MacKinnon/Dworkin

Question 1

Sex as Violence

Answer 1

Rape is not less sexual for being violent

(fundamental disagreement with Brownmiller)

According to MacKinnon, rape is both violent and sexual

• heterosexuality under patriarchy eroticized violence and coercion

Question 2

Gender Constructed as Sexual Domination and Submission

Answer 2

• men and women are created through repeated patterns of domination and submission
• men are expected to take dominant roles (masculinity = dominate, aggressive, active)
• women are expected to take submissive roles (femininity = submissive, docile, passive)

Question 3

Compulsory Heterosexuality

Answer 3

• Heterosexual identities are not freely chosen; they are pressured via systematic pressure to conform to heterosexual norms

Question 4

Sex as a Tool of Control and Humiliation

Answer 4

If sex is a form of domination over women, then puting men in a feminized position strips them of power

• rape feminizes men

Question 5

Critique of MacKinnon and Dworkin

Answer 5

MacKinnon reduces all heterosexual sex to misogynistic violence.

MacKinnon’s account describes women’s (hetero)sexual identity in opposition to agency

• To be a (heterosexual) women is to fail to be an agent
• Constructed as submissive and inferior

If women are not agents, then resistance is not possible (to resist, one must be an agent; one must be capable of forming desires in opposition to the dominant construction

The underlying problem is the monolithic nature of the account

• It does not have a nuanced understanding of the complexities of identity and sexuality
• Erotization of domination and submission
• Treats it as a universal response

Question 6

Culture

Answer 6

culture eroticizes dominance and submission; the eroticization of the feminine body is predominately the eroticization of submissiveness