inequality doesn’t exist and stereotypes are tossed aside in favour of complex character development? It’s a form of media, and the media as a whole is incredibly racist. Perhaps a more accurate question would be “does porn reflect the society it was created in?”. The answer would still be yes, but the conclusion reached - that porn is racist - would be far less significant for people who wanted something to berate porn for.

Porn is undeniably fucked up, you don’t have to fish this hard to criticise it.