Prostitution and Male Supremacy

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article because as I was reading it a bunch of things started to click, to make sense. We talked about how the key to privilege is power. I never thought of prositution as something that men initiated. I always thought of it as something women do because they need money for drugs or they have children to take care of. When Dworkin says, "I would like to say to you that these men are cowards, that these men are brutes, that these men are fools, that these men are able to do what they do because they have the power of men as a class behind them, which they get because men use force against women," it clicked that in order to keep one group on the top there has to be one on the bottom. Then I started to put the pieces together that male dominace is more about control than anything else. Even men who don't use or "participate" in prostitution because they should be allies to women. I agree with Dworkin when she says, "they have the power of men as a class behind them," because with pornography that is so true. They have the older men who have done it or allowed it happen, the middle-aged men who have done it or allowed it to happen, and now they have the younger men who are following the example of men before them which really just creates a cycle of abuse against women and not just prostitutes. For example, I was talking to my friend one day and I asked him what he thought of porn because I had just seen a disturbing video about the unfortunate backlash of porn against women. He said that he thought it was empowering. Well, that is something that summed up the cycle: empowering. Of course it is, for men. Sexual acts are almost always embarrassing for a woman to see, but when men see them it is that collective, "Yeah..." I think this because women do feel ashamed or embarrassed because they know that's how they would feel in that position. No one really wants to be objectified. I feel like a lot of women say that they like the attention or they are just free to be themselves. I always think when I hear a woman say either of those things: well for who? Because most of the time there are men around when they start acting "not themselves" its one thing to be around a group of girls, when men are thrown into the mix most women change their attitude really quick. I feel like men have used their power to condition women for that kind of behavior and it is almost impossible to tell a girl or woman that she is acting that way because she doesn't even realize that she is. Once again, a cycle.