Pornography and Sex and Feminism [Hardcover]

Alan Soble (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2002

In this unabashed defence of pornography from a utilitarian-hedonist perspective, philosopher Alan Soble strongly rebuts both feminist and conservative critics. Soble demonstrates that neither conservative nor feminist critics of pornography show much acquaintance with the genre they criticise. This suggests that purely political motives underlie their critiques instead of reasoned, objective arguments based on thorough empirical research. Soble also faults critics of pornography for their failure of empathy: they refuse to see pornographic images from the various perspectives of their viewers. In approaching these images literally, detractors promulgate the worst possible interpretation of pornography. Further, they do not do justice to the social and psychological research about pornography and its purported harms. Conservatives and feminists manufacture their case against pornography and its consumers based on oversimplified interpretations of the images and a poor understanding of scientific studies.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you're not familiar with the Feminist campaign against porn, then this is...a must read and purchase!" -- Erotica-Readers.com

From the Inside Flap

In this unabashed defense of pornography from a utilitarian-hedonist perspective, philosopher Alan Soble strongly rebuts both feminist and conservative criticism. Soble demonstrates that neither conservative nor feminist critics of pornography show much acquaintance with the genre they criticize, suggesting that purely political motives underlie their critiques instead of reasoned, objective arguments based on thorough empirical research.

Soble also faults critics of pornography for their failure of empathy: Taking a literal approach to pornographic images, they refuse to recognize that viewers see the images from different perspectives. By insisting that these images be taken literally, detractors promulgate the worst possible interpretation of pornography. Further, they do not do justice to the social and psychological research about pornography and its purported harms. Critics manufacture their case against pornography and its consumers based on oversimplified interpretations of the images and a poor understanding of the scientific studies.

This carefully researched and well-reasoned critique of feminist and conservative moral outrage over pornography provides food for thought for philosophers, jurists, scholars, and anyone interested in this controversial issue.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 210 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (January 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573929441
• ISBN-13: 978-1573929448
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,274,844 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sexual Corrective, February 13, 2003

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R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pornography and Sex and Feminism (Hardcover)

One of the most peculiar coalitions in social movements is that of radical feminists and conservatives over the issue of pornography. It isn't surprising that conservatives, especially religious ones, don't like depictions of sexual activity, and pornography is not an uppermost issue for most people interested in fair dealing for both sexes. However, in the past few decades, there have been feminist writers, notably Catherine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin (their followers are known as MacDworkinites), who have insisted that pornography dehumanizes women, causes rape and incest, and generally messes up societies. There are First Amendment issues over the matter, of course, which have been well covered by Nadine Strossen of the ACLU in _Defending Pornography_. Alan Soble has written _Pornography, Sex, and Feminism_ (Prometheus Books) which with the intensity of a pit bull's attack demolishes the MacDworkinite arguments against porn. Soble is an academic philosopher who has written several books about sexuality, and his convincing refutation of anti-pornography academic writings is full of footnotes, but it is also full of street-talk and graphic words describing sex and genitalia. Its style is well suited to its subject.

Pornography is dehumanizing, and degrading, say the MacDworkinites. Soble's most striking response is a resounding "So what?" Amusingly, he parades an almost anti-humanist stance. Humans are often ugly and disgusting, so degradation is not much of an issue. Along with this stroke, he goes on to critique the anti-porn arguments in detail, drawing upon his expertise in philosophy (mostly Kant) and upon research he has really done in viewing porn on the Internet, research he chides his antagonists for not doing. They pretend to have some sort of omniscient ability to look into the minds of men who enjoy pornography and to know just what those minds are thinking as they watch it; the viewer always thinks nasty things like "Get her," for instance. Soble demolishes such an argument by first pointing out that pornography comes in so many diverse and unmonolithic forms that to say there is one message involved is a ludicrous oversimplification. Secondly, it is absurd to say that a particular image has one particular message it conveys to all viewers. The MacDworkinites are having none of this complexity, because they have little research that shows what men think about when they see porn. They insist that pornography makes people want to live out what the pornography depicts. They say that viewing pictures in _Playboy_ causes incest. They insist that viewing porn sparks rape, but have not addressed such facts as the failure of the extremely violent pornography produced in Japan to bring on a high incidence of rape in that country (indeed, the incidence is very low).

The insistence that viewing pornography causes bad actions has not been clinically proven, but that does not stop these feminists from knowing that it does. Time and again, Soble takes the conservatives and feminists on for constructing straw man arguments that show sexual naivete' and unwillingness to admit that sexual behavior is not as simple as their pigeonholing would make it seem. They have decided they don't like pornography (and seem to see all sex as having dark and scary issues within it), and having decided this beforehand, they find it easy to make up "facts" and arguments to demonstrate that porn is bad. It is bad reasoning, and denies such pleasure as pornography, and as sex itself, might offer. This sort of view is currently politically popular, and there is plenty of propaganda to promote it. Soble's appropriately vulgar and withering attack, however, shows just how shockingly totalitarian the MacDworkinites' aims are, and how desperately wrongheaded.