I don’t really know what “sex positive” is supposed to mean in this context, unless “sex” is being used as a proxy word for pornography, or for particular sexual practices (e.g. sexual sadism). The usual targets of criticism from the so-called “sex positive” perspective (e.g. Andrea Dworkin, Catharine MacKinnon, Dorchen Leidholdt, Robin Morgan, etc.) are certainly not fairly characterized as being opposed to or negative about sexuality as such.
What I’ve mostly encountered in personal conversations and in newer feminist literature is some occasional critique of actually existing pornography, which is often fairly restrained, probably out of a (reasonable) hesitancy about getting embroiled in yet another exhausting campaign of the so-called sex wars.
]]>… yet does the data actually show a strong correlation between pornography viewing and rape?
I haven’t done a lot of research on this specific question. My understanding is that the data is equivocal, and a lot depends on the precise details of what you are setting out to measure. (What kind of pornography? How are you measuring propensity to rape? Over what time period? Etc.) But I’m not making a claim, one way or the other, about whether consuming pornography is directly linked to a propensity to commit rape. That’s a question for experimental psychology that I don’t really have the expertise to judge.
My claim is that pornography plays a central role in forming a misogynistic sexual culture that men grow up with and participate in. That culture expresses a lot of nasty attitudes, among them permissive attitudes towards sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, and sexual coercion; dismissive or hostile attitudes towards rape victims; and attitudes that eroticize domination and humiliation. This is what radical feminists sometimes call a rape culture,
and I think that the way that that contributes to the prevalence of rape is more straightforward.
Also, is the argument your making about
actually existingpornography in the U.S. or any pornography meant to stimulate lust or sexual arosual period?
I mean actually existing pornography–both as a product and as a system of social practices surrounding the production, distribution, and consumption of that product. But I wouldn’t limit my claims to the United States.
I think one of her arguments was that Japan is awash with the stuff, yet the rape rate is not higher or something like that. It may have been in her book XXX: A Woman’s Right to Pornography.
I haven’t read XXX, so I can’t say much about it. But, as Leia mentioned, I would certainly urge caution if the data is based on police reports of rape, which are not at all a reliable indicator of how prevalent rape is or isn’t in a patriarchal society.
Leia,
I wish I could disagree with you. But as it stands, most of the male political spectrum still seems to be deeply engaged in plugging their ears and pretending that feminism never happened, and if it did happen it’s dead and it never amounted to much anyway.
But for libertarians and anarchists, this issue is important–both on its own merits, and from the standpoint of simple consistency on basic principles (the non-aggression principle, etc.). So I’ll keep pounding this drum until, I hope, more of us start getting it.
]]>Venus Cassandra–Japan may have a low REPORTED rape rate, but the society is highly patriarchal and there is a strong stigma against reporting rapes.
]]>While I completely agree with you that coercive structures apart from the state should be combated, I am not so sure about the role of pornography in contributing towards violence against women.
I have a complicated gender identity and have just recently decided to undergo a male-female sex change, but I did view pornography quite a bit during my teens (I am only 20 though, so I would say around 13-16 or so). I can’t say that I ever felt the desire to try to sexually — or in some other fashion — violate a woman’s independence.
I would agree that there is plenty of pornography out there that is meant to appeal to men and reinforces traditional views of sex, yet does the data actually show a strong correlation between pornography viewing and rape? I vaguely remember Wendy McElroy talking about an alleged connection between the viewing of violent porn and actual committing of violent acts, but disputing whether it was true or not. I think one of her arguments was that Japan is awash with the stuff, yet the rape rate is not higher or something like that. It may have been in her book XXX: A Woman’s Right to Pornography.
Also, is the argument your making about “actually existing” pornography in the U.S. or any pornography meant to stimulate lust or sexual arosual period? I suspect it’s the former, but just making sure.
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