Pornography and the “Sex Wars”

Issues surrounding sexuality and pornography have tended to polarize the feminist movement and differences in views led to the so-called “sex wars” of the 1970s/1980s. The main opposing positions can be denoted with PorNo (short for anti-pornography positions) and PorYes (denoting pro-pornography and “sex-positive” outlooks). This opposition is fraught with difficulties and misconceptions though, and we can see the makings of new sex wars in popular discourse and culture as well as in academic writings about pornography. This chapter argues that—contra first appearances—the debate is significantly steered by considerations that are not about pornography. The dispute importantly turns on the nature of sex: the nature of sexual activities, and of “having sex,” where underlying disagreements about sex engender different normative conclusions about pornography. Making headway in the PorNo-PorYes debates requires excavating and making explicit this issue. Hence the chapter considers: How do different sides understand “sex,” and how do these conceptions differ? In what ways do these differences subsequently undergird distinct normative positions relative to pornography?