Blockbusting Pornography

   Pornography has been a huge industry for the last few decades! Whether we like to admit it or not this industry has made millions of dollars and more and more people are feeling the stigma of Porn fade away. Some see porn as taboo, but many are loosening up to the idea that it has become so main stream that it has become a part of everyday life.
   Many people criticize porn and fail to take into account how race, gender, religion, and orientation affect the conditions in which adult porno content is viewed and shaped. Both authors Taormino and Serano talk about the exploits of porn and how many women (especially feminists) started their careers, first as activists for the feminist movement, and later found as pornographers. In some cases these transformations from fem to porn was merely a means of integrating their practices. By being able to lay claim to your own body and how it is portrayed/viewed allows for more control. A quote  from a young kindergartner in response to to her teachers protest to her "inappropriate" t-shirt is probably one of the best quotes from a rising feminist, claiming "If a woman can't decide what to do with her own body, how can she possibly be in control of the rest of her life?"  It is thinking like this that allows us to break away from ideologies that help shape mainstream society and give negative connotations on things like pornography and BDSM. How are we to even see other sexual practices, that are societally seen as harmful, shameful, or disrespectful, as normal or in a different light when we can't be in control of our own bodies? We can't begin to have objective view points instead of subjective ideas of other practices if we can't be in control of our own thoughts, acts, bodies, and desires.
  If pornography is practiced in safe form then does this help take away any more of the stigma that comes along with the act? Many mainstream and not so mainstream porno producers require safe practice from their workers. Some even go as far as requiring physical exams and blood tests to allow for the safety and ease of mind for their workers. In Taormino's book "The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure" she talks about women starting their porn careers from getting early life experiences from their feminist practicing mothers. Many of the women who starred in pornography did so because they needed money, but did not feel bad about doing so because they quickly learned the values of knowing owning their own bodies.  Nude photo shoots sometimes developed into solo video shoots with masturbation being portrayed as art when the camera is focused on the face, but as porno when the camera is pointed at the crotch. The pay checks become fatter and their ability to perform becomes even more enhanced because of these paychecks.
  It becomes easy to see the similarities in porn and feminist movements when we start to look at how liberating the body can become a means to liberating our minds. When we realize that society doesn't control our minds and patriarchal ideologies can be broken then we see that we own our own bodies are also our own and we can do as we please with them. Working in the porn industry doesn't have to carry a stigma with it. Millions if not Billions of people view porn and do so in the comfort of their own homes . So why can't we stop making those who work in the industry feel as if their jobs aren't worth anything at all.