Exposing the fallacies of anti-porn feminism Article

Shrage, L. (2005). Exposing the fallacies of anti-porn feminism . 6(1), 45-65. 10.1177/1464700105050226

cited authors

  • Shrage, L

abstract

  • This paper examines an issue at the centre of feminist debates about pornography and sex work, and that is whether these practices reduce women to sex objects. I question the assumption that the expression of sexual desire is unique in its power to degrade and dehumanize persons. I show that this assumption underlies Catharine MacKinnon's attack on pornography by considering MacKinnon's intellectual debt to the philosopher Immanuel Kant. I then examine recent discussions of sexual objectification in the philosophical literature and argue that MacKinnon's adaptation of Kant has flaws comparable to Kant's original account of sexual desire. Copyright © 2005 SAGE Publications.

publication date

  • April 1, 2005

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

start page

  • 45

end page

  • 65

volume

  • 6

issue

  • 1