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What women are for: pornography and social ontology

Jenkins, Katharine

Authors

Katharine Jenkins



Contributors

Mari Mikkola
Editor

Abstract

This chapter uses John Searle’s account of institutional reality to offer an interpretation of two of Catharine MacKinnon’s claims about pornography. The first is that it subordinates women; the second is that it wrongly constructs women’s natures. The chapter argues that these claims about the harms of misogynistic pornography can profitably be understood in terms of the collective intentional imposition of a status function that defines “females” as subpersons for male use. The chapter advocates a broad interpretation of the subordination and constructionist claims that applies to a range of media besides misogynistic pornography, both sexual and nonsexual. Finally, the chapter suggests that the importance of the subordination and constructionist claims as interpreted here does not rest on their being shown to be constitutive rather than causal.

Citation

Jenkins, K. (2017). What women are for: pornography and social ontology. Beyond speech: pornography and analytic feminist philosophyOxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190257910.003.0005

Book Type Book Chapter
Publication Date Jan 1, 2017
Deposit Date Jun 30, 2017
Publisher Oxford University Press
Series Title Studies in feminist philosophy
Book Title Beyond speech: pornography and analytic feminist philosophy
Chapter Number 5
ISBN 9780190257910, 9780190257903
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof%3Aoso/9780190257910.003.0005
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1122274
Additional Information eStaffProfile Description: , eStaffProfile Brief Description of Type:

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