Feminist Sex Wars

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The Feminist Sex Wars (Engl. For Sex War of Feminists ), also known as Lesbian Sex Wars , Porn Wars or Sex Wars , describes the phase of intense and controversial debates and discussions between sex-positive and radical feminists in the USA, their climax was from the late 1970s to the 1980s and continues to this day.

Discussion and consequences

In the bitter disputes within the feminist and lesbian movement, the movement's attitudes to issues such as sexuality , pornography , BDSM , the role of transsexual women in the lesbian community, and other sexually oriented issues were discussed. In Thinking Sex , the American cultural anthropologist Gayle Rubin analyzed in 1984 how sexual practices are hierarchized and stigmatized in the “modern sexual system” . From this point of view, sexual conflicts often take the form of a “ moral panic ”. People are incited and a rational discussion is made impossible. Rubin advocated sexual and theoretical pluralism and also discussed the “limits of feminism” for a political theory of sexuality. In this way she had stimulated the discussion about pornography and consensual sadomasochism . These and a host of other debates ultimately split the feminist movement into anti-pornographic and sex-positive, pro-pornographic feminism. The Feminist Sex Wars phase is often viewed as the conclusion of the second wave of the women's movement .

The Samois , a lesbian-sadomasochistic association, and the anti-pornographic feminist group Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media (WAVPM), which are important for Anglo-Saxon feminism, also came into being continue the discussion in their successor groups to this day.

literature

  • Pat Califia , "A Personal View of the History of the Lesbian S / M Community and Movement in San Francisco," in: Coming to Power Alyson Publications , 1987, ISBN 0-932870-28-7
  • Ann Ferguson , et al. a .: Forum: The Feminist Sexuality Debates , in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 10 (1), 1984
  • Art Levine: "Whip Me, Beat Me and While You're At It Cancel My NOW Membership" from the Washington Monthly of June 1, 1987 [1]
  • Wendy McElroy: A Woman's Right to Pornography. , St. Martin's Press, New York, 1995, ISBN 0-312-13626-9
  • Irene Stoehr: "PorNO campaign and women's movement", in: Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung, issue 3/1989 (PorNO-critical essay)
  • Nadine Strossen: In defense of pornography. For the freedom of the word, sex and the rights of women , Haffmans Verlag, Zurich, 1997, ISBN 3-251-00380-1
  • Jean Roberta: Erotica and the Feminist Sex Wars: A Personal Herstory , Girlphoria.com, 1999
  • Gayle Rubin : Misguided, Dangerous and Wrong: an Analysis of Anti-Pornography Politics in: Bad Girls and Dirty Pictures: The Challenge to Reclaim Feminism. A. Alison and C. Avedon (Eds.), Pluto, 1993, pp. 18-40, ISBN 0-7453-0523-7
  • Samois : Coming to Power: Writings and Graphics on Lesbian S / M. , Alyson Pubns, 1983, ISBN 0-932870-28-7
  • Alice Schwarzer : Female masochism is collaboration! , published in: EMMA, Vol. 2, 1991
  • Ellen Willis : Feminism, Moralism, and Pornography. , 1983 in A. Snitow, C. Stansell and S. Thompson (Eds.): Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality , pp. 460-467, ISBN 0-85345-609-7
  • Lisa Duggan and Nan D. Hunter: Sex Wars: Sexual Dissent and Political Culture , Routledge, 1995, ISBN 0-415-91036-6
  • Jane Gerhard: Desiring Revolution: Second-Wave Feminism and the Rewriting of American Sexual Thought, 1920 to 1982 . Columbia Univ. Pr., 2001, ISBN 0-231-11205-X
  • Emma Healey: Lesbian Sex Wars , Virago, 1996, ISBN 1-86049-230-4
  • Dorchen Leidholdt and Janice Raymond: The Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism . Pergamon Press, 1990, ISBN 0-08-037457-3

Web links

Wikiquote: Women's Movement  - Quotes