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this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2026
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oh a controversial opinion, but one I appreciate nonetheless because I am glad to see differing perspectives on this post. I do wonder what Marxists here think of China's attitude towards pornography (I think they ban it completely?).
little surprised it's controversial tbh haha. the whole "sex work is work!" thing is a liberal feminist trope. pornography production should be banned just like pimping should be banned.
from what i've heard/read on the issue, there is a soft ban on pornography in china in the sense that it is made more difficult to access, but if you do there are not significant consequences incurred, which i think is fine. as far as pornography production is concerned i'm not sure.
Liberal feminists be capitulationists, yo. I think that the industry around that is inherently unhealthy (because of how it treats women), so simply letting women "choose" to participate in it (some certainly do not consider it a chance, especially if they are poor).
Hmm, I thought it was more of a hard ban with strict laws relating to it, but maybe not. Do you think China's way of handling it is the right way?
exactly. i would go so far as to say that the vast majority of the participants in the sex industry do not feel like they have a choice in the matter. the most successful, you might call them the "sex industry bourgeoisie," are the most notable and the most famous, and consequently the most likely to praise the industry for how feminist it is. the millions of people captured in the industry with no way to exit it (either implicitly through material interests or explicitly through sex trafficking) are rarely heard from.
i'm not sure! i imagine it's the way best suited to china's own material conditions, but i think the west is a little different in the sense that we've had more time to economically develop and therefore have developed more as it relates to patriarchy and capitalist patriarchy. i'm not entirely sure how that would affect laws or their implementation, though. i do think a hard ban on pornography production/distribution is primarily to the benefit of those who would otherwise be caught up in the industry, so making sure not to criminalize victims of the industry is important. victims should be given any possible opportunities to exit the industry. we also have a huge pornography industry already, so a hard ban right away would probably not be the best idea, but rather doing it in stages. those are just a few of my ideas, i'd have to think about it for longer to have a more complete answer for you.
I'm not sure. China is a massive place with different politicians everywhere. I see people on Rednote talk and boast about consuming porn in the face of "western puritans". It may depend on the type of porn.
I am not sure who the western puritans are (maybe republicans), since I do not think America bans pornography (outside of egregiously illegal examples that I do not need to list here); boasting about consuming that material is weird regardless.
Quite right. What's wrong with weird?
The western puritans are a large group of internet-goers who police sexual expression and thought and go to absolutely absurd lengths to expose, harass, or dox people who have them. People on Rednote compared them to colonialists.
There is nothing wrong with being weird, but bragging about consumption of that adult material is not really something I understand; why would you do it?
Oh, those people sound annoying. I get not wanting to have pornography be legal, but harassing people is not a way of fighting patriarchy (and I doubt they are the type to even care about patriarchy anyways).
Why? In response to the aforementioned westerners. "We can consume what you hate and you gringos can't stop us" kind of stuff.
"Consumption" is another strange term to me, one that underestimate how accessible porn is. It doesn't get consumed. 1,000 people can view the same porn 1,000 times and copy and distribute it endlessly. It doesn't get used up like a drug.