Feminist Pornography as Feminist Propaganda, and Ideological Catch-22s

Philosophical discussions of pornography are often located within the philosophy of language, due to Rae Langton and Jennifer Hornsby’s pioneering speech-act theoretic treatments, offered with an eye towards issues concerning freedom of speech. An alternative (though not inconsistent) approach sees pornography as a topic for epistemologists; in particular, a number of philosophers have recently suggested a crucial part of what makes pornography troubling is that it acts as a kind of propaganda. However, while mainstream pornography tends to peddle a harmful, sexism sexual ideology, some feminists, including some feminist philosophers, have expressed the hope that feminist pornography could harness pornography’s persuasive force—its propagandic power to shape the attitudes, and perhaps the behaviour, of its consumers—but change the message. In this chapter, McGlynn critically examines this proposal and draws the disappointing conclusion that it is likely to fail, given the way that propaganda works.

The new utility of prostitution in neoliberalism

This article aims to explain the transformation of the industry of prostitution since the 70s and 80s, when it became one of the most important transnational industries in the world. In those years, just at the same time it becomes a mega-industry, it also undergoes a transformation in terms of its functionality as a patriarchal institution. It is gradually ceasing to be exclusively a way to divide women into wives and whores and also a way to justify a certain sexual ideology, in order to become a way of reassuring the more traditional masculinities, beset by the successes of feminism. At the same time, it is also becoming the necessary social relief for a male population placed, under a brutal neoliberalism wave, in a situation in which only women previously where.

“She Did Not Notice Me”: Gender, Anxiety, and Desire in The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Using the recent trend in literary scholarship that theorizes literature in terms of globalization, cosmopolitanism, and dialectic transnational identities, I examine gender and sexual ideology in Mohsin Hamid’s 2007 novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a post-9/11 text that explores the intricacies of community and terror. Specifically, I argue that the novel articulates a particularly gendered vision of spatial, social, and political (im)mobility through the narrator’s desires, especially as demonstrated through his romantic interest, and masculine anxieties expressed through his response to American imperialism. The narrator’s view of the United States is inexorably tied to his projection of convoluted desire, and he conflates impotence with frustration at being unable to respond to growing American militaristic power. We as readers wish to identify with a protagonist whose story we slowly learn is largely articulated in terms of his sexual desire and denial: we at first empathize with his desire but then, when discovering its projection is problematic, simultaneously wish to reject it. The interplay of the microcosm of an individual’s failed romantic relationship and the macrocosm of countries at conflict mimics the mobility and liminality of conflicting ideologies.

Voices of Resolution and Resistance in Indian Women’s Poetry

Contemporary Indian women’s writing is a challenge to existing male ethos and sexual ideology based on unequal power relations. Earlier domesticity and sexual relations were couched in silence and acceptance; today, they have become an intrinsic part of feminist discourse. Indian women poets converse in a language that threatens the status quo and propose to open up a separate space for those on the margins. The paper examines the essence of power dynamics in contemporary Indian women’s poetry in English. Poetry with its hidden metaphors and lilting images demonstrates an urge to dissolve the barrier between speech and silence. It also demands to be read differently. The desire to write leads to the ability to act with courage.

Judaism

This chapter establishes that most of the sexual ethics of Second Temple Judaism are similar to the ideological sexual codes of the Roman Empire. It examines works as diverse as Tobit, the writings of Philo and Josephus, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. It contends that the dominant sexual ideology among Second Temple Jews is “Procreationism,” which maintains that sex is for reproduction and not for pleasure. Furthermore, it suggests that most of the Jewish literature of the Second Temple period upholds the same hegemonic ideology of the Augustan marriage legislation, except for the writings of the Essenes.

Saved from hegemonic masculinity? Charismatic Christianity and men’s responsibilization in South Africa

In this article, the author explores the role of religion in social constructions of heterosexual masculinity in South Africa in the context of civil society driven programs to fight sexual and gender-based violence and the spread of HIV. Critically engaging with the concept of hegemonic masculinity and the sociological literature on gender relations in conservative Christian communities, the author examines how Charismatic Christian and Pentecostal communities in the townships of Cape Town negotiate their model of masculinity and gender authority in the context of the prevailing hegemonies of ‘traditional’ and ‘liberal’ masculinity. Based on ethnographic observations and qualitative interviews with Pentecostal men, the author specifies the concrete mechanisms whereby Pentecostalism both contributes to transform but also to reproduce rather than undermine hegemonic masculinity. He finds that Pentecostalism responsibilizes men not because men adopt its sexual ideology but because they adopt its model of personhood.

Sexual Attitudes and Concepts

Chapter 5 examines indigenous sexual ideology and attitudes based on the analysis of Mesoamerican metaphors and symbols that were used to discuss and represent sexual matters. The chapter shows that the principal concern in these texts was the necessity for moderation in sexual relations. Excessive intercourse, adulterous relations, and the use of aphrodisiacs could all lead to impotence, illness, and violence. Flowers, food, feathers, speech, and sight were invoked in metaphors and as symbols to represent sexuality in alphabetic and pictorial texts. They continued to resonate in the narratives and actions of indigenous people in colonial times. Chapter 5 considers how Spanish friars adopted some indigenous concepts in their efforts to promote Christian morality, and in turn how Spanish mores, Christian teaching, and colonial law affected native sexuality. The chapter argues, however, that Spanish Christian values regarding morality and sexuality influenced, but did not completely change, indigenous attitudes and practices.

The Failed Probability of Love Over Labor in THX 1138 (1971)

Scholarship on panopticism and film rarely considers aesthetic attributes of the medium. Thematic elements associated with panopticism are often examined instead. George Lucas’ directorial debut, THX 1138 (1971), uses aesthetic values in filmmaking to screen a narrative grounded in panopticism. By drawing on the Foucaultian principle of panopticism, this article illustrates the ideological confliction between labor and love that is central to the protagonist THX. On the surface, THX 1138 situates the sexual ideologies of the early Seventies in a socialist contention. The sexual ideology that favors love and freedom of expression is placed in direct conflict with a socialist ideology that labor and obedience. This ideological strife erupts on screen in a dystopian future that is visualized in panoptic cinematography techniques. The result is an analysis of the nuanced visual mastery on Lucas’s part that serves as an explicit commentary grounded in the political and cultural contention never quite resolved in American history.

“En komponerende Dame”. Modtagelsen af Nancy Dalbergs musik i samtiden

The article takes the form of an examination of the newspaper reviews of the first performances of Nancy Dalberg’s compositions in the years 1915 to 1937. In doing so, the aim was to find out why on the one hand she was considered one of her time’s foremost female composers but on the other hand has almost completely vanished from view in subsequent musical life. Newspaper reviewers generally devoted her great attention and in the beginning offered constructive criticism, considering her both talented and skilled in composition. But when in 1918 she offered herself as a symphonic composer, the critical tone became sharper, even though there was amazement that a woman should try her strength with such a prestigious musical genre as the symphony. However, lack of performance opportunities meant that she ceased to express herself in large-scale orchestral works but concentrated on composing chamber music and songs. The criticism of the songs in particular reveals an expectation that as a woman she should be expressing herself in a particularly feminine musical language, with an emphasis on the emotional and singable, but as she did nothing to meet these expectations, she was subjected to a rough ride. Close reading of newspaper critics shows that it was acceptable in society for a woman to manifest herself as an artist but that she was expected to express herself in a particular way which would not assail the prevailing conception of femininity. In other words, music criticism was characterised by a sexual ideology which prevented it from evaluating Nancy Dalberg’s compositions objectively. As a result her creative efforts were not taken seriously and gradually she lost the confidence to present herself as a composer. Apparently value-neutral criticism thus proves to be both a communicator of sexual ideology and responsible for maintaining a particular view of women artists.