The Women’s Resource Center (WRC) managed to generate high temperatures in the bitter winter weather with a heated debate over the porn industry.

The event, titled “Hot and Bothered: Feminist Pornography,” attracted close to 50 people packed into the WRC Tuesday evening. Students and other members of the DeKalb community explored the film “Hot and Bothered,” which discusses ties between the pornography industry, the feminist community and its connection to the politics of female sexuality.

Monica Szymczak, a third year law graduate student, coordinated the discussion. Szymczak said the film focuses on feminist porn, why it is accepted and why it needs to be recognized in mainstream porn, which is primarily a male-dominated industry.

“Feminist pornography is sort of an oxymoron,” Szymczak said. “It’s a movement within the porn industry that addresses the degradation and humiliation of women that is ultimately carried out into society. It embraces porn by incorporating images of women who are in control of themselves rather than being taken advantage of by a male counterpart.”

Philosophy graduate student Ty O’Grady focuses on the study of epistemology, or the study of knowledge. O’Grady said he attended the event to gain a better understanding of embodiment theories often discussed in feminist literature.

“Epistemology asks the question, ‘How do I know that I have something?’” O’Grady said. “For example, people often say, ‘I have a body’ rather than ‘I am a body.’ Feminist pornography addresses the concept of owning oneself rather than utilizing oneself.”

English graduate student Billy Clem earned his certificate in women’s studies and now identifies as a radical feminist.

“Radical feminists do not agree with the feminist pornography movement,” Clem said. “Women who enjoy domination only do so because it has been forced onto them, so it’s much like reclamation of self-control. Many people don’t know that 80 percent of women in the porn industry have been sexually abused at some time in their lives.”

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