Why Sex-Positive Feminism Is Falling Out of Fashion

[janterry]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/24/opinion/sex-positivity-feminism.html

In her new book, “The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century,” the philosopher Amia Srinivasan, who is quickly becoming one of the most high-profile feminist thinkers in the English-speaking world, describes teaching Oxford students about second-wave anti-porn activism. She assumes her students, for whom porn is ubiquitous, will “find the anti-porn position prudish and passé.” They do not. Rather, they’re in complete agreement with assertions that could come straight from Andrea Dworkin.

“Could it be that pornography doesn’t merely depict the subordination of women, but actually makes it real? I asked. Yes, they said,” writes Srinivasan. She continues, “Does porn bear responsibility for the objectification of women, for the marginalization of women, for sexual violence against women? Yes, they said, yes to all of it.”

and

Feminism is supposed to ease some of the dissonance between what women want and what they feel they’re supposed to want. Sex-positive feminism was able to do that for women who felt hemmed in by sexual taboos and pressured to deny their own turn-ons. But today it seems less relevant to women who feel brutalized by the expectation that they’ll be open to anything.

[mopinko]

1. yeah, i went through this in my marriage.

the ex loved his porn. i was outraged in the beginning.
he used to hide it, and i'd bump into it at the worst possible moments.
as time went on, i gave up i guess. i tried to share a couple times, but he had no idea what i objected to, so he had no idea what to share w me.

we divorced after 30 yrs. that wasnt the issue. but it was part of why he was a shitty husband.
he honestly didnt know what to do w a woman who wasnt 8.5" x 11" and a few microns thick.

[empedocles]

2. Andrea Dworkin?

Woman’s Hating – Reason.com

https://reason.com/2005/04/19/womans-hating

Yet in her 1987 book, Intercourse, Dworkin argued that penetration itself is a form of "occupation" and "violation of female boundaries," however enthusiastically enjoyed by "the occupied person ...


['Birds do it, bees do it . . . ' , seems that all sorts of species . . . do it? ]

[janterry]

3. why not dialogue with the article

or the ideas about porn?

All philosophers have said some things we don't like - in addition to things we (might) like. In this case, Dworkin is not the only feminist who opposes porn and it's effects for women. Nor is she the focus of this article.

Frankly, many feminists think the same thing. about the objectification of women. Why not engage with the ideas? Did you read the article??

[empedocles]

4. Yes I read the article. I had already known of Dworkin.

[Scrivener7]

5. This is not a topic some here can rationally discuss. Great OP, though.

I'll say thank you for it, but I fully expect you will take loads of shit for it.