Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media
Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media (WAVPM) is a group that emerged to challenge the portrayal of women in pornography and advertising, arguing that such depictions promote sexual aggression and objectification. The organization posits that pornography serves not as a benign outlet for male desires, but rather as a harmful medium that perpetuates negative stereotypes and attitudes toward women, infringing on their civil rights. Founding member Diana E. H. Russell emphasized that, similar to how advertising sells products, pornography sells sexism and violence against women.
WAVPM engaged in various advocacy efforts, including awareness campaigns and letter-writing initiatives aimed at corporations that utilized misogynistic imagery. The group also participated in acts of civil disobedience to protest objectionable material, though their efforts have sparked debates about censorship within feminist circles. Critics of WAVPM argue that their stance could infringe on individual rights to access pornography, highlighting a significant divide among feminists on the issue. Although WAVPM and similar organizations have largely ceased operations, the dialogue surrounding their concerns remains relevant, with various local anti-pornography groups continuing to advocate for women's rights and media representation.
Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media
Founded: 1976
Type of organization: Feminist group opposed to misogynistic imagery in the arts and media
Significance: This San Francisco-based organization with nearly four thousand members was one of the first to denounce pornography and negative portrayals of women in advertisements
In the past defenders of pornography have argued that pornography serves as a safe outlet for male sexual aggressions toward women. WAVPM challenged that hypothesis, asserting that pornography in fact teaches sexual aggressiveness toward women. WAVPM also voiced concern over the ways in which female bodies were used as objects for male viewing pleasure in advertising. WAVPM members were among the first to see pornography as a civil rights issue, arguing that its existence infringed on the civil rights of women because of the negative treatment of women that it promotes. It was not the display of women’s bodies that offended the members of WAVPM, but the negative ways in which they bodies were used. Diana E. H. Russell, one of the group’s founders, argued “that just as advertising succeeds in selling products, pornography sells sexism and violence against women.”
WAVPM combated negative images of women in a variety of ways. The group’s initial plan was simply to promote awareness and to conduct letter-writing campaigns to corporations that used misogynistic advertising. The group produced a letter-writing booklet that showed examples of advertisements that made women into objects of viewing pleasure and gave sample letters. WAVPM was also among a number of anti-pornography groups that advocated certain forms of civil disobedience, such as throwing food during objectionable scenes in film theaters, mutilating unsold magazines on newsstands, and—in one Canadian case—firebombing. Members of WAVPM also occasionally discouraged people from purchasing pornographic materials by openly photographing them as they entered pornography stores.
WAVPM and similar groups have been accused of being procensorship because they wish to deny many forms of pornography. This issue has produced a major schism among feminists, many of whom believe that denying people the right to buy pornography—regardless of the harm it may cause— constitutes unacceptable censorship. Feminist Anti-Censorship Task Force (FACT), a group that opposed WAVPM, is among the feminist groups that do not wish to censor pornography. Members of WAVPM see this issue as one of civil rights, as Russell says, “If racist and anti-Semitic movies are believed to inculcate or intensify anti-Semitism and racism, then it must be granted that movies that portray sexist stereotypes also inculcate or intensify sexism.” WAVPM wished to censor insomuch as it would protect women.
Antipornography groups such as WAVPM have themselves been objects of censorship. Their activities are typically poorly covered in the news media, and often they are prevented from protesting or passing out their publications. Although WAVPM and its sister group, Women Against Violence Against Women, have stopped functioning, many other antipornography groups have continued to operate at local levels throughout the United States and Canada. Examples of such groups include Canada’s Women Against Violence Against Women, Citizens Opposed to Media Exploitation, British Columbia Federation of Women, and the Minneapolis-based Organizing Against Pornography—which helped to pass one of the first U.S. antipornography laws.