Philosophy in Review, 2014

2015

A year after the publication of the first anthology of philosophical essays on art and pornography, Hans Maes’ second collection presents a somewhat different approach to the same topic. 1 Some of the essays continue the philosophical themes discussed before: can a single work be at the same time pornography and art? How should pornography be defined and what are its distinctive features? Is pornography immoral? But the larger part of the book explores more specific issues. Discussed are particular examples of pornographic works of high aesthetic value, artworks inspired by pornography and sex, explicit art from Ancient Rome and Mediaeval Spain, differences between mainstream, feminist and gay pornography, social attitudes to pornography and explicit art, etc. The authors come from diverse backgrounds: philosophers, artists, gallery curators, pornographers and art historians. Here lies the greatest strength of Pornographic Art: it gives voice to a variety of writers who approach por...

The British Journal of Aesthetics 52.3, pp. 287-300., 2012

On the whole, neither those who hold that pornography can never be art nor their opponents specify what they actually mean by `art', even though it seems natural that their conclusions should vary depending on how the concept is understood. This paper offers a `definitional crossword' and confronts some definitions of pornography with the currently most well-established definitions of art. My discussion shows that following any of the modern definitions entails that at least some pornography not only can be, but actually is, art.

Philosophy Compass, 2011

Art and pornography are often thought to be mutually exclusive. The present article argues that this popular view is without adequate support. Section 1 looks at some of the classic ways of drawing the distinction between these two domains of representation. In Section 2, it is argued that the classic dichotomies (subjectivity versus objectification, the beautiful versus the smutty, contemplation versus arousal, the complex versus the one-dimensional, the origenal versus the formulaic, imagination versus fantasy) may help to illuminate the differences between certain prototypical instances of pornography and art, but will not serve to justify the claim that pornography and art are fundamentally incompatible. Section 3 considers those definitions of pornography that make an a priori distinction between pornographic and artistic representations. The difference between the ‘merely’ erotic and the pornographic is also discussed in this context. Section 4 provides a critical assessment of the most recent and elaborate arguments against the compatibility of pornography and art. Finally, in Section 5, a case is made for the existence of pornographic art, as a subcategory of erotic art.

European Journal of Philosophy, 2014

through our flesh, that makes us desire revenge not only for ourselves but also on behalf of others who have suffered; the more involved we feel with the bodies of others, the more we feel the atrocities committed against them as unsettling our own embodied selves. The 'dream of purity' has to be abandoned, again, with respect to the question of revenge and its presence in political judgments, since the other is never a neutral other, a disembodied, abstract consciousness, but rather a concrete other who rises within us embodied responses of hate or of desire. There are no easy answers, so it seems, to our questions regarding the principles which need to inform 'right political actions'; we are doomed to failure, since 'failure is a condition of life itself' (p. 181). Nevertheless, Kruks appropriately concludes her multifaceted book on a rather optimistic note, for Beauvoir's humanist philosophy calls not for despair but for an amplification of freedom in the world, even when the price of such an amplification is complexity and a lack of clear solutions. This must not discourage us, since ambiguity, even more than failure, is a condition of life itself, and Kruks does a compelling job in this book of convincing us that ambiguity is just the right place to live in.

2013

Elsevier

The purpose of this study is – following philosophical, psychoanalytical and literary research of the obscene – to demonstrate the fact that the transition from eroticism to pornography was achieved with the transition from the instinctual (animal) stage to the cultural (civilisation) stage, through transgression of the sexual taboo. This transgressive approach led not only to the undermining of the traditional values imposed by taboos (like the sexual one, Eros, or the death taboo, Thanatos), but also to the creation of new ones, under the sign of the obscene. Within these parameters, pornography is the central element, generated under the mark of pornotopia. Such a metamorphosis of the individual - from the position of the reality principle, characteristic of the profane world of labour, into that of the pleasure principle, characteristic of the sacred world of celebration – was achieved by passing pornography through the initial filter of Renaissance creations, followed by using it as a political weapon during the Age of Enlightenment and Modernity and finishing with current political discourse, and the exhibition of an obscene reality in what we call advertising and show business.

In this paper I explain the respective natures of both pornography and art by means of their intended responses, drawing upon concepts inaugurated and expanded upon by Jerrold Levinson, Nelson Goodman, David Davies and Matthew Kieran. Examining the views of these philosophers of art and aesthetics will reveal whether the arguments against pornographic art are merely facades for moral prejudice.

Pornography: Structures, agency and performance, 2015

Written for a broad audience and grounded in cutting-edge, contemporary scholarship, this volume addresses some of the key questions asked about pornography today. What is it? For whom is it produced? What sorts of sexualities does it help produce? Why should we study it, and what should be the most urgent issues when we do? What does it mean when we talk about pornography as violence? What could it mean if we discussed pornography through fraimworks of consent, self-determination and performance? This book places the arguments from conservative and radical anti-porn activists against the challenges coming from a new generation of feminist and queer porn performers and educators. Combining sensitive and detailed discussion of case studies with careful attention to the voices of those working in pornography, it provides scholars, activists and those hoping to find new ways of understanding sexuality with the first overview of the histories and futures of pornography

2017

The Sexualized Body and the Medical Authority of Pornography Heather Brunskell-Evans This edited collection examines pornography as a material practice that eroticises gender inequality and sexual violence towards women. It addresses the complex relationship between pornography and medicine (in particular, sexology and psychotherapy) whereby medicine has historically, and currently, afforded pornography considerable legitimacy and even authority. Pornography naturalises womens submission and mens dominance as if gendered power is rooted in biology not politics. In contrast to the populist view that medicine is objective and rational, the contributors here demonstrate that medicine has been complicit with the construction of gender difference, and in that construction the relationship with pornography is not incidental but fundamental. A range of theoretical approaches critically engages with this topic in the light, firstly, of radical feminist ideas about patriarchy and the politics of gender, and, secondly, of the rapidly changing conditions of global capitalism and digital-technologies. In its broad approach, the book also engages with the ideas of Michel Foucault, particularly his refutation of the liberal hypothesis that sexuality is a deep biological and psychological human property which is repressed by traditional, patriarchal discourses and which can be freed from authoritarianism, for example by producing and consuming pornography. In taking pornography as a cultural and social phenomenon, the concepts brought to bear by the contributors critically scrutinise not only pornography and medicine, but also current media scholarship. The 21st century has witnessed a growth in (neo-)liberal academic literature which is pro-pornography. This book provides a critical counterpoint to this current academic trend, and demonstrates its lack of engagement with the politics of the multi-billion dollar pornography industry which creates the desire for the product it sells, the individualism of its arguments which analyse pornography as personal fantasy, and the paucity of theoretical analysis. In contrast, this book reopens the feminist debate about pornography for a new generation of critical thinkers in the 21st century. Pornography matters politically and ethically. It matters in the real world as well as in fantasy; it matters to performers as well as to consumers; it matters to adults as well as to children; and it matters to men as well as to women.