The Sexuality Of Women 's Sexuality

Professor’s Comment: This powerful essay contrasts the views of two feminist, Catherine MacKinnon and Sallie Tisdale, each of which perceives pornography in widely divergent ways. While MacKinnon's 'Not A Moral Issue' explains the adverse impacts of pornography to women and society as a whole, Tisdale's 'Talk Dirty to Me: An Intimate Philosophy of Sex' is receptive to pornography despite these adverse impacts, suggesting in fact that the solution to the problems associated with pornography is a greater role of women in production of that pornography.

What is pornography? According to the dictionary pornography means “Obscene writings, drawings, photographs”. Yet, many people disagree with what is consider to be pornography in society today. Susan Brownmiller is a feminist activist who wrote an essay “ Lets Put Pornography Back in the Closet” argues that pornography should be not be protect by the 1st Amendment or be allowed into society. Meanwhile, Susan Jacoby a writer of “ A First Amendment Junkie” disagrees with Brownmiller because she believes that it’s everyone’s right and that society should not be able to censor pornography. Should society let the government censor pornography just because we may not approve this type of act. I agree with both of the writer’s that pornography should

Susan Brownmiller's essay voices her feminist view towards pornographic material. Her claim is that without restriction, the first amendment has allowed women to be publicly perceived as objects.

Lisa Sigel’s, urge towards more historiography within the realm of pornography appears to be a vital response to the contestations concerning a comprehensive understanding of such a chaotic topic. To begin with, Sigel explores the discord revolving periodisation and delineation. She particularly looks at debates around the period the genre was formed as well as the challenges to formulate a single universal definition of pornography (pp. 223-224). Subsequently, her article veers towards research that has been conducted by other disciplines in the field, but it does so in correlation to what work historians should initiate in clearing the gaps that are left behind. Here, Sigel talks of the issues power and censorship has imbued on the research of pornography but she, moreover, examines how this could be corrected. She exemplifies the analyses of literary and art scholars, including Bradford Mudge, Sarah Leonard and Alyce Mahon, as a way forward for historians (pp. 227-231). Sigel goes on to argue that the result of historian work would help align pornography to specific socio-political contexts. She goes on to explore some of these contexts and insists that by continuing this contextualisation process a better understanding of pornography will be obtained (pp.231-233).

Whilst many disagreements have arisen in feminist discourse over the years, none has been quite as prevalent or divisive as the issue of the commodification of sexuality. There are two central groups in feminist ideology that are divided on this issue, liberal feminism and radical feminism. Liberal feminism is influenced by the ideas and values of liberalism. Thus, these feminists share a contractarian view which places an emphasis on a woman’s ability to make choices for herself and that the selling of one’s sexuality is merely an expression of that choice. Paradoxically, radical feminists believe that because women live in a patriarchal society, the commodification of sexuality can never be a choice or a form of expression. Rather, forms of sexual commodification such as pornography and prostitution just enforce male oppression. This essay will explore these two ideological positions in regard to their divergent definitions of human nature and freedom which has created a division within feminism about the commodification of sexuality.

The third wave of feminism coincided with the end of the second-wave. It occurred from the 1990s and is still present in contemporary society. This wave focuses on a post-modern understanding of gender boundaries and sexual identity. Most notably, the emergence of anti-pornographic movements during the third wave created a divide between radical and sex-positive views on sexuality. In MacKinnon’s article “Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State: An Agenda for Theory,” she draws on the parallel between sexuality and marxism. The exploitation of work in marxism is comparable to the exploitation of female sexuality for men (MacKinnon 16). The exploitation of women as a sexual object for male gratification is apparent in pornography. MacKinnon

Gail Dines’s book Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality (Beacon Press, 2011) is about how porn is affecting our lives and why it's presence is damaging to our sexual freedom. Her point of view is just one point of view but it's very thought provoking and it makes you question a lot of things. A lot of things that you wouldn't generally think of. Some may not agree with her point-of-view because of her “anti-porn” agenda, but in this book Dine makes a fair amount of valid points.

Anti-porn feminists believe that pornography is humiliating to women and turns them into sexual objects that satisfy men’s sexuality. But McElroy disagree saying that when it is analyzed critically it means nothing. Humans only are the ones known to have sexuality then how can objects have sexuality. McElroy basing on this concludes saying that anti-porn feminists who believes in this are lessening their fellow’s dignity. In her article McElroy continues to disagree with this saying that there is nothing shameful on focusing on woman’s

Anne McClintock’s “Gonad the Barbarian and the Venus Flytrap”, focuses a lot of attention on how from the beginning of history, women have been denied some of the basic rights and freedoms that have been essential to the way that men live. Starting back from the times where they couldn’t vote and when women were basically seen as property when wedded. Women today and even in the earlier days could not express their sexuality and could not show that they were sexual beings. Anne McClintock gives the idea that women should be able to have the things that men have and they should be able to express it in the same way as men. In this essay, I will analyze how Anne McClintock views pornography as a form of pleasure that is mostly consumed by men and how women are incorporated into the employment of the industry and even in the home setting.

In the coming paragraphs, I will prove that Ronald Dworkin’s criticisms and critiques of Catherine Mackinnon’s views towards pornography and society are largely unfounded and immaterial, and that government intervention via legislation is required in the protection of women’s interests. I will begin by explaining Catherine Mackinnon’s opinion and support for the Butler decision and thereafter, I will discuss Ronald Dworkin’s critique of it. After outlining their positions, I will proceed to highlight the areas of incommensurability between their arguments. My perspective

Ethics Pornography is a social problem and is a commodity brought into existence by certain characteristics of a highly developed civilization. The problem with pornography is that any form of censorship or downplay cannot solve it. It is difficult to draw the line between ones right to express their ideas and or opinions or sexuality

One issue that feminists should bring to the open and question is the definition of pornography. Often times anti-porn feminists argue that we can tell what is and isn’t porn easily. Yet the definition these feminists use to decide what counts as porn and whether it should be censored from the public applies to many things as Lumby points out in paragraphs nine and twelve. She draws up the movie Siren as an example of how Elle Macpherson’s nudity in the movie was widely accepted and went uncontested, but then Lumby points out how Macpherson’s shoot for Playboy was more modest than some of the shots in the film yet the photo shoot receives more flack because it’s categorized as porn (par 9).

MacKinnon believes that pornography maintains male-dominated views of sex and is an extension of the patriarchy and thus, from a feminist standpoint, it should be eliminated. First, it should be established that MacKinnon believes that “male dominance is sexual” (315). From that, it can be established that practices such as rape, sexual assault, prostitution, and pornography “express and actualize the

Thesis – Multiple outlooks have been taken on the ethics of pornography, and the means by which it may either negatively influence power in sexuality, or actually provide some sort of social value and worth. These different ethical perspectives display the flaws in the industry and what it represents; yet they also end up proving the fact that it can be modified with positive influence and that pornography is not something to be deemed utterly unethical.

Catharine MacKinnon, in her book Feminism Unmodified, takes a unique approach to the problem of gender inequality in America. She claims that pornography defines the way in which America’s patriarchal society perpetuates male dominance, and attacks traditional liberal methods that defend pornography on the basis of the first amendment’s right to free speech. According to MacKinnon, pornography is not an example of speech but rather an act. She proposes that this act discriminates against women as a class, and therefore violates their civil rights and should be outlawed. MacKinnon’s critics may think her argument is excessively radical, and contemporary society may not embrace the