“The word pornography, derived from the Ancient Greek pornē and graphos, means “writing about whores.” Pornē means “whore”, specifically and exclusively the lowest class of whore, which in Ancient Greece was the brothel slut available to all male citizens.
The pornē was the cheapest (in the literal sense), least regarded, least protected of all women, a sexual slave. Graphos means “writing, etching, or drawing”.
The word pornography does not mean “writing about sex” or “depictions of the erotic” or “depictions of sexual acts” or “depictions of nude bodies” or “sexual representations” or any other such euphemism. It means the graphic depiction of women as vile whores.
[…] The word pornography does not have any other meaning than the one cited here, the depiction of the lowest whores. Whores exist to serve men sexually. Whores exist only within a framework of male sexual domination. Indeed, outside that framework the notion of whores would be absurd and the usage of women as whores would be impossible.
[…] The fact that pornography is widely believed to be “sexual representations” or “depictions of sex” emphasizes only that the valuation of women as low whores is widespread and that the sexuality of women is perceived as low and whorish in and of itself. The fact that pornography is widely believed to be “depictions of the erotic” means only that the debasing of women is held to be the real pleasure of sex. As Kate Millet wrote, women’s sexuality is reduced to the one essential: “cunt… our essence, our offense.” The idea that pornography is “dirty” originates in the conviction that the sexuality of women is dirty and is actually portrayed in pornography; that women’s bodies (especially women’s genitals) are dirty and lewd in themselves. Pornography does not, as some claim, refute the idea that female sexuality is dirty: instead, pornography embodies and exploits this idea; pornography sells and promotes it.“
— Andrea Dworkin, Pornography; 1981
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