September 9th the second season of The Deuce premiered despite protests by women’s rights groups like the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. The show chronicles the growth of commercial sexual exploitation with the rise of the pornography and prostitution industry in New York City during the 1970s and ‘80s and is filled with gratuitous nudity and explicit sex scenes that normalize sexual violence and degradation.
“We are calling on HBO to cancel The Deuce in light of the current climate of sexual harassment, abuse, and degradation of women in #MeToo,” said Dawn Hawkins, Executive Director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. “The Deuce is centered on normalizing and glamorizing the commercial sexual exploitation industry, particularly pornography. This season, the character Candy will continue producing pornography as if this is a feminist and capitalistic success—but that couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Pornography is inherently anti-feminist. #TheDeuce @HBO Share on XHistorically, pornography has been a product primarily created by men and intended for men. In modern times, even when women create pornography, it still reduces an individual to body parts used for personal private pleasure and commercial profit. This reinforces the patriarchal view that women’s bodies are mere instruments to further male sexual pleasure.
Feminist Gail Dines in her book Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality states: “Anyone willing to feed off women’s bodies and use them as raw materials to make a profit has no right to call themselves feminists.
“Also it’s vital to recognize that the distribution of obscene material, both in the period that The Deuce portrays and now, is illegal under current federal law upheld by the Supreme Court,” Hawkins concluded.
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation placed HBO on the 2018 Dirty Dozen List which names 12 mainstream facilitators of sexual exploitation. It also has a page specifically addressing The Deuce.
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