WGST 2812 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Andrea Dworkin, Protection Racket, Quid Pro Quo

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Women's and Gender Studies
• Course: WGST 2812
• Professor: Lori Stinson

Document Summary

Defining the subject, the debate and the times. We defined pornography as the sexually explicit subordination off women through pictures or words that also includes presentations of women being sexually abused. There is a list of specific acts of sexual abuse. We were so careful that practices whose abusiveness some people publicly question for example, submission, servility and display are not covered by the trafficking provision. So we are talking rape, torture, pain humiliation: we are talking violence against women turned into sex. The rights and responsibilities of individuals: as individuals, safety vs. liberty and when to intervene. The medium of communication: the internet and prurient (morbid, degrading, and unhealthy) interest. Discussing and depicting of sexual activity as a social and cultural taboo: has the internet shattered boundaries in access, information and choice. Positioning (cid:498)sex itself as an act of political resistance(cid:499) The attempt to define pornography is a trick question, since essentially no such thing exists.