Lorna Rodriguez
rodriglb@plu.edu
PLU students listen as the panelists discuss issues mentioned in the documentary. Photo by Lorna Rodriguez.
Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) students walked out of the “Pornography and You: Got an Opinion?” panel shocked.
“I would say the documentary was much more graphic than I expected,” student Andraya LaFredo said.
During the film, many students covered their eyes as graphic images filled the screen and/or felt nauseous.
Visual images are much more powerful than reading about the issue in a book because you can’t compromise or forget the image, student Daynelle Thomas said.
The packed room kicked off one of Gender and Exploration Week’s first events Monday night in Ingram 100.
The event featured the film, “The Price of Pleasure; Pornography, Sexuality and Relationships,” a documentary about violent and graphic porn becoming a normal part of American Culture. After the film, a conversation with PLU faculty members Jennifer Smith of English, Greg Johnson of philosophy and Christina Graham of psychology commenced.
The occasion was co-sponsored by PLU’s Feminist Student Union and Men As Partners Promoting Equality (MAPPE) student organizations.
“We want to talk about how porn has become mainstream and what the consequences are and how it affects us positively” Feminist Student Union faculty advisor Smith said.
In the documentary, the filmmakers claim the American pornography industry makes $10 billion annually, more than the top three or four American professional sports teams combined.
To support this argument, the filmmakers showed clips from child pornography videos, extremely provocative advertisements and scenes of Americans consuming porn.
But more disturbingly, the documentary demonstrated the extent to which women are objectified and sexually and violently abused while filming porn videos.
The pornography panel is part of a week that asks students to question and explore various issues surrounding gender.
“My main focus as Social Justice Director for Residence Hall Association (RHA) is to break down stereotypes and tear down walls,” Thomas Siburg said. “I know for a lot of people… sexuality and gender go hand in hand. People have a preconceived image, which limits opportunities for men and women to express themselves.”
In addition to the pornography panel, some of the events during Gender and Exploration Week include a Brownbag lunch discussion on Gender Identity, a discussion on what the ELCA churchwide assembly vote concerning homosexual clergy means for PLU and a CisGender panel discussing what it means to be “male” and “female.”
Siburg said he is trying to utilize lots of clubs, organizations, and resources that PLU offers. As a result, the Harmony club, Diversity Center, Health Center, Women’s Center, Wang Center, Campus Ministry and Harstad’s Resident Hall Congress (RHC) have all become involved in hosting events.
After showing the 54-minute film that caused outrage and laughter from audience members, Smith led a discussion that focused on the importance of being able to separate fiction from reality and whether individuals’ desires to purchase porn is inherent or constructed by society.
Smith began the conversation by asking about how porn fit into the panelists’ respective disciplines.
Graham answered first, saying from a psychology perspective, it is interesting to examine how individuals respond to porn and how porn shapes a person’s attitudes, behaviors and belief systems.
Many audience members nodded their heads in agreement with this statement.
Next, Johnson said he wanted to know how porn emerges and becomes a possibility in society. Johnson also asked how what society says about men who purchase porn, and what effect does this have on society?
The second question, how the lines between fantasy and reality become blurred as viewers watch porn on a repeated basis, sparked a lengthy discussion.
Through a psychologist’s lens Graham said that although viewers understand porn is recreational to some degree, repeated exposure breaks down this distinction. Eventually, Graham said, at an emotional level the line becomes blurred.
Johnson responded by asking students to reflect on how American society lives out some of the values the media and porn industry expressed in the documentary.
Once the event concluded, both Grove and Smith were pleased with the outcome.
“Anytime you have to bring in extra chairs that’s good,” MAPPE advisor Jonathon Grove said. “This was a good example of talking about topics that don’t get the attention they deserve.”
Meanwhile, at Tuesday’s Brownbag lunch discussion on “Gender Identity” students continued to discuss taboo topics in the Diversity Center with Director of Health Services Susana Doll, Michelle Ceynar of psychology and Diversity Center Director Angie Hambrick.
The event focused on probing deeper into issues surrounding gender, and the affects that can have on society.
Doll opened the event by asking students and staff to list “girl careers” and “boy careers.” Architect, nurse, secretary, counselor and doctor were some of the professions mentioned.
After participants listed careers, Doll had students place themselves on a spectrum, with one extreme being “female” and the other being “male.”
During the discussion, students disagreed on whether various occupations such as doctor and counselor are considered more male or female. Others such as nurse and secretary quickly were categorized as female, while architect was considered a male vocation.
Next, Ceynar and Doll did a similar stimulation on colors. This time students stood on the continuum based on whether the color they were wearing was feminine or masculine.
All of the stimulations gave students a new perspective on gender and something to think about, Ceynar said.
“I think it went really well, everybody did his or her part,” Doll said. “I’m always interested in what other people think.”
Both the Brownbag lunch discussion and the pornography panel raise awareness and allow students to break down gender stereotypes, according to Siburg.
“A general goal [of Gender and Exploration Week] is to get most people involved and to raise awareness about gender,” Smith said. “We need to have a conversation about what it means to be a gendered person, there’s a lot more going on with it than just being born one way or the other.”
