4. Why is soft-porn a problem?
Soft-core pornography has been labeled as such because men are rarely displayed in the nude, and an erect penis is never shown. This definition of soft-porn is problematic as it makes no reference to how women are displayed and the consequences of those portrayals to women.
Soft-porn is not only found in such magazines as Playboy. Just peruse the "women's magazines" and general interest tabloids in any large grocery store as you wait in line to buy goods. You'll see images of women in sexy poses; it's clear their clothes, bodies, and expressions are meant to signal their sexual availability to men.
The images in soft-porn portray women in all kinds of occupations - undergraduate and graduate university students, nurses, paramedics, fire fighters, police officers, lawyers and judges - all of whom are reduced to sex objects for men. These images reinforce the idea that no matter what else a woman does, she is there to fulfill men's sexual desires, all the time. In soft-porn, women are dehumanized, fetishized and sold for men's enjoyment. Women, as sex objects, are displayed in soft-porn as eager to serve men sexually, and at the same time subservient to men.