Feminist views on pornography
Encyclopedia
Feminist views of pornography range from condemnation of pornography as a form of violence against women
, to an embracing of some forms of pornography as a medium of feminist expression. Feminist debate on this issue reflects larger concerns surrounding feminist views on sexuality, and is closely related to feminist debates on prostitution
, BDSM
, and other issues. Pornography has been one of the most divisive issues in feminism
, particularly among feminists in anglophone countries. This deep division between feminists was exemplified in the Feminist Sex Wars
of the 1980s, which pitted anti-pornography feminism against sex-positive feminism.
, Catharine MacKinnon
, Robin Morgan
, Diana Russell, Alice Schwarzer
, and Robert Jensen
—argue that pornography is harmful to women, and constitutes strong causality or facilitation of violence against women.
of the women who perform and model in it. This is said to be true even when the women are being presented as enjoying themselves. It is also argued that much of what is shown in pornography is abusive by its very nature. Gail Dines
holds that pornography, exemplified by gonzo pornography
, is becoming increasingly violent and that women who perform in pornography are brutalized in the process of its production.
Anti-pornography feminists point to the testimony of well known participants in pornography, such as Traci Lords
and Linda Boreman, and argue that most female performers are coerced into pornography, either by somebody else, or by an unfortunate set of circumstances. The feminist anti-pornography movement was galvanized by the publication of Ordeal, in which Linda Boreman (who under the name of "Linda Lovelace" had starred in Deep Throat
) stated that she had been beaten, raped, and pimp
ed by her husband Chuck Traynor
, and that Traynor had forced her at gunpoint to make scenes in Deep Throat, as well as forcing her, by use of both physical violence against Boreman as well as emotional abuse and outright threats of violence, to make other pornographic films. Dworkin, MacKinnon, and Women Against Pornography issued public statements of support for Boreman, and worked with her in public appearances and speeches.
, arguing that in pornographic performances the actresses are reduced to mere receptacles—objects—for sexual use and abuse by men. They argue that the narrative is usually formed around men's pleasure as the only goal of sexual activity, and that the women are shown in a subordinate role. Some opponents believe pornographic films tend to show women as being extremely passive, or that the acts which are performed on the women are typically abusive and solely for the pleasure of their sex partner. On-face ejaculation and anal rape are increasingly popular among men, following trends in porn. MacKinnon and Dworkin defined pornography as "the graphic sexually explicit subordination of women through pictures or words".
and other forms of violence against women
. Robin Morgan summarizes this idea with her often-quoted statement, "Pornography is the theory, and rape is the practice."
Anti-pornography feminists charge that pornography eroticizes the domination, humiliation, and coercion of women, and reinforces sexual and cultural attitudes that are complicit in rape
and sexual harassment
. MacKinnon argued that pornography leads to an increase in sexual violence against women through fostering rape myths. Such rape myths include the belief that women really want to be raped and that they mean yes when they say no. Additionally, according to MacKinnon, pornography desensitizes viewers to violence against women, and this leads to a progressive need to see more violence in order to become sexually aroused, an effect she claims is well documented.
Rape of a prepubescent child followed "habitual" consumption of child porn "within six months" although the men were previously "horrified at the idea", according to men in prison interviewed by Gail Dines.
radical feminist Alice Schwarzer
is one proponent of this point of view, in particular in the feminist magazine Emma. Many opponents of pornography believe that pornography gives a distorted view of men and women's bodies, as well as the actual sexual act, often showing the performers with synthetic implants or exaggerated expressions of pleasure.
formed organizations such as Women Against Pornography
, Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media
, Women Against Violence Against Women, Feminists Fighting Pornography
, and like groups that provided educational events, including slide-shows, speeches, guided tours of the sex shops in areas like New York's Times Square
and San Francisco's Tenderloin District
, petitioning, and publishing newsletters, in order to raise awareness of the content of pornography and the sexual subculture in pornography shops and live sex shows.
Similar groups also emerged in the United Kingdom, including legislatively focused groups such as Campaign Against Pornography and Campaign Against Pornography and Censorship, as well as groups associated with radical feminism
such as Women Against Violence Against Women and its direct action
offshoot Angry Women.
Some anti-pornography feminists, such as Nikki Craft
, Ann Simonton
, and Melissa Farley
, have advocated and carried out civil disobedience
and direct action
against pornography and been arrested for public nudity. They campaign against corporations through destruction of single copies of magazines that contained violent pornography that they argue condones and legitimises rape as sexual entertainment. They advocate rejecting the representations of sexual objectification as exemplified in publications like Hustler
and Penthouse
.
. The Antipornography Civil Rights Ordinance
that they drafted was passed twice by the Minneapolis city council in 1983, but vetoed by Mayor Donald Fraser, on the grounds that the city could not afford the litigation over the law's constitutionality
.
The ordinance was successfully passed in 1984 by the Indianapolis
city council and signed by Mayor William Hudnut, and passed by a ballot initiative in Bellingham, Washington
in 1988, but struck down both times as unconstitutional by the state and federal courts. In 1986, the Supreme Court affirmed the lower courts' rulings in the Indianapolis
case without comment.
Many anti-pornography feminists supported the legislative efforts, but others objected that legislative campaigns would be rendered ineffectual by the courts, would violate principles of free speech, or would harm the anti-pornography movement by taking organizing energy away from education and direct action
and entangling it in political squabbles.
of 1991 (previously known as the Pornography Victims Protection Act) was supported by groups including Feminists Fighting Pornography
. Catharine MacKinnon
declined to support the legislation, though aspects of it were based on her legal approach to pornography. The bill was introduced in Congress, thus, had it passed, it would have applied nationwide.
The objections to the bill were largely the same as those against the Antipornography Civil Rights Ordinance plus two: One, at least as introduced in 1991, it did not recognize the full width of the feminist definition of pornography but was limited to child pornography and obscenity, some of which would not be objectionable on feminist grounds, but the difference in definition was intended to ease passage by not confronting Constitutional objections. It did not pass, but it possibly made more progress, leaving open a political question of which drafting strategy better aided the antipornography educational effort. The other additional objection was that it would authorize a suit against one party for what another party did, a legal strategy not unknown in the law of drunken driving and bars serving alcoholic drinks.
's 1992 ruling in R. v. Butler
(the Butler decision) fueled further controversy, when the court decided to incorporate some elements of Dworkin and MacKinnon's legal work on pornography into the existing Canadian obscenity
law. In Butler the Court held that Canadian obscenity law violated Canadian citizens' rights to free speech under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
if enforced on grounds of morality or community standards of decency; but that obscenity law could be enforced constitutionally against some pornography on the basis of the Charter's guarantees of sex equality.
The Court's decision cited extensively from briefs prepared by the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund
(LEAF), with MacKinnon's support and participation. Dworkin opposed LEAF's position, arguing that feminists should not support or attempt to reform criminal obscenity law.
was historically associated with the National Organization for Women
(NOW), a leading feminist organization, suggesting that counsel was likely to have had knowledge of the feminist theory.
(also known as sexually liberal feminism or pro-sex feminism) describes the belief that sexual liberation and sexual freedom are key components of women's liberation. The terms sex-positive feminism and pro-sex feminism are disputed within feminism..
Pornography is seen as being a medium for women's sexual expression in this view. Sex-positive feminists view many radical feminist views on sexuality, including views on pornography, as being as oppressive as those of patriarchal religions and ideologies, and argue that anti-pornography feminist discourse ignores and trivializes women's sexual agency. Ellen Willis
(who coined the term "pro-sex feminism") states "As we saw it, the claim that 'pornography is violence against women' was code for the neo-Victorian idea that men want sex and women endure it."
Sex-positive feminists take a variety of views towards existing pornography. Many sex-positive feminists see pornography as subverting many traditional ideas about women that they oppose, such as ideas that women do not like sex generally, only enjoy sex in a relational context, or that women only enjoy vanilla sex
. They also argue that pornography sometimes shows women in sexually dominant roles and presents women with a greater variety of body types than are typical of mainstream entertainment and fashion. However, these qualities are arguably not the norm in mainstream pornography.
, the feminist plays of Holly Hughes
, and works like Our Bodies, Ourselves
and The Well of Loneliness
as examples of feminist sexual speech which has been the target of censorship. FFE further argues that the attempt to fix social problems through censorship, "divert[s] attention from the substantive causes of social ills and offer a cosmetic, dangerous 'quick fix.'" They argue that instead a free and vigorous marketplace of ideas
is the best assurance for achieving feminist goals in a democratic society.
Critics of anti-pornography feminism accuse their counterparts of selective handling of social scientific evidence. Anti-pornography feminists are also critiqued as intolerant of sexual difference and is characterized as often indiscriminately supporting state censorship
policy and are accused of complicity with conservative sexual politics and Christian Right
groups.
Several feminist anti-censorship groups have actively opposed anti-pornography legislation and other forms of censorship. These groups have included the Feminist Anti-Censorship Taskforce (FACT) and Feminists for Free Expression in the US and Feminists Against Censorship
in the UK.
Feminists opposed to anti-pornography legislation argue that even when such legislation is feminist-inspired, it can potentially be used to target the speech of women and sexual minorities. They argue that this was exemplified by the first two anti-obscenity actions by the Canadian government following R. v. Butler
. The first of these was the raid and prosecution of Glad Day Bookshop
, an LGBT
bookstore in Ontario
, for selling copies of the lesbian BDSM
magazine Bad Attitude. The second was the seizure at the Canadian border of books destined for the Vancouver, BC lesbian bookstore, Little Sisters (see Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v. Canada (Minister of Justice)
). Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon responded with a statement claiming that the idea that these raids reflected the application of pre-Butler standards and that it was actually illegal under Butler to selectively target LGBT materials. However, opponents of Butler have countered that the decision simply reinforced an existing politics of censorship that pre-dated the decision.
Anti-censorship feminists question why only some forms of sexist communication (namely sexually arousing/explicit ones) should be banned, while not advocating bans against equally misogynist public discourse. Susie Bright
notes, "It's a far different criticism to note that porn is sexist. So are all commercial media. That's like tasting several glasses of salt water and insisting only one of them is salty. The difference with porn is that it is people fucking, and we live in a world that cannot tolerate that image in public."
, Ovidie
, Madison Young
, and Sasha Grey
are also self-described sex-positive feminists, and state that they do not see themselves as victims of sexism. They defend their decision to perform in pornography as freely chosen, and argue that much of what they do on camera is an expression of their sexuality. It has also been pointed out that in pornography, women generally earn more than their male counterparts. Some porn performers such as Nina Hartley are active in the sex workers' rights movement.
, Tristan Taormino
, Madison Young
, Shine Louise Houston, and Erika Lust. Some of these directors make pornography specifically for a female or genderqueer
audience, while others try for a broad appeal across genders and sexual orientations.
According to Tristan Taormino, "Feminist porn both responds to dominant images with alternative ones and creates its own iconography."
Since 2006, there has been a Feminist Porn Awards held annually in Toronto, sponsored by a local feminist sex toy
business, Good for Her. The awards are given in a number of categories and have three guiding criteria: "1) A woman had a hand in the production, writing, direction, etc. of the work. 2) It depicts genuine female pleasure. 3) It expands the boundaries of sexual representation on film and challenges stereotypes that are often found in mainstream porn."
Swedish filmmaker Mia Engberg along with twelve different directors produced a collection of feminist pornographic short films titled Dirty Diaries
which was released in September 2009. The financing for the most part came from the Swedish Film Institute
.
and Page Mellish
, distinguish between "pornography" and "erotica", as different classes of sexual media, the former emphasizing dominance and the latter emphasizing mutuality. Steinem holds that, "These two sorts of images are as different as love is from rape, as dignity is from humiliation, as partnership is from slavery, as pleasure is from pain." Feminists who subscribe to this view hold that erotica promotes positive and pro-woman sexual values and does not carry the harmful effects of pornography. Such feminists hold that erotica should not be subject to the same legislative opposition as pornography. Other anti-pornography feminists are more skeptical about this distinction, holding that all sexual materials produced in a patriarchal system are expressions of male dominance. Andrea Dworkin wrote, "erotica is simply high-class pornography: better produced, better conceived, better executed, better packaged, designed for a better class of consumer."
Other feminists tend not to make a distinction between pornography and erotica, and those that have addressed the distinction made by Steinem and others find it problematic. Ellen Willis
holds that the term 'erotica' is needlessly vague and euphemistic, and appeals to an idealized version of what kind of sex people should want rather than what arouses the sexual feelings people actually have. She also emphasizes the subjectivity of the distinction, stating, "In practice, attempts to sort out good erotica from bad porn inevitably comes down to 'What turns me on is erotica; what turns you on is pornographic.'"
Some feminists make an analogous distinction between mainstream pornography and feminist pornography, viewing mainstream pornography as problematic or even wholly misogynistic while praising feminist pornography.
Violence against women
Violence against women is a technical term used to collectively refer to violent acts that are primarily or exclusively committed against women...
, to an embracing of some forms of pornography as a medium of feminist expression. Feminist debate on this issue reflects larger concerns surrounding feminist views on sexuality, and is closely related to feminist debates on prostitution
Feminist views on prostitution
As with many issues within the feminist movement, there exists a diversity of opinions regarding prostitution. Many of these positions can be loosely arranged into an overarching standpoint that is generally either critical or supportive of prostitution and sex work...
, BDSM
Feminist views on BDSM
Feminist views on BDSM vary widely, from some feminists such as Andrea Dworkin and Susan Griffin who regard BDSM as a form of woman-hating violence, to some sex-positive feminists who see BDSM as a valid form of expression of female sexuality,...
, and other issues. Pornography has been one of the most divisive issues in feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
, particularly among feminists in anglophone countries. This deep division between feminists was exemplified in the Feminist Sex Wars
Feminist Sex Wars
The Feminist Sex Wars and Lesbian Sex Wars, or simply the Sex Wars or Porn Wars, were the acrimonious debates within the feminist movement and lesbian community in the late 1970s through the 1980s around the issues of feminist strategies regarding sexuality, sexual representation, pornography,...
of the 1980s, which pitted anti-pornography feminism against sex-positive feminism.
Anti-pornography feminism
Radical feminist opponents of pornography—such as Andrea DworkinAndrea Dworkin
Andrea Rita Dworkin was an American radical feminist and writer best known for her criticism of pornography, which she argued was linked to rape and other forms of violence against women....
, Catharine MacKinnon
Catharine MacKinnon
Catharine Alice MacKinnon is an American feminist, scholar, lawyer, teacher and activist.- Biography :MacKinnon was born in Minnesota. Her mother is Elizabeth Valentine Davis; her father, George E. MacKinnon was a lawyer, congressman , and judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit...
, Robin Morgan
Robin Morgan
Robin Morgan is a former child actor turned American radical feminist activist, writer, poet, and editor of Sisterhood is Powerful and Ms. Magazine....
, Diana Russell, Alice Schwarzer
Alice Schwarzer
Alice Schwarzer is the most prominent contemporary German feminist. She is founder and publisher of the German feminist journal EMMA.-Biography and positions:...
, and Robert Jensen
Robert Jensen
Robert William Jensen is a professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin College of Communication. He joined the faculty in 1992 after completing his Ph.D. in media law and ethics in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota...
—argue that pornography is harmful to women, and constitutes strong causality or facilitation of violence against women.
Harm to women during production
Anti-pornography feminists, notably Catherine MacKinnon, charge that the production of pornography entails physical, psychological, and/or economic coercionCoercion
Coercion is the practice of forcing another party to behave in an involuntary manner by use of threats or intimidation or some other form of pressure or force. In law, coercion is codified as the duress crime. Such actions are used as leverage, to force the victim to act in the desired way...
of the women who perform and model in it. This is said to be true even when the women are being presented as enjoying themselves. It is also argued that much of what is shown in pornography is abusive by its very nature. Gail Dines
Gail Dines
Gail Dines is a feminist anti-pornography activist, author, professor, and lecturer. An academic, she has also been described as "The world's leading anti-pornography campaigner".-Biography:...
holds that pornography, exemplified by gonzo pornography
Point of view pornography
Point of view pornography , also known as , is adult entertainment that is filmed as if the watcher had experienced the sex-acts themselves....
, is becoming increasingly violent and that women who perform in pornography are brutalized in the process of its production.
Anti-pornography feminists point to the testimony of well known participants in pornography, such as Traci Lords
Traci Lords
Traci Lords , also known as Traci Elizabeth Lords and Tracy Lords, is an American film actress, producer, film director, writer and singer...
and Linda Boreman, and argue that most female performers are coerced into pornography, either by somebody else, or by an unfortunate set of circumstances. The feminist anti-pornography movement was galvanized by the publication of Ordeal, in which Linda Boreman (who under the name of "Linda Lovelace" had starred in Deep Throat
Deep Throat (film)
Deep Throat is a 1972 American pornographic film written and directed by Gerard Damiano and produced by Louis Peraino and starring Linda Lovelace ....
) stated that she had been beaten, raped, and pimp
Pimp
A pimp is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The pimp may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing a location where she may engage clients...
ed by her husband Chuck Traynor
Chuck Traynor
Charles "Chuck" E. Traynor was an American entrepreneur and pornographer.Traynor was a minor figure in the early US East Coast pornographic film industry and appeared in a number of short "loops" in the early 1970s, usually with his then-wife Linda Lovelace...
, and that Traynor had forced her at gunpoint to make scenes in Deep Throat, as well as forcing her, by use of both physical violence against Boreman as well as emotional abuse and outright threats of violence, to make other pornographic films. Dworkin, MacKinnon, and Women Against Pornography issued public statements of support for Boreman, and worked with her in public appearances and speeches.
Women reduced to sex objects
Anti-pornography feminists hold the view that pornography contributes to sexismSexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
, arguing that in pornographic performances the actresses are reduced to mere receptacles—objects—for sexual use and abuse by men. They argue that the narrative is usually formed around men's pleasure as the only goal of sexual activity, and that the women are shown in a subordinate role. Some opponents believe pornographic films tend to show women as being extremely passive, or that the acts which are performed on the women are typically abusive and solely for the pleasure of their sex partner. On-face ejaculation and anal rape are increasingly popular among men, following trends in porn. MacKinnon and Dworkin defined pornography as "the graphic sexually explicit subordination of women through pictures or words".
Enticement to sexual violence against females
Anti-pornography feminists say that consumption of pornography is a cause of rapeRape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
and other forms of violence against women
Violence against women
Violence against women is a technical term used to collectively refer to violent acts that are primarily or exclusively committed against women...
. Robin Morgan summarizes this idea with her often-quoted statement, "Pornography is the theory, and rape is the practice."
Anti-pornography feminists charge that pornography eroticizes the domination, humiliation, and coercion of women, and reinforces sexual and cultural attitudes that are complicit in rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
and sexual harassment
Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment, is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In some contexts or circumstances, sexual harassment is illegal. It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and...
. MacKinnon argued that pornography leads to an increase in sexual violence against women through fostering rape myths. Such rape myths include the belief that women really want to be raped and that they mean yes when they say no. Additionally, according to MacKinnon, pornography desensitizes viewers to violence against women, and this leads to a progressive need to see more violence in order to become sexually aroused, an effect she claims is well documented.
Rape of children
Rape of a prepubescent child followed "habitual" consumption of child porn "within six months" although the men were previously "horrified at the idea", according to men in prison interviewed by Gail Dines.
Distorted view of the human body and sexuality
GermanGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
radical feminist Alice Schwarzer
Alice Schwarzer
Alice Schwarzer is the most prominent contemporary German feminist. She is founder and publisher of the German feminist journal EMMA.-Biography and positions:...
is one proponent of this point of view, in particular in the feminist magazine Emma. Many opponents of pornography believe that pornography gives a distorted view of men and women's bodies, as well as the actual sexual act, often showing the performers with synthetic implants or exaggerated expressions of pleasure.
Hatred of women
Gail Dines said, "'[p]ornography is the perfect propaganda piece for patriarchy. In nothing else is their hatred of us quite as clear.'"Anti-pornography feminist organizations and campaigns
Beginning in the late 1970s, anti-pornography radical feministsRadical feminism
Radical feminism is a current theoretical perspective within feminism that focuses on the theory of patriarchy as a system of power that organizes society into a complex of relationships based on an assumption that "male supremacy" oppresses women...
formed organizations such as Women Against Pornography
Women Against Pornography
Women Against Pornography was a radical feminist activist group based out of New York City and an influential force in the anti-pornography movement of the late 1970s and the 1980s....
, Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media
Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media
Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media was a radical feminist anti-pornography activist group based in San Francisco and an influential force in the larger feminist anti-pornography movement of the late 1970s and 1980s....
, Women Against Violence Against Women, Feminists Fighting Pornography
Feminists Fighting Pornography
Feminists Fighting Pornography was a political activist organization against pornography. It advocated for U.S. Federal legislation to allow lawsuits against the porn industry by women whose attackers were inspired by pornography. FFP was based in New York, N.Y., was founded in 1983 or 1984, and...
, and like groups that provided educational events, including slide-shows, speeches, guided tours of the sex shops in areas like New York's Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
and San Francisco's Tenderloin District
Tenderloin district
Tenderloin District may refer to:*Tenderloin, Manhattan*Tenderloin, San Francisco, California...
, petitioning, and publishing newsletters, in order to raise awareness of the content of pornography and the sexual subculture in pornography shops and live sex shows.
Similar groups also emerged in the United Kingdom, including legislatively focused groups such as Campaign Against Pornography and Campaign Against Pornography and Censorship, as well as groups associated with radical feminism
Radical feminism
Radical feminism is a current theoretical perspective within feminism that focuses on the theory of patriarchy as a system of power that organizes society into a complex of relationships based on an assumption that "male supremacy" oppresses women...
such as Women Against Violence Against Women and its direct action
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
offshoot Angry Women.
Some anti-pornography feminists, such as Nikki Craft
Nikki Craft
Nikki Craft is an American political activist, radical feminist, artist and writer.-Activism:In 1975, she presented the Rockwell International Board of Directors with "...naked doll[s] splashed with blood-colored paint" to protest their B-1 bomber called "The Peacemaker".The same year, Craft...
, Ann Simonton
Ann Simonton
Ann J. Simonton is an American writer, lecturer, media activist, and former fashion model. She founded and coordinates the non-profit group "Media Watch", which challenges what they see as racism, sexism, and violence in the media through education and action. Simonton has published two...
, and Melissa Farley
Melissa Farley
Melissa Farley is an American clinical psychologist and researcher and feminist anti-pornography and anti-prostitution activist. Farley is best known for her studies of the effects of prostitution, trafficking, and sexual violence....
, have advocated and carried out civil disobedience
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
and direct action
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
against pornography and been arrested for public nudity. They campaign against corporations through destruction of single copies of magazines that contained violent pornography that they argue condones and legitimises rape as sexual entertainment. They advocate rejecting the representations of sexual objectification as exemplified in publications like Hustler
Hustler
Hustler is a monthly pornographic magazine aimed at men and published in the United States. It was first published in 1974 by Larry Flynt. It was a step forward from the Hustler Newsletter which was cheap advertising for his strip club businesses at the time. The magazine grew from a shaky start to...
and Penthouse
Penthouse (magazine)
Penthouse, a men's magazine founded by Bob Guccione, combines urban lifestyle articles and softcore pornographic pictorials that, in the 1990s, evolved into hardcore. Penthouse is owned by FriendFinder Network. formerly known as General Media, Inc. whose parent company was Penthouse International...
.
Antipornography Civil Rights Ordinance
Many anti-pornography feminists—Dworkin and MacKinnon in particular—advocated laws which defined pornography as a civil rights harm and allowed women to sue pornographers in civil courtCivil law (common law)
Civil law, as opposed to criminal law, is the branch of law dealing with disputes between individuals or organizations, in which compensation may be awarded to the victim...
. The Antipornography Civil Rights Ordinance
Antipornography civil rights ordinance
The Antipornography Civil Rights Ordinance is a name for several proposed local ordinances, closely associated with the anti-pornography radical feminists Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon, that proposed to treat pornography as a violation of women's civil rights,...
that they drafted was passed twice by the Minneapolis city council in 1983, but vetoed by Mayor Donald Fraser, on the grounds that the city could not afford the litigation over the law's constitutionality
Constitutionality
Constitutionality is the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution. Acts that are not in accordance with the rules laid down in the constitution are deemed to be ultra vires.-See also:*ultra vires*Company law*Constitutional law...
.
The ordinance was successfully passed in 1984 by the Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
city council and signed by Mayor William Hudnut, and passed by a ballot initiative in Bellingham, Washington
Bellingham, Washington
Bellingham is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is the twelfth-largest city in the state. Situated on Bellingham Bay, Bellingham is protected by Lummi Island, Portage Island, and the Lummi Peninsula, and opens onto the Strait of Georgia...
in 1988, but struck down both times as unconstitutional by the state and federal courts. In 1986, the Supreme Court affirmed the lower courts' rulings in the Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
case without comment.
Many anti-pornography feminists supported the legislative efforts, but others objected that legislative campaigns would be rendered ineffectual by the courts, would violate principles of free speech, or would harm the anti-pornography movement by taking organizing energy away from education and direct action
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
and entangling it in political squabbles.
Pornography Victims' Compensation Act
Another feminist approach was designed to permit survivors of crime when the crime was the result of pornographic influence to sue the pornographers. The Pornography Victims' Compensation ActPornography Victims Compensation Act
The Pornography Victims' Compensation Act of 1991 was a bill, S. 983, in the U.S. Congress. The sponsor in the Senate was Senator Mitch McConnell with eight cosponsors. A Senate committee held hearings on the bill...
of 1991 (previously known as the Pornography Victims Protection Act) was supported by groups including Feminists Fighting Pornography
Feminists Fighting Pornography
Feminists Fighting Pornography was a political activist organization against pornography. It advocated for U.S. Federal legislation to allow lawsuits against the porn industry by women whose attackers were inspired by pornography. FFP was based in New York, N.Y., was founded in 1983 or 1984, and...
. Catharine MacKinnon
Catharine MacKinnon
Catharine Alice MacKinnon is an American feminist, scholar, lawyer, teacher and activist.- Biography :MacKinnon was born in Minnesota. Her mother is Elizabeth Valentine Davis; her father, George E. MacKinnon was a lawyer, congressman , and judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit...
declined to support the legislation, though aspects of it were based on her legal approach to pornography. The bill was introduced in Congress, thus, had it passed, it would have applied nationwide.
The objections to the bill were largely the same as those against the Antipornography Civil Rights Ordinance plus two: One, at least as introduced in 1991, it did not recognize the full width of the feminist definition of pornography but was limited to child pornography and obscenity, some of which would not be objectionable on feminist grounds, but the difference in definition was intended to ease passage by not confronting Constitutional objections. It did not pass, but it possibly made more progress, leaving open a political question of which drafting strategy better aided the antipornography educational effort. The other additional objection was that it would authorize a suit against one party for what another party did, a legal strategy not unknown in the law of drunken driving and bars serving alcoholic drinks.
R. v. Butler
The Supreme Court of CanadaSupreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
's 1992 ruling in R. v. Butler
R. v. Butler
R. v. Butler, [1992] 1 S.C.R. 452 is a leading Supreme Court of Canada decision on pornography and state censorship. In this case, the Court had to balance the right to freedom of expression under section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms with women's rights; the outcome has been...
(the Butler decision) fueled further controversy, when the court decided to incorporate some elements of Dworkin and MacKinnon's legal work on pornography into the existing Canadian obscenity
Obscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
law. In Butler the Court held that Canadian obscenity law violated Canadian citizens' rights to free speech under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada. It forms the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982...
if enforced on grounds of morality or community standards of decency; but that obscenity law could be enforced constitutionally against some pornography on the basis of the Charter's guarantees of sex equality.
The Court's decision cited extensively from briefs prepared by the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund
Women's Legal Education and Action Fund
Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, referred to by the acronym LEAF, is a Canadian legal organization that performs legal research and intervenes in appellate and Supreme Court of Canada cases on women's issues...
(LEAF), with MacKinnon's support and participation. Dworkin opposed LEAF's position, arguing that feminists should not support or attempt to reform criminal obscenity law.
Robinson v. Jacksonville Shipyards
Robinson v. Jacksonville Shipyards was a sexual harassment Federal district court case. It recognized as law that pornography could illegally contribute to sexual harassment through a workplace environment hostile to women. The court's order included a ban on "displaying pictures, posters, calendars, graffiti, objects, promotional materials, reading materials, or other materials that are sexually suggestive, sexually demeaning, or pornographic, or bringing into the JSI [the employer's] work environment or possessing any such material to read, display or view at work." "A picture will be presumed to be sexually suggestive if it depicts a person of either sex who is not fully clothed or in clothes that are not suited to or ordinarily accepted for the accomplishment of routine work in and around the shipyard and who is posed for the obvious purpose of displaying or drawing attention to private portions of his or her body." It is not clear whether the decision was directly attributable to antipornography feminist analysis, if the influence was indirect, or if the outcome was coincidental, but counsel Legal MomentumLegal Momentum
Legal Momentum, formerly known as NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, is the oldest legal advocacy group for women in the United States. Founded in 1970, Legal Momentum is a liberal multi-issue organization dedicated to advancing women’s rights across the country...
was historically associated with the National Organization for Women
National Organization for Women
The National Organization for Women is the largest feminist organization in the United States. It was founded in 1966 and has a membership of 500,000 contributing members. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S...
(NOW), a leading feminist organization, suggesting that counsel was likely to have had knowledge of the feminist theory.
Sex-positive feminism
Sex-positive feminismSex-positive feminism
Sex-positive feminism, also known as pro-sex feminism, sex-radical feminism, or sexually liberal feminism is a movement that began in the early 1980s...
(also known as sexually liberal feminism or pro-sex feminism) describes the belief that sexual liberation and sexual freedom are key components of women's liberation. The terms sex-positive feminism and pro-sex feminism are disputed within feminism..
Pornography is seen as being a medium for women's sexual expression in this view. Sex-positive feminists view many radical feminist views on sexuality, including views on pornography, as being as oppressive as those of patriarchal religions and ideologies, and argue that anti-pornography feminist discourse ignores and trivializes women's sexual agency. Ellen Willis
Ellen Willis
Ellen Jane Willis was an American left-wing political essayist, journalist, activist and pop music critic.-Biography:...
(who coined the term "pro-sex feminism") states "As we saw it, the claim that 'pornography is violence against women' was code for the neo-Victorian idea that men want sex and women endure it."
Sex-positive feminists take a variety of views towards existing pornography. Many sex-positive feminists see pornography as subverting many traditional ideas about women that they oppose, such as ideas that women do not like sex generally, only enjoy sex in a relational context, or that women only enjoy vanilla sex
Vanilla sex
Vanilla sex is a description of what a culture regards as standard or conventional sexual behaviour. Different cultures, subcultures and individuals have different ideas about what constitutes this type of sex...
. They also argue that pornography sometimes shows women in sexually dominant roles and presents women with a greater variety of body types than are typical of mainstream entertainment and fashion. However, these qualities are arguably not the norm in mainstream pornography.
Feminist critique of censorship
Many feminists regardless of their views on pornography are opposed on principle to censorship. Even many feminists who see pornography as a sexist institution, also see censorship (including MacKinnon's civil law approach) as a far greater evil than pornography. In its mission statement, Feminists for Free Expression argues that censorship has never reduced violence, but historically been used to silence women and stifle efforts for social change. They point to the birth control literature of Margaret SangerMargaret Sanger
Margaret Higgins Sanger was an American sex educator, nurse, and birth control activist. Sanger coined the term birth control, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established Planned Parenthood...
, the feminist plays of Holly Hughes
Holly Hughes
Holly Hughes is a Republican National Committee member from the State of Michigan, in the United States. She is also a Member of the Michigan House of Representatives for District 91.- Political career :...
, and works like Our Bodies, Ourselves
Our Bodies, Ourselves
Our Bodies, Ourselves is a book about women's health and sexuality produced by the nonprofit organization Our Bodies Ourselves...
and The Well of Loneliness
The Well of Loneliness
The Well of Loneliness is a 1928 lesbian novel by the British author Radclyffe Hall. It follows the life of Stephen Gordon, an Englishwoman from an upper-class family whose "sexual inversion" is apparent from an early age...
as examples of feminist sexual speech which has been the target of censorship. FFE further argues that the attempt to fix social problems through censorship, "divert[s] attention from the substantive causes of social ills and offer a cosmetic, dangerous 'quick fix.'" They argue that instead a free and vigorous marketplace of ideas
Marketplace of ideas
The "marketplace of ideas" is a rationale for freedom of expression based on an analogy to the economic concept of a free market. The "marketplace of ideas" belief holds that the truth or the best policy arises out of the competition of widely various ideas in free, transparent public discourse, an...
is the best assurance for achieving feminist goals in a democratic society.
Critics of anti-pornography feminism accuse their counterparts of selective handling of social scientific evidence. Anti-pornography feminists are also critiqued as intolerant of sexual difference and is characterized as often indiscriminately supporting state censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
policy and are accused of complicity with conservative sexual politics and Christian Right
Christian right
Christian right is a term used predominantly in the United States to describe "right-wing" Christian political groups that are characterized by their strong support of socially conservative policies...
groups.
Several feminist anti-censorship groups have actively opposed anti-pornography legislation and other forms of censorship. These groups have included the Feminist Anti-Censorship Taskforce (FACT) and Feminists for Free Expression in the US and Feminists Against Censorship
Feminists Against Censorship
Feminists Against Censorship is a large network of women founded in 1989 to present the feminist arguments against censorship, particularly of sexual materials, and to defend individual sexual expression....
in the UK.
Feminists opposed to anti-pornography legislation argue that even when such legislation is feminist-inspired, it can potentially be used to target the speech of women and sexual minorities. They argue that this was exemplified by the first two anti-obscenity actions by the Canadian government following R. v. Butler
R. v. Butler
R. v. Butler, [1992] 1 S.C.R. 452 is a leading Supreme Court of Canada decision on pornography and state censorship. In this case, the Court had to balance the right to freedom of expression under section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms with women's rights; the outcome has been...
. The first of these was the raid and prosecution of Glad Day Bookshop
R. v. Glad Day Bookshops Inc.
R. v. Glad Day Bookshops Inc., is a leading Ontario Superior Court of Justice decision on pornography and homosexuality. The court found that a statutory scheme requiring the approval of the Ontario Film Review Board before films can be distributed or shown in Ontario violated the guarantee of...
, an LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
bookstore in Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, for selling copies of the lesbian BDSM
BDSM
BDSM is an erotic preference and a form of sexual expression involving the consensual use of restraint, intense sensory stimulation, and fantasy power role-play. The compound acronym BDSM is derived from the terms bondage and discipline , dominance and submission , and sadism and masochism...
magazine Bad Attitude. The second was the seizure at the Canadian border of books destined for the Vancouver, BC lesbian bookstore, Little Sisters (see Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v. Canada (Minister of Justice)
Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v. Canada (Minister of Justice)
Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v. Canada [2000] 2 S.C.R. 1120, 2000 SCC 69 is a leading Supreme Court of Canada decision on freedom of expression and equality rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms...
). Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon responded with a statement claiming that the idea that these raids reflected the application of pre-Butler standards and that it was actually illegal under Butler to selectively target LGBT materials. However, opponents of Butler have countered that the decision simply reinforced an existing politics of censorship that pre-dated the decision.
Anti-censorship feminists question why only some forms of sexist communication (namely sexually arousing/explicit ones) should be banned, while not advocating bans against equally misogynist public discourse. Susie Bright
Susie Bright
Susannah "Susie" Bright is an American writer, speaker, teacher, audio-show host, and performer, all on the subject of sexuality....
notes, "It's a far different criticism to note that porn is sexist. So are all commercial media. That's like tasting several glasses of salt water and insisting only one of them is salty. The difference with porn is that it is people fucking, and we live in a world that cannot tolerate that image in public."
Views of pornographic actresses
Some pornographic actresses such as Nina HartleyNina Hartley
Nina Hartley is an American pornographic actress, pornographic film director, sex educator, feminist, and author.-Early life:...
, Ovidie
Ovidie
Ovidie is a French pornographic actress.- Overview :Ovidie was born in Lille, France. She refuses to give her real name to the press. Her parents are liberals from "a good family background" who were farmers in 2003. She was married; her husband left a teaching position at the University of...
, Madison Young
Madison Young
Madison Young, born Tina Butcher, is an American pornographic actress, director, published writer, sexual educator and founder of Femina Potens Art Gallery, a nonprofit art gallery and performance space that serves the LGBTQ and Kink communities....
, and Sasha Grey
Sasha Grey
Sasha Grey is an American former pornographic actress, who has since turned to mainstream acting, modeling and music....
are also self-described sex-positive feminists, and state that they do not see themselves as victims of sexism. They defend their decision to perform in pornography as freely chosen, and argue that much of what they do on camera is an expression of their sexuality. It has also been pointed out that in pornography, women generally earn more than their male counterparts. Some porn performers such as Nina Hartley are active in the sex workers' rights movement.
Feminist pornography
Pornography produced by feminist women is a small but growing segment of the porn industry. Feminist porn directors include Candida RoyalleCandida Royalle
Candida Royalle is an American producer and director of couples-oriented pornography and a former pornographic actress. She is member of the XRCO and the AVN Halls of Fame....
, Tristan Taormino
Tristan Taormino
Tristan Taormino is a feminist author, columnist, sex educator, activist, editor, speaker, and pornographic film director . She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with her Bachelor's degree in American Studies from Wesleyan University in 1993...
, Madison Young
Madison Young
Madison Young, born Tina Butcher, is an American pornographic actress, director, published writer, sexual educator and founder of Femina Potens Art Gallery, a nonprofit art gallery and performance space that serves the LGBTQ and Kink communities....
, Shine Louise Houston, and Erika Lust. Some of these directors make pornography specifically for a female or genderqueer
Genderqueer
Genderqueer is a catch-all term for gender identities other than man and woman, thus outside of the gender binary and heteronormativity...
audience, while others try for a broad appeal across genders and sexual orientations.
According to Tristan Taormino, "Feminist porn both responds to dominant images with alternative ones and creates its own iconography."
Since 2006, there has been a Feminist Porn Awards held annually in Toronto, sponsored by a local feminist sex toy
Sex toy
A sex toy is an object or device that is primarily used to facilitate human sexual pleasure. The most popular sex toys are designed to resemble human genitals and may be vibrating or non-vibrating...
business, Good for Her. The awards are given in a number of categories and have three guiding criteria: "1) A woman had a hand in the production, writing, direction, etc. of the work. 2) It depicts genuine female pleasure. 3) It expands the boundaries of sexual representation on film and challenges stereotypes that are often found in mainstream porn."
Swedish filmmaker Mia Engberg along with twelve different directors produced a collection of feminist pornographic short films titled Dirty Diaries
Dirty Diaries
Dirty Diaries is a 2009 collection of thirteen pornographic short films made by Swedish feminists and produced by Mia Engberg. The individual films are highly diverse in content, although many of them feature humour and different forms of queer sex...
which was released in September 2009. The financing for the most part came from the Swedish Film Institute
Swedish Film Institute
The Swedish Film Institute was founded in 1963 to support and develop the Swedish film industry. The institute is housed in the Filmhuset building located in Gärdet, Östermalm in Stockholm...
.
Pornography and erotica
Some anti-pornography feminists, such as Gloria SteinemGloria Steinem
Gloria Marie Steinem is an American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader of, and media spokeswoman for, the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s and 1970s...
and Page Mellish
Feminists Fighting Pornography
Feminists Fighting Pornography was a political activist organization against pornography. It advocated for U.S. Federal legislation to allow lawsuits against the porn industry by women whose attackers were inspired by pornography. FFP was based in New York, N.Y., was founded in 1983 or 1984, and...
, distinguish between "pornography" and "erotica", as different classes of sexual media, the former emphasizing dominance and the latter emphasizing mutuality. Steinem holds that, "These two sorts of images are as different as love is from rape, as dignity is from humiliation, as partnership is from slavery, as pleasure is from pain." Feminists who subscribe to this view hold that erotica promotes positive and pro-woman sexual values and does not carry the harmful effects of pornography. Such feminists hold that erotica should not be subject to the same legislative opposition as pornography. Other anti-pornography feminists are more skeptical about this distinction, holding that all sexual materials produced in a patriarchal system are expressions of male dominance. Andrea Dworkin wrote, "erotica is simply high-class pornography: better produced, better conceived, better executed, better packaged, designed for a better class of consumer."
Other feminists tend not to make a distinction between pornography and erotica, and those that have addressed the distinction made by Steinem and others find it problematic. Ellen Willis
Ellen Willis
Ellen Jane Willis was an American left-wing political essayist, journalist, activist and pop music critic.-Biography:...
holds that the term 'erotica' is needlessly vague and euphemistic, and appeals to an idealized version of what kind of sex people should want rather than what arouses the sexual feelings people actually have. She also emphasizes the subjectivity of the distinction, stating, "In practice, attempts to sort out good erotica from bad porn inevitably comes down to 'What turns me on is erotica; what turns you on is pornographic.'"
Some feminists make an analogous distinction between mainstream pornography and feminist pornography, viewing mainstream pornography as problematic or even wholly misogynistic while praising feminist pornography.
External links
- "Pornography and Censorship: Feminist approaches" by Caroline West, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyStanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyThe Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a freely-accessible online encyclopedia of philosophy maintained by Stanford University. Each entry is written and maintained by an expert in the field, including professors from over 65 academic institutions worldwide...
, May 5, 2004. - "Feminist Perspectives on Sex Markets: Pornography" by Laurie Shrage, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, July 13, 2007.