Kant

Question 1

Sex and Objectification

Answer 1

• Sex as objectification
• Marriage as morally transformative
• Quarantine model

Question 2

Kant: Fundamental Moral Principle

Answer 2

Always treat other people as ends in themselves, never as a means only

Question 3

Kant’s Thoughts on Sex

Answer 3

Kant thought that sex was about the pursuit of pleasure at the expense of one’s own humanity and the humanity of one’s lover

Kant believed it was the desire to objectify and be objectified

Question 4

Agency

Answer 4

• Sex treats someone as a passive object, rather than an agent
• Basic idea: each person can set its own ends
• To treat someone as a means only is to fail to recognize them as having ends of their own
• Consent of another allows us to treat that person as both as a means and as an end in themselves
• We need to be consulted to things that happens to us, when you’re interacting with other human beings, treat them as agents, don’t treat them as tools or objects

Question 5

Kant and Sex

Answer 5

Kant believed sex is always a case of using another person as a mere means

To have sexual desire for someone is to have a desire that is objectifying by its nature

Consent for Kant doesn’t make sex morally transformative

Question 6

Kant and Sexual Desire

Answer 6

Having sexual desire & engaging in sexual activities = acting as animals, not capable of using human reason, treating the other person as getting sexual gratification

• Bypasses reason
• No different than treating the other as a sex toy

Question 7

Cannibalistic

Answer 7

sexual desire is the desire to consume the body of another and acts of sex are acts of consuming the body

Question 8

Kant and Marriage

Answer 8

Legal marriage morally transforms sex and counters objectification

• marriage is a way of containing sex
• Kant held that sexual relations are only morally permissible within a legal marriage
• Marriage gives legal right over the other (one legal entity, property is shared)

Reasoning:

• In a legal marriage, each gives themselves entirely and fully to the other
• Acquires rights to use each other’s person (body for sex)
• Marriage involves interacting with the whole person (rather than merely the body)

Question 9

Pascoe: Quarantine Model

Answer 9

Concept designed to distinguish how you treat a whole person, and how you treat a person in context of sex

• Marriage quarantines sex, isolated it from the rest of life
• Quarantine allows us to interact with people as agents in other contexts
• One is a sexual being in the marriage bed
• One is not a sexual being in one’s interactions outside the marriage bed
• Separates sexual and social beings

Question 10

Pascoe: Kinky Sex

Answer 10

• Pascoe disagrees with Kant that: not all sex is objectifying, you can engage in consensual sex that is respects the other person
• Some sex is objectifying and morally dangerous

Question 11

Quarantining morally dangerous sex does two things:

Answer 11

1. Creates a safe space for exploring morally dangerous sex

• Safe space = allowing for that distinction (quarantine)
• “safe words” words that mean halting the objectifying activity, mere presence/notion of safe words articulate a safe space

2. Prevents objectifying aspects of kinky sex lives from affecting other domains of one’s life

Question 12

Pascoe: Takeaways

Answer 12

• Some sexual activities are inherently morally dangerous
• Morally dangerous sexual activities need to be confined to spaces/relationships which are otherwise respectful/loving
• Morally dangerous sexual activities call for particular care in one’s treatment of the other party outside of the particular, objectifying acts
• Risk of “spilling over” treating the other outside the particular acts
• The spaces for exploration have to be safe; they have to be negotiated spaces
• Mere consent is not enough, negotiation of desire and acceptable practices is required (detailed exploration of limits and comforts of desires that go far beyond consent)
• Requires care to determine desires and limits of those desires