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Linda Lovelace And The Radical Feminists
There are many types of Feminism. The movement as a collective has done a great deal of good to address women's role in society, women's subjugation, and women's rights. However, just like any other political movement, Feminism has sectors at each edge so wide apart it seems there are very few points they share in common.
Radical Feminism is definitely at one of those edges.
This is a discussion of Linda Lovelace, rather than a thesis on Radical Feminism, so I will be brief in my estimation. Radical Feminists see the World with one basic view - man's subjugation of woman. Every cause the Radical Feminists promote is seen in these terms. There are no grey areas.
By the end of the 1960s, feminists had begun to question the role of pornography in women's subjugation. The Radical Feminists took this on as one of their key fights. Linda Lovelace was later to fall right into their laps.
To a Radical Feminist, porn is seen as the epitome of women's subjugation to men. The woman is always the victim of the male. The 'stud' in the porn film represents not only man's power over women, but his basic hatred and resentment of her. Watching a 'stud' 'take a woman from behind', hold her head firmly in place as she sucks his cock, cum all over her face, shoot a load down her throat, or any other similar porn scenario, is seen by Radical Feminists as the way a man satisfies his hatred and fear of women and 'gets his own back'.
This, it has to be said, is not helped by the producers of many porn films in the way they 'weave their fantasy'. Even today, many well-known porn sites constantly produce new scenarios on the themes described above. Their terminology is quite brutal. Women are called 'sluts' and 'whores' and the movies often show little affection for the woman at all. She is there to be 'picked up and used'. Porn producers know this is what sells for them. Porn is a commodity and the producers have to feed the known market.
However, what feminists decrying this 'subjugation of women' do not see is what happens behind the scenes. The female pornstar calling for face wipes and fresh spring water as soon as the 'facial' scene is shot; insisting that the guy fucking her is fresh out of the shower and has all his medical records up to date; and generally treating their 'studs' with much less respect than the movie gives them credit for.
Feminists also do not see the bank balances held by famous female pornstars, many of whom are far more wealthy than their male counterparts.
If women in the porn industry are 'victims', they are victims of the mentality which says "do what it takes to achieve the American Dream'. And in this case, the same applies to the males.
When Linda Lovelace filmed Deep Throat (released in 1972), times were very different than they are today. Shooting porn was a crime, wherever you lived in the US: a crime often punished harshly. The porn industry also mainly relied on its production money from the mob and on certain 'officials' to turn a blind eye for a substantial reward.
In this situation, shooting porn was a seedy, hasty business. The films were made into 8mm 'loops' to show in 'dirty raincoat' sex cinemas, peephole booths, and backroom clubs. Porn was a 'black market'.
This was not a case of 'victimizing women'. Everyone (male as well as female) on the porn set was at the mercy of their 'benefactors', as was anyone relying on the above methods to produce their 'commodity' - whether it be porn, gambling, drugs, illegal liquor, or any other commodity which existed the wrong side of the law.
When Linda Lovelace 'came out' in her book Ordeal and stated that all her words about loving sex, enjoying making porn films and 'demonstrating sexual freedom' had been lies, she was pounced upon by any group who had an axe to grind with porn for their own particular reasons.
When the Radical Feminists latched onto Linda Lovelace, they were not interested in helping her come to terms with her past. Linda Lovelace was their 'showpiece', to hold aloft as 'proof that porn is the degradation of women'. For the likes of Katherine MacKinnon, Andrea Dworkin, and Gloria Steinem, Linda's claims that she had been 'forced at gunpoint' to perform in Deep Throat, were all the 'proof' they needed that porn was evil.
Radical Feminism and the Religious Right have little in common - apart from a hatred of porn. The two camps came in from opposite sides in their full-on attempts to outlaw the porn industry. Linda Lovelace became their 'victim role model', and they used her autobiography, interviews, and later testimony to the 1986 Attorney General's Commission On Pornography, to 'prove their point' that porn should be totally unlawful in all its forms.
The problem was, the Radical Feminists refused to see the larger picture. By seeing women as 'victims' and men as 'oppressors', they never took in any other factors which may well have contributed to Linda Lovelace attacking the porn industry: social class, psychological issues, physical issues, family history, etc.
The Radical Feminists were as oppressive in their attitudes to porn as they said males had always been to the female sex. They were well-educated women who knew how to use dialogue to fit their case. Linda Lovelace was an ordinary women who was always a little in awe of them. And although Lovelace remained on friendly terms with MacKinnon and Dworkin, she felt used by Steinem and her cronies.
Linda's claims against the porn industry received a strong backlash from porn producers, as was to be expected. Lovelace was threatening their livelihoods. They could hardly sit back and do nothing. Stills and loops from the ''Dogorama' film were circulated by Al Goldstein to 'prove' that Linda Lovelace actually enjoyed being fucked by a German Shephard and to discount her claims that she had been forced to do this at gunpoint.
Linda Lovelace became a figure of fun and even disgust in some quarters. She was seen by many as a disturbed, confused, vindictive female. This was not the acceptance and understanding she had been looking for. One can only imagine the embarrassment and even self-loathing she must have felt when 'the truth came out'.
Radical Feminism as a whole did no favours to Linda Lovelace. As a movement, it was not really interested in Linda as a person at all. Only in itself.