Lisa Palac's essay, "How Dirty Pictures Changed My Life," tells the story of her personal quest to discover the appeal of porn. As a teenager, she was curious, but far from interested. In fact, she spent much of her young life as a porn-hating feminist. Women are taught to hate porn. They are taught to demand respect, and many people feel that pornography is a way of disrespecting women. The idea of porn in general does seem demeaning to women, because of the abundance of female nudity. The reason for this is audience. The people that make pornographic films and magazines know that men represent the largest possible audience. Men are simply more interested in porn. It is my personal belief that all men are innately driven by sex. This does not make them bad or even disrespectful, because it is in their genes. They can't help it. A man who looks at porn is not a pig, he is a man. I don't feel that this sort of thing is extremely disrespectful to women. If a guy is!
             consumed by desire for someone or something, why does this mean that he doesn't respect it? It is true, however, that there are many, many different kinds of porn, some obviously more demeaning than others. I think that generally women are threatened by porn and by the female stars. If a woman's husband or boyfriend looks at porn, she feels that she is not enough. This feeling of uncertainty fuels the battle against porn, rather than the fear of being irrespective. Although pornography is often quite disgusting, it is not always demeaning, and it usually hurts no one. The actresses choose to be there and get paid quite well. Many of them probably even enjoy their jobs.
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