Friday, February 1, 2019

Feminism And Erotic Media

The stupidity and errors of some Christians--unfortunately, of many of them, both living and dead--has nothing to do with Christianity as a worldview.  When I criticize Christians as a general group, I am not in any way directing that criticism towards Christianity.  Similarly, though egalitarianism/feminism is fully logical and Biblical, there are claims made by individual egalitarians that do not reflect the rationality of the position itself, and these errors need to be corrected.  The stance of many Christian egalitarians or feminists in the western world is that the making and consumption sexual videos and images inherently degrades, objectifies, and trivializes the people who appear in them, especially if someone uses them for masturbatory stimulation.

Objecting to all erotic media because some people might objectify those they view is analogous to objecting to all alcohol use because some people might get drunk, opposing gun ownership because some people might misuse firearms, and rejecting an ideology because some of its adherents are incompetent.  This argument against erotic media is nothing but a slippery slope fallacy combined with various non sequiturs that has the benefit of already being believed by the average Christian, whether complementarian or egalitarian.  Even if the causal connection alleged by the argument did exist, the argument confuses abuse of something morally permissible for the intrinsic nature of the thing itself.

A person, man or woman, can masturbate to or sexually think about a member of the opposite gender while still fully acknowledging that they are a whole person whose existence involves far more than their sexuality or subjective sexual appeal.  That a person stimulates his or her genitals while looking at or thinking about a member of the opposite gender does not mean that the thoughts accompanying the self-pleasuring are objectifying in nature (of course, masturbation might not involve such thoughts at all).  There is nothing about masturbating to images, videos, memories, or fantasies about an actual person that in itself ignores all but one aspect of that person's humanity.

Christian egalitarians/feminists who demonize creating, using, or masturbating to erotic videos or images err, for they misunderstand both the nature of objectification and the Bible's criterion for moral knowledge [1].  For some people, the discovery that neither experiencing sexual attraction towards particular people nor permitting that attraction to motivate bouts of self-pleasuring is itself objectifying or sinful can trigger great relief.  After all, sexual legalism is responsible for a great amount of gratuitous guilt, despite legalism being utterly antithetical to Christianity.

There is nothing anti-feminist/anti-egalitarian or anti-Christian about men and women alike coupling masturbation with erotic media depicting people they are not married to, whether they themselves are single or married.  What is anti-feminist/anti-egalitarian, however, is the acceptance of social constructs that regard erotic media as something men are helplessly fixated on and something women do not use.  Consistent egalitarians realize that women are free to enjoy their sexualities in any nonsinful way, just as men are; they also realize that male sexuality is not predatory or overpowering.

The abhorrence of erotica in many Christian circles is irrational and misguided, and egalitarians often subsume this component of evangelicalism into their personal worldviews despite its erroneous nature.  Nevertheless, demonstrating the falsities in this position is a simple matter.  Every argument against erotic media itself is riddled with false assumptions and logical fallacies [2]--yet many Christians genuinely think that the Bible is opposed to practically every form of it!


[1].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-truth-about-erotic-media-part-2_19.html

[2].  See here:
  A.  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-truth-about-erotic-media-part-3.html
  B.  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2018/09/an-asinine-criticism-of-erotic-media.html

No comments:

Post a Comment