Over the past twenty years debates about pornography have raged within feminism and beyond. Throughout the 1970s feminists increasingly addressed the problem of men's sexual violence against women, and many women reduced the politics of men's power to questions about sexuality. By the 1980s these questions had become more and more focused on the issue of pornography--now a metaphor for the menace of male power. Collapsing feminist politics into sexuality and sexuality into pornography has not only caused some of the deepest splits between feminists, but made it harder to think clearly about either sexuality or pornography--indeed, about feminist politics more generally.
This provocative collection, by well-known feminists, surveys these arguments, and in particular asks why recent feminist debates about sexuality keep reducing to questions of pornography.
These scintillating essays by British and American feminists deal not only with pornography itself, but with related issues as well. Kobena Mercer, for instance, examines Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs and finds that they reinforce stereotypes about black male sexuality. When the contributors face head-on the problems inherent in stopping harmful representations while maintaining free expression, they encourage erring on the side of liberty. Carol S. Vance in particular illustrates how in her view American anti-pornography feminists have been used by the conservative establishment. Much of the material is witty and informative as well as thought-provoking: Anne McClintock's study of the different views regarding pornography created for men and that created for women includes a brief history of the female orgasm, and Loretta Loach's study of female pornography consumers includes one monogamous woman's assertion that "It's like going to a restaurant . . . You want something a little bit more unusual than you'd cook yourself." Segal is the author of Slow Motion: Changing Masculinities, Changing Men ; McIntosh is a British sociologist.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
