Theoretical Underpinnings
1. The primary axis of oppression is not class, but gender.
2. The objectification of women is the primary mechanism of oppression.
a. Objectification fosters an expectation of women's subordination and sexual availability to men.
b. Women's subordinate position is enforced through rape and random sexual violence.
3. Women's objectification is exemplified by, but not confined to, pornography. There is a continuity between hard core porn, soft core porn, and mainstream advertisements.
4. "Pornography is the theory and rape is the practice." Pornography shapes men's expectations and beliefs about women. It "trains" men to expect sex from women and to believe that women like forceful sexual encounters.
5. Pornography is a form of "hate speech" that encourages violence toward a specific group, akin to burning a cross in an African American's yard, or painting a swastika on a Jewish person's business.
6. Pornography is an act as well as a representation. The production of pornography subjects women models to objectification and violence.
Tend to come from three distinct groups within feminism:
1> Liberals, including Liberal Feminists, opposed to censorship. (FAC)
2> Representational Theorists (such as Gayle Rubin and the "porn wars" at the Barnard Conference in 1982).
3> Female Pornographers & Performance Artists. (Pat Califia, Susie Bright, Annie Sprinkle).
Theoretical Assumptions of Representational Theorists (group 2 above) who are differ with anti-porn activists.
1. Objectification is an inevitable aspect of representation.
2. Pornography, like any other representation, is subject to interpretation: its meaning changes depending on the context within which it is read and/or viewed.
3. Pornography is not reducible to a single message or effect. Nor are all or even most models &/or sex workers passive victims.
4. The causal links between pornography and sexual violence cited by anti-porn activists are mostly anecdotal or from poorly designed studies.
5. Anti-porn positions reify gender differences by perpetuating confining, 19th century, notions of gender (women are pure and men are evil) that attempt to police women's desires and identities (women can't be butch and still be women) as well as men's identities (men can't be submissive, masochistic, or femme).
6. Because of the way they privilege gender over sexuality (always interpreting sexuality as a function of gender and not vice versa) anti-porn positions are heterosexist at best and homophobic at worst.