Why Internet Porn Matters (Stanford Briefs) - Softcover

Grebowicz, Margret

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804786623 ISBN 13: 9780804786621

Publisher: Stanford University Press, 2013

Synopsis

Now that pornography is on the Internet, its political and social functions have changed. So contends Margret Grebowicz in this imperative philosophical analysis of Internet porn. The production and consumption of Internet porn, in her account, are a symptom of the obsession with self-exposure in today's social networking media, which is, in turn, a symptom of the modern democratic construction of the governable subject as both transparent and communicative. In this first feminist critique to privilege the effects of pornography's Internet distribution rather than what it depicts, Grebowicz examines porn-sharing communities (such as the bestiality niche market) and the politics of putting women's sexual pleasure on display (the "squirting" market) as part of the larger democratic project. Arguing against this project, she shows that sexual pleasure is not a human right. Unlikely convergences between thinkers like Catherine MacKinnon, Jean Baudrillard, Judith Butler, and Jean-François Lyotard allow her to formulate a theory of the relationships between sex, speech, and power that stands as an alternative to such cyber-libertarian mottos as "freedom of speech" and "sexual freedom."

About this title

About the Author

Margret Grebowicz is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Goucher College.

Edition details

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0804786623
• ISBN 13: 9780804786621
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 148