Why can it not be enjoyable? I understand that films and sex work are extremely exploitative, but I prefer (unproblematic of course) drawn and written smut by individual artists, or even sometimes writing/drawing my own. Would these avenues not be substantially more ethical to consume then things that come out of the extremely exploitative pornography industry?
Proponents of anti-pornography, feminism and other pro-women movements might argue that all forms of porn, even if no real humans partake in the activity, still contribute to an over-sexualized, over-fetishized image of women among the target audience; mostly, heterosexual males.
Firstly, who said that the porn I was consuming included women at all? Even so, if they were, over-sexualized, and over-fetishized depictions are very disgusting to me and I do not enjoy them. Hence why I like to consume comics depicting normal or healthy relationships, or unproblematic and consensual kinks.
I feel like you are still looking at this from the lens of drawn or written porn being in the same vein as generic porno-film quality with cheesy or problematic dialogue, with exaggerated moans and emotionless sex.
I feel like this speaks more about the problematic nature of what porn depicts, rather then the medium itself. This would be like saying that consensual sex is bad, because rape exists.
Pornography is not banned in China. Selling, purchasing, transporting, or producing it for PROFIT is banned. If you want to draw or write some smut and put it on an 18+ forum, no one cares or is going to stop that. Self made porn is also not banned if you aren't disseminating it for profit (something like Onlyfans). Artistic, educational, and medical depictions also have exemptions under Chinese law, and a lot of drawn pornography sites use the artistic exemption.
If you make a website selling pornographic art or films or open a film studio, that'll get taken down and is very illegal. For example the site Erotica Juneday required users pay around 20-500 dollars a year for their service. That was taken down and the administrators were imprisoned. The Chinese version of DeviantArt and Rule34 however are free and run no advertisements, and they have remained up for years.
Peer to peer dissemination is also not illegal, which is why services like Baidu offer that as a service.
Further, the vast majority of Chinese people use VPN's, and it is estimated that a large percentage of that traffic is to foreign pornographic sites.
Feminists and other pro-women movements have a lot of different opinions on pornography. Some agree with the position you're describing, but to my knowledge it's far from a consensus.
Indeed. I am still working up the courage, but I would like to try being a cam girl. NOT because I need the money, but because it sounds fun to me. It's just a bit of sex.
Edit: hey downvoters! How about you tell me why you think you should have some say over what I do with my body or who I show it to? And how that relates to feminism?
I'm an upvoter, but some of us may be fearful of you going into a potentially dangerous field and/or reproducing patriarchal ideas in your potential customers as well as reproducing the notion that becoming a cam girl is a fun idea in this patriarchal climate. In all the feminist literature I've read, though, shaming, gaslighting or traumatizing individual practitioners of sex-work or adjacent work was never presented as a good or feasible idea, and I assume you're aware of the risks and are doing it despite not having a need for money, so I support you here.
I'm brown, trans, and becoming openly communist. Safety went out the window long long ago. That doesn't mean that a girl can't have a bit of fun. Life isn't worth living if I choose to spend it in fear.
As far as reinforcing patriarchal ideas? I think sex workers have some seriously underrated power.