Read the essay "a feminist defense of pornography". identify the conclusion and premises and objections considered

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Read the essay "a feminist defense of pornography". identify the conclusion and premises and objections considered. then write a 2 page (500 word) critique of it.


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li 17. Peanuts are good for you. A million 18. "There is no justice in the world. Amelia Earhart's plane went down, and despite fifty years of looking, no one has ever been able to find her. But Yasser Arafat's plane goes down, and he's rescued in fifteen minutes." [Jay Leno, The Tonight Show] 19. "The following is in response to the letter, “Let the Middle East fight its own wars.' I can understand the writer's concern about not wanting to start a war with Iraq. However, if Saddam Hussein poses a threat to the whole world—be it with nuclear or germ warfare—shouldn't we Americans take it upon ourselves to help protect the world? Or should we sit back and wait until Saddam is triumphant in developing his nuclear arsenal? Our inter- vention is considered necessary for all the present turmoil that's been taking place in the Middle East. We are the most intelligent and developed country in the world. We owe it to the lesser-developed counties to be peacekeepers. I ask the writer this: Where would the world be today if the United States had sat back and watched as Adolf Hitler rained terror on Europe?" [Letter to the editor, Buffalo News, November 29, 2002] 20. Freedom is a necessary component of the good life. The good life is some- thing that every human being has a right to. Everything that humans have a right to should be acquired by any means necessary. Therefore, any war conducted to secure freedom for any of us is justified. Writing Assignments 1. Study the argument presented in Essay 3 (“A Feminist Defense of Pornog- raphy") in Appendix A. Identify the conclusion and the premises and ob- jections considered. Then write a two-page critique of the essay's argument. 2. Write a three-page essay arguing for a position that directly contradicts the conclusion defended in Essay 3. You may cite imaginary but reason- able evidence. 3. Select an issue from the following list and write a three-page paper de- fending a claim pertaining to the issue. Follow the procedures discussed in Appendix D for outlining the essay and identifying a thesis. Should the U.S. government be permitted to kill American citizens overseas who have been identified as terrorists? • Should the federal government permit same-sex marriages? • Does pornography lead to violence against women? • Should the police or other security officers be permitted to use racial profiling to prevent terrorist attacks? li 17. Peanuts are good for you. A million 18. "There is no justice in the world. Amelia Earhart's plane went down, and despite fifty years of looking, no one has ever been able to find her. But Yasser Arafat's plane goes down, and he's rescued in fifteen minutes." [Jay Leno, The Tonight Show] 19. "The following is in response to the letter, “Let the Middle East fight its own wars.' I can understand the writer's concern about not wanting to start a war with Iraq. However, if Saddam Hussein poses a threat to the whole world—be it with nuclear or germ warfare—shouldn't we Americans take it upon ourselves to help protect the world? Or should we sit back and wait until Saddam is triumphant in developing his nuclear arsenal? Our inter- vention is considered necessary for all the present turmoil that's been taking place in the Middle East. We are the most intelligent and developed country in the world. We owe it to the lesser-developed counties to be peacekeepers. I ask the writer this: Where would the world be today if the United States had sat back and watched as Adolf Hitler rained terror on Europe?" [Letter to the editor, Buffalo News, November 29, 2002] 20. Freedom is a necessary component of the good life. The good life is some- thing that every human being has a right to. Everything that humans have a right to should be acquired by any means necessary. Therefore, any war conducted to secure freedom for any of us is justified. Writing Assignments 1. Study the argument presented in Essay 3 (“A Feminist Defense of Pornog- raphy") in Appendix A. Identify the conclusion and the premises and ob- jections considered. Then write a two-page critique of the essay's argument. 2. Write a three-page essay arguing for a position that directly contradicts the conclusion defended in Essay 3. You may cite imaginary but reason- able evidence. 3. Select an issue from the following list and write a three-page paper de- fending a claim pertaining to the issue. Follow the procedures discussed in Appendix D for outlining the essay and identifying a thesis. Should the U.S. government be permitted to kill American citizens overseas who have been identified as terrorists? • Should the federal government permit same-sex marriages? • Does pornography lead to violence against women? • Should the police or other security officers be permitted to use racial profiling to prevent terrorist attacks? says for Evaluation Lon" of women: mean? If taken only beings do for poor rheto- parts, reducing to choose hinges on the right to make a "wrong" choice, just a A Pro-Sex Defense woman from doing what she thinks she should do. religion entails the right to be an atheist. After all, no one will prevent a As a "pro-sex” feminist, I contend: Pornography benefits women, both as much their Oresent women person- sense of humor hy is it degrad- any and politically . It provides sexual information on at least three levels: pleasure. It gives a panoramic view of the world's sexual possibilities. This is true even of basic sexual information such as masturbation. It is not uncommon for women to reach adulthood without knowing how to give themselves ct relationship ng women, es- as to whether etween images port admitted ble. McCormick in t Women, find rce suppressed to returned the It allows women to "safely" experience sexual alternatives and satisfy a nography can be a source of solitary enlightenment. healthy sexual curiosity. The world is a dangerous place. By contrast, por- • It offers the emotional information that comes only from experiencing something either directly or vicariously. It provides us with a sense how it would "feel" to do something. Pornography allows women to enjoy scenes and situations that would be anathema to them in real life. Take, for example, one of the most common fantasies reported by women—the fantasy of "being taken." The first thing to understand is that a rape fantasy does not represent a desire for the real thing. Why would a healthy woman daydream about being raped? Perhaps by losing control, she also sheds all sense of responsibility for and guilt over sex. Perhaps it is the exact opposite of the polite, gentle sex she has now. Perhaps it is flatter- ing to imagine a particular man being so overwhelmed by her that he must have her. Perhaps she is curious. Perhaps she has some masochistic feelings that are vented through the fantasy. Is it better to bottle them up? Pornography breaks cultural and political stereotypes, so that each woman picting graphic pita than in the bhy. Not one with whom I ho had been. dustry has its man perform such pictures s the right to can interpret sex for herself. Anti-feminists tell women to be ashamed of their appetites and urges. Pornography tells them to accept and enjoy them. Pornography can be good therapy. Pornography provides a sexual outlet for those who—for whatever reason-have no sexual partner. Perhaps they are away from home, recently widowed, isolated because of infirmity. Perhaps they simply choose to be alone. Couples also use pornography to enhance their relationships. Sometimes they do so on their own, watching videos and explor- ing their reactions together. Sometimes, the couples go to a sex therapist who advises them to use pornography as a way of opening up communication on sex, By sharing pornography, the couples are able to experience variety in their sex Pornography benefits women politically in many ways. Historically, pornog- lives without having to commit adultery. are so trau- gh women in at no psycho- pornography. women have from them- interviewed enjoyment in ely a unique sonality. She r actions. In s outside the ss. The right raphy and feminism have been fellow travelers and natural allies. Although it nography and that of feminism, they both demand the same social conditions is not possible to draw a cause-and-effect relationship between the rise of por- Pornography is free speech applied to the sexual realm. Freedom of speech is the ally of those who seek change: it is the enemy of those who seek to main- tain control. Pornography, along with all other forms of sexual heresy, such as namely, sexual freedom. d Of every market for commercializing women as "body parts," which demeans women. In be an attack, Lisa Steel comments: service of profits, reduces society to "consumer groups." And marketing is Sexist representation of women ... is all part of the same system that, in the bit as conservative as the military. a few to make profits from the rest of us. Such muddled and ambivalent "defenses" often offend the sex workers they y ... we pay dearly for the "rights” of intended to protect. S Pro-sex feminism. Over the past decade, a growing number of feminists- labeled "pro sex"-have defended a woman's choice to participate in and S V current or ex-sex-workers who know firsthand that posing for 1 a 2 2 2 to consume pornography. Some of these women, such as Nina Hartley, are pornography is an uncoerced choice that can be enriching. Pro-sex feminists retain a con- sistent interpretation of the principle "a woman's body, a woman's right" and insist that every peaceful choice a woman makes with her own body must be accorded full legal protection, if not respect. Pro-sex arguments sometimes seem to overlap with liberal feminist ones. For example, both express concern over who will act as censor because subjective words, such as "degrading," will be interpreted to mean whatever the censor wishes. The statute that banned Margaret Sanger because she used the words syphilis and gonorrhea is no different, in principle, than the one that interprets obscen- ity today. There will be no protection even for the classics of feminism, such as Our Bodies, Ourselves, which provided a generation of women with the first explicit view of their own biology. Inevitably, censorship will be used against the least popular views, against the weakest members of society including feminists and lesbians. When the Canadian Supreme Court decided in 1992 to protect women by restricting the importation of pornography, one of the first victims was the lesbian/gay Glad Day Bookstore, which had been on a police hit list. Among the books seized by Canadian customs were two books by Andrea Dworkin, Pornography: Men Possessing Women and Women Hating. Such an event should not have surprised Dworkin who declared in Take Back the Night, “There is not a feminist alive who could possibly look to the male legal system for real protection from the systematized sadism of men" (p. 257). On the dangers of censoring pornography, pro-sex and liberal feminists t s often agree. On the possible benefits of pornography to women, they part company up under examination? Dissecting Anti-Porn Do the specific accusations hurled at pornography stand pornography is degrading to women. Degrading is a subjective term. I find Commercials in which women become orgasmic over soapsuds to be tre- define what is degrading and liberating for herself. Essay 3 ed. ne Wendy McElroy A Feminist Defense of Pornography on ur ts. ere ere a more extreme defense of pornography than most feminists are comfortable tence opens my book XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography, and it constitutes with. I arrived at this position after years of interviewing hundreds of sex ze, its workers, ее ild sly categories. The most common one-at least, in academia-is that Ese ed of d- DW ed m- eir Feminist Positions Feminist positions on pornography currently break down into three rough pornography is an expression of male culture through which women are commodified and exploited. A second view, the liberal position, combines a respect for free speech with the principle "a woman's body, a woman's right” and thus produces a de- fense of pornography along the lines of, "I don't approve of it, but everyone has the right to consume or produce words and images." A third view-a true de- fense of pornography-arises from feminists who have been labeled "pro-sex" and who argue that porn has benefits for women. Little dialogue occurs between the three positions. Anti-pornography femi- nists treat women who disagree as either brainwashed dupes of patriarchy or as apologists for pornographers. In the anthology Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism (1990), editor Dorchen Leidholdt claims that feminists who believe women make their own choices about pornography are spreading "a felicitous lie" (p. 131). In the same work, Sheila Jeffreys argues that "pro-sex" feminists are "eroticizing dominance and subordination." Wendy Stock accuses free speech feminists of identifying with their oppressors "much like ... concentration camp prisoners with their jailors” (p. 150). Andrea Dworkin accuses them of running a "sex protection racket” (p. 136) and maintains that no one who defends pornog- raphy can be a feminist. The liberal feminists who are personally uncomfortable with pornogra- ni- ger in- be ific zure phy tend to be intimidated into silence. Those who continue to speak out, like American Civil Liberties Union President Nadine Strossen (Defending Pornography) are ignored. For example, Catharine MacKinnon has repeatedly re- porn. "Pro-sex rather than arguments. 11 fused to share a stage with Strossen or any woman who defends feminists-many of whom are current or former sex-workers-often respond 1 with anger, Peeling back the emotions, what are the substantive questions raised by each feminist perspective? declared, "There's no feminist issue that isn't rooted in the porn problem." In Anti-porn feminism. Page Mellish of Feminists Fighting Pornography has and images, both of which would be protected by the First Amendment. She her book Only Words, MacKinnon denies that pornography consists of words considers pornography-in and of itself to be an act of sexual violence. li 17. Peanuts are good for you. A million 18. "There is no justice in the world. Amelia Earhart's plane went down, and despite fifty years of looking, no one has ever been able to find her. But Yasser Arafat's plane goes down, and he's rescued in fifteen minutes." [Jay Leno, The Tonight Show] 19. "The following is in response to the letter, “Let the Middle East fight its own wars.' I can understand the writer's concern about not wanting to start a war with Iraq. However, if Saddam Hussein poses a threat to the whole world—be it with nuclear or germ warfare—shouldn't we Americans take it upon ourselves to help protect the world? Or should we sit back and wait until Saddam is triumphant in developing his nuclear arsenal? Our inter- vention is considered necessary for all the present turmoil that's been taking place in the Middle East. We are the most intelligent and developed country in the world. We owe it to the lesser-developed counties to be peacekeepers. I ask the writer this: Where would the world be today if the United States had sat back and watched as Adolf Hitler rained terror on Europe?" [Letter to the editor, Buffalo News, November 29, 2002] 20. Freedom is a necessary component of the good life. The good life is some- thing that every human being has a right to. Everything that humans have a right to should be acquired by any means necessary. Therefore, any war conducted to secure freedom for any of us is justified. Writing Assignments 1. Study the argument presented in Essay 3 (“A Feminist Defense of Pornog- raphy") in Appendix A. Identify the conclusion and the premises and ob- jections considered. Then write a two-page critique of the essay's argument. 2. Write a three-page essay arguing for a position that directly contradicts the conclusion defended in Essay 3. You may cite imaginary but reason- able evidence. 3. Select an issue from the following list and write a three-page paper de- fending a claim pertaining to the issue. Follow the procedures discussed in Appendix D for outlining the essay and identifying a thesis. Should the U.S. government be permitted to kill American citizens overseas who have been identified as terrorists? • Should the federal government permit same-sex marriages? • Does pornography lead to violence against women? • Should the police or other security officers be permitted to use racial profiling to prevent terrorist attacks? says for Evaluation Lon" of women: mean? If taken only beings do for poor rheto- parts, reducing to choose hinges on the right to make a "wrong" choice, just a A Pro-Sex Defense woman from doing what she thinks she should do. religion entails the right to be an atheist. After all, no one will prevent a As a "pro-sex” feminist, I contend: Pornography benefits women, both as much their Oresent women person- sense of humor hy is it degrad- any and politically . It provides sexual information on at least three levels: pleasure. It gives a panoramic view of the world's sexual possibilities. This is true even of basic sexual information such as masturbation. It is not uncommon for women to reach adulthood without knowing how to give themselves ct relationship ng women, es- as to whether etween images port admitted ble. McCormick in t Women, find rce suppressed to returned the It allows women to "safely" experience sexual alternatives and satisfy a nography can be a source of solitary enlightenment. healthy sexual curiosity. The world is a dangerous place. By contrast, por- • It offers the emotional information that comes only from experiencing something either directly or vicariously. It provides us with a sense how it would "feel" to do something. Pornography allows women to enjoy scenes and situations that would be anathema to them in real life. Take, for example, one of the most common fantasies reported by women—the fantasy of "being taken." The first thing to understand is that a rape fantasy does not represent a desire for the real thing. Why would a healthy woman daydream about being raped? Perhaps by losing control, she also sheds all sense of responsibility for and guilt over sex. Perhaps it is the exact opposite of the polite, gentle sex she has now. Perhaps it is flatter- ing to imagine a particular man being so overwhelmed by her that he must have her. Perhaps she is curious. Perhaps she has some masochistic feelings that are vented through the fantasy. Is it better to bottle them up? Pornography breaks cultural and political stereotypes, so that each woman picting graphic pita than in the bhy. Not one with whom I ho had been. dustry has its man perform such pictures s the right to can interpret sex for herself. Anti-feminists tell women to be ashamed of their appetites and urges. Pornography tells them to accept and enjoy them. Pornography can be good therapy. Pornography provides a sexual outlet for those who—for whatever reason-have no sexual partner. Perhaps they are away from home, recently widowed, isolated because of infirmity. Perhaps they simply choose to be alone. Couples also use pornography to enhance their relationships. Sometimes they do so on their own, watching videos and explor- ing their reactions together. Sometimes, the couples go to a sex therapist who advises them to use pornography as a way of opening up communication on sex, By sharing pornography, the couples are able to experience variety in their sex Pornography benefits women politically in many ways. Historically, pornog- lives without having to commit adultery. are so trau- gh women in at no psycho- pornography. women have from them- interviewed enjoyment in ely a unique sonality. She r actions. In s outside the ss. The right raphy and feminism have been fellow travelers and natural allies. Although it nography and that of feminism, they both demand the same social conditions is not possible to draw a cause-and-effect relationship between the rise of por- Pornography is free speech applied to the sexual realm. Freedom of speech is the ally of those who seek change: it is the enemy of those who seek to main- tain control. Pornography, along with all other forms of sexual heresy, such as namely, sexual freedom. d Of every market for commercializing women as "body parts," which demeans women. In be an attack, Lisa Steel comments: service of profits, reduces society to "consumer groups." And marketing is Sexist representation of women ... is all part of the same system that, in the bit as conservative as the military. a few to make profits from the rest of us. Such muddled and ambivalent "defenses" often offend the sex workers they y ... we pay dearly for the "rights” of intended to protect. S Pro-sex feminism. Over the past decade, a growing number of feminists- labeled "pro sex"-have defended a woman's choice to participate in and S V current or ex-sex-workers who know firsthand that posing for 1 a 2 2 2 to consume pornography. Some of these women, such as Nina Hartley, are pornography is an uncoerced choice that can be enriching. Pro-sex feminists retain a con- sistent interpretation of the principle "a woman's body, a woman's right" and insist that every peaceful choice a woman makes with her own body must be accorded full legal protection, if not respect. Pro-sex arguments sometimes seem to overlap with liberal feminist ones. For example, both express concern over who will act as censor because subjective words, such as "degrading," will be interpreted to mean whatever the censor wishes. The statute that banned Margaret Sanger because she used the words syphilis and gonorrhea is no different, in principle, than the one that interprets obscen- ity today. There will be no protection even for the classics of feminism, such as Our Bodies, Ourselves, which provided a generation of women with the first explicit view of their own biology. Inevitably, censorship will be used against the least popular views, against the weakest members of society including feminists and lesbians. When the Canadian Supreme Court decided in 1992 to protect women by restricting the importation of pornography, one of the first victims was the lesbian/gay Glad Day Bookstore, which had been on a police hit list. Among the books seized by Canadian customs were two books by Andrea Dworkin, Pornography: Men Possessing Women and Women Hating. Such an event should not have surprised Dworkin who declared in Take Back the Night, “There is not a feminist alive who could possibly look to the male legal system for real protection from the systematized sadism of men" (p. 257). On the dangers of censoring pornography, pro-sex and liberal feminists t s often agree. On the possible benefits of pornography to women, they part company up under examination? Dissecting Anti-Porn Do the specific accusations hurled at pornography stand pornography is degrading to women. Degrading is a subjective term. I find Commercials in which women become orgasmic over soapsuds to be tre- define what is degrading and liberating for herself. Essay 3 ed. ne Wendy McElroy A Feminist Defense of Pornography on ur ts. ere ere a more extreme defense of pornography than most feminists are comfortable tence opens my book XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography, and it constitutes with. I arrived at this position after years of interviewing hundreds of sex ze, its workers, ее ild sly categories. The most common one-at least, in academia-is that Ese ed of d- DW ed m- eir Feminist Positions Feminist positions on pornography currently break down into three rough pornography is an expression of male culture through which women are commodified and exploited. A second view, the liberal position, combines a respect for free speech with the principle "a woman's body, a woman's right” and thus produces a de- fense of pornography along the lines of, "I don't approve of it, but everyone has the right to consume or produce words and images." A third view-a true de- fense of pornography-arises from feminists who have been labeled "pro-sex" and who argue that porn has benefits for women. Little dialogue occurs between the three positions. Anti-pornography femi- nists treat women who disagree as either brainwashed dupes of patriarchy or as apologists for pornographers. In the anthology Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism (1990), editor Dorchen Leidholdt claims that feminists who believe women make their own choices about pornography are spreading "a felicitous lie" (p. 131). In the same work, Sheila Jeffreys argues that "pro-sex" feminists are "eroticizing dominance and subordination." Wendy Stock accuses free speech feminists of identifying with their oppressors "much like ... concentration camp prisoners with their jailors” (p. 150). Andrea Dworkin accuses them of running a "sex protection racket” (p. 136) and maintains that no one who defends pornog- raphy can be a feminist. The liberal feminists who are personally uncomfortable with pornogra- ni- ger in- be ific zure phy tend to be intimidated into silence. Those who continue to speak out, like American Civil Liberties Union President Nadine Strossen (Defending Pornography) are ignored. For example, Catharine MacKinnon has repeatedly re- porn. "Pro-sex rather than arguments. 11 fused to share a stage with Strossen or any woman who defends feminists-many of whom are current or former sex-workers-often respond 1 with anger, Peeling back the emotions, what are the substantive questions raised by each feminist perspective? declared, "There's no feminist issue that isn't rooted in the porn problem." In Anti-porn feminism. Page Mellish of Feminists Fighting Pornography has and images, both of which would be protected by the First Amendment. She her book Only Words, MacKinnon denies that pornography consists of words considers pornography-in and of itself to be an act of sexual violence. which Christina Hoff Sommers calls "gender feminism." Why is pornography viewed as both the core issue of modern feminism and an inherent act of violence? The answer lies in radical feminist ideology, Gender feminism looks at history and sees an uninterrupted oppression of women by men that spans cultural barriers. To them, the only feasible explana. tion is that men and women are separate and antagonistic classes whose inter- ests necessarily conflict. Male interests are expressed through and maintained by ample, in the watershed book Against Our Will, Susan Brownmiller traces the in- as weapons. Brownmiller writes: “From prehistoric times to the present, I believe, a capitalistic structure known as "patriarchy. The root of the antagonism is so deep that it lies in male biology itself. For ex- rape has played a critical function. It is nothing more or less than a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear." How Brownmiller acquired this knowledge of prehistoric sex is not known. Another tenet of gender oppression is that sex is a social construct. Radical feminists reject what they call "sexual essentialism"—the notion that sex is a natural force based on biology that inclines women toward natural tendencies, such as motherhood. Even deeply felt sexual preferences, such as heterosexual- ity, are not biological. They spring from ideology. Men construct women's sexuality through the words and images of society, which the French philosopher Foucault called the "texts" of society. After such construction, men commercialize women's sexuality and market it back in the form of pornography. In other words, through porn man defines woman sexually--a definition that determines every aspect of her role in society. To end the oppression, patriarchy and its texts must be destroyed. Liberal feminism. Liberal feminism is a continuation of 1960s feminism that called for equality with men, who were not inherent oppressors so much as recalcitrant partners to be enlightened. Equality did not mean destroying the current system, but reforming it through such measures as affirmative action. The liberal principle “a woman's body, a woman's right" underlay arguments ranging from abortion rights to lifestyle freedoms like lesbianism. The stress was upon the act of choosing, rather than upon the content of any choice. Liberal feminists share the general liberal bias toward free speech, but they are in flux on pornography. Some liberal organizations like Feminists for Free Expression (FFE) have consistently opposed censorship in any form. Some liberal feminists like Sallie Tisdale (Talk Dirty to Me) have staunchly defended sexual freedom. But many liberal feminists commonly reason as follows: "As a woman I am appalled by Playboy free expression." on several arguments are not pro-pornography. They are anti-censorship ones based . .but as a writer I understand the need for Such pressed; and a creative culture requires freedom of speech. grounds, including: great works of art and literature would be banned; the First Amendment would be breached; political expression would be sup- Other liberal feminists, who have accepted many of the ideological assump tions of the anti-porn position, seem willing to sacrifice free speech for the greater good of protecting women. For example, they also condemn the free
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