Radical Philosophy
Notes week 8 Notes 8
Pornography Subordinates – Catherine Mackinnon (1946)
Lecture aim:
To explain why MacKinnon thinks that pornography subordinates women; to show how it is a radical
philosophy claim; to bring out its significance for current issues; to question it.
What is assumed?
- Pornography is like cigarettes: it may harm people but it doesn’t do that by subordinating
them
- To subordinate women, Pornography would have to (or at least intend to)
- Attribute inferior worth to women than to men
- Legitimate discriminatory behaviour by men towards women
- Deprive women of important powers – And some doubt whether pornography does (all) this
Mackinnon Views on Pornography:
- ‘Pornography sexualizes rape, battery, sexual harassment, prostitution, and child sexual
abuse; it thereby celebrates, promotes, authorizes, and legitimizes them’ (p. 171)
- ‘Pornography constructs what a woman is as what men want from sex’ (p. 171).
- ‘Pornography codes how to look at women, so you know what you can do with one when
you see one’ (p. 173).
- Subordination means to be in a position of inferiority or lord of power, or to be demeaned
or denigrated’ (p. 176)
- ‘what a woman is, is defined in pornographic terms; this is what pornography does. If the
law then looks neutrally on the reality of gender so produced, the harm that has been done
will not be perceptible as harm’ (p. 166)
- ‘Pornography is a political practice, a practice of power and powerlessness’ (p. 175).
- ‘what pornography means is what it does’ (p. 191).
Mackinnon’s Argument premises:
A) Pornography legitimizes certain behaviours
- it celebrates
- Promotes
- Authorizes ‘rape, battery, sexual harassment, prostitution
Notes week 8 Notes 8
Pornography Subordinates – Catherine Mackinnon (1946)
Lecture aim:
To explain why MacKinnon thinks that pornography subordinates women; to show how it is a radical
philosophy claim; to bring out its significance for current issues; to question it.
What is assumed?
- Pornography is like cigarettes: it may harm people but it doesn’t do that by subordinating
them
- To subordinate women, Pornography would have to (or at least intend to)
- Attribute inferior worth to women than to men
- Legitimate discriminatory behaviour by men towards women
- Deprive women of important powers – And some doubt whether pornography does (all) this
Mackinnon Views on Pornography:
- ‘Pornography sexualizes rape, battery, sexual harassment, prostitution, and child sexual
abuse; it thereby celebrates, promotes, authorizes, and legitimizes them’ (p. 171)
- ‘Pornography constructs what a woman is as what men want from sex’ (p. 171).
- ‘Pornography codes how to look at women, so you know what you can do with one when
you see one’ (p. 173).
- Subordination means to be in a position of inferiority or lord of power, or to be demeaned
or denigrated’ (p. 176)
- ‘what a woman is, is defined in pornographic terms; this is what pornography does. If the
law then looks neutrally on the reality of gender so produced, the harm that has been done
will not be perceptible as harm’ (p. 166)
- ‘Pornography is a political practice, a practice of power and powerlessness’ (p. 175).
- ‘what pornography means is what it does’ (p. 191).
Mackinnon’s Argument premises:
A) Pornography legitimizes certain behaviours
- it celebrates
- Promotes
- Authorizes ‘rape, battery, sexual harassment, prostitution
