FEMINIST THEORIES AROUND PORN: DID PORNOGRAPHY “KILL” FEMINISM?

Abstract

This article departs from the problem that much of the feminist literature surrounding the “question” of pornography, as a phenomenon that so deeply and specifically traverses female sexuality—both on the symbolic and the material level—has, over time, been confined to the dichotomous “pro-sex” and “anti-pornography” perspectives, which are insufficient to encompass its complexity and multidimensionality. The effort undertaken to map the theoretical positions on pornography that have emerged throughout the history of feminist epistemologies—and the main theoretical tensions that continue to structure the debate today—is justified by the intrinsic need for these perspectives to remain in constant movement and renewal in light of the social, political, and economic changes that shape the experience of “being a woman,” in a broad sense, and, above all, the lived experience of sexuality. The central hypothesis is that by abandoning the “pro-sex/anti-pornography” dichotomy and articulating feminist divergences rather than antagonizing them, it becomes possible to construct a more precise and consistent interpretation of the phenomenon. It was confirmed that more plural feminist currents—even when they still often diverge in relation to pornography—are capable of critically integrating material conditions of production and circulation, grammars of desire, and intersectional effects.