Pornography Content

There are now more than 90 categories of pornography on offer on mainstream Internet sites. This chapter argues that pornography is far from monolithic, which makes studying its impact complicated. Further, the chapter suggests that the sheer volume and variety of pornography are not inherently harmful to public health, although there is some potential that the variety of sexually explicit media available could be marketing strategy to lure or secure consumers. Four specific types of pornography—magna/anime, incest, barely legal, and kink/BDSM—are discussed. The chapter reviews findings from content analyses of porn, including so-called feminist pornography. The need for more research on race and racism in mainstream, Internet pornography is highlighted.

Feminist Pornography as Feminist Propaganda, and Ideological Catch-22s

Philosophical discussions of pornography are often located within the philosophy of language, due to Rae Langton and Jennifer Hornsby’s pioneering speech-act theoretic treatments, offered with an eye towards issues concerning freedom of speech. An alternative (though not inconsistent) approach sees pornography as a topic for epistemologists; in particular, a number of philosophers have recently suggested a crucial part of what makes pornography troubling is that it acts as a kind of propaganda. However, while mainstream pornography tends to peddle a harmful, sexism sexual ideology, some feminists, including some feminist philosophers, have expressed the hope that feminist pornography could harness pornography’s persuasive force—its propagandic power to shape the attitudes, and perhaps the behaviour, of its consumers—but change the message. In this chapter, McGlynn critically examines this proposal and draws the disappointing conclusion that it is likely to fail, given the way that propaganda works.

How Not to Watch Feminist Pornography

This paper has three goals. The first is to defend Tristan Taormino and Erika Lust (or some of their films) from criticisms that Rebecca Whisnant and Hans Maes make of them. Toward that end, I will be arguing against the narrow conceptions that Whisnant and Maes seem to have of what “feminist” pornography must be like. More generally, I hope to show by example why it is important to take pornographic films seriously as films if we're to understand their potential to shape, or misshape, socio-sexual norms.

A reading on feminism on feminism and pornography through Jury Lotman's culture and explosion: Reflections

We endeavor through this research paper to read the feminist movements, in particular countries in order to understand its dynamics and at the same time to foresee its future directions. To achieve this, as an adequate tool, Juri Lotman’s Culture and Explosion (2009) provides us a model for reading the different dynamics within feminism, as a cultural text, as well as its interconnection to other sign systems within the same semiotic sphere. Thus we can understand the interconnection of feminism with politics and society, and with its plurality of discourses makes it in constant change and exposed to explosions which would change its course in the future. These explosions are displayed through the political acts which were passed in favour of the women as a result of the feminist dynamics. Besides, the feminist movement has the capacity to integrate into other movements and also can be transformed into other movements, and thus, new realities and discourses are created. Within this arena, among these realities is the anti-feminist pornography as opposed to pro-sex feminists. From our stand point, pornography, and especially that in the digital age, is the dark side of the feminist movement. Semiotically, in Lotman’s (2009) model, pornography is abnormal, sick or non-existent because it is different from the norm. In the light of this, we are able to expose different views about the harms of pornography both on women and even men.

Pornography as Liberation

Pornography debates have tended to polarize the feminist movement and led to the “sex wars” of the 1970s and 1980s. The main opposition can be denoted with PorNo (antipornography positions) and PorYes (pro-pornography and “sex positive” outlooks), but is fraught with difficulties. For example, it is unclear what exactly is under dispute: Is the disagreement about how to define the concept of pornography or merely about which materials fall under it? Subsequently, the chapter considers two questions: Is feminist pornography possible? Might pornography be emancipatory? The chapter answers both questions with “yes” and considers what would make pornography feminist and/or liberatory when thinking about racialization, ability, and “fattism” in pornography. It argues that neither an unqualified PorNo nor an unqualified PorYes position is tenable. Furthermore, these positions share many basic commitments; but both sides tend to paint the opposition in an uncharitable light and in a manner that distorts the debate.

Pornography

Everyday and philosophical debates concerning pornography are fraught with many difficult questions. These include: What is pornography? What does pornography do (if anything at all)? Is the consumption of pornography a harmless private matter, or does pornography violate women’s civil rights? What, if anything, should legally be done about pornography? Can there be feminist pornography? Answering these questions is complicated by confusion over the conceptual and political commitments of different anti- and pro-pornography positions, and whether these positions are even in tension with one another: different people understand the concept of pornography differently and easily end up talking past one another. This book provides an opinionated and accessible introduction to contemporary philosophical debates on pornography, which will be conducted from a feminist perspective. The book’s starting point is morally neutral, and it provides a comprehensive discussion of various philosophical positions on pornography that are found in ethics, aesthetics, feminist philosophy, political philosophy, epistemology, and social ontology. Topics include: whether pornography subordinates and silences women; free speech versus hate speech; whether pornography produces a distinct kind of knowledge; whether it objectifies and if so, in what sense; how should we think about the aesthetics of pornography; what difference do nonheteronormative, female-friendly and/or queer pornography make to philosophical debates. The book clarifies different stances in the debate, thus helping readers to understand what is at stake in philosophical examinations of pornography. In so doing, it also offers readers important methodological insights about doing philosophical work on something so this-worldly as pornography.