Sex-Positive Feminism and Pornography

Question 1

what is sex positivity

Answer 1

the idea that feminism should privilege sexual pleasure and fight sexual repression

Question 2

How is sex positivity no fading from fashion among younger people?

Answer 2

• it is thought that it is not longer radical or even really necessary to proclaim that women take pleasure in sex
• taking pleasure in sex seems, to some, vaguely obligatory

Question 3

What does the word “demisexual” refer to?

Answer 3

those attracted only to people with whom they share an emotion connection with

Question 4

what do most young, presumably progressive women think “choice feminism” caters to?

Answer 4

• caters to “patriarchy and the male gaze”
• liberal feminism telling young girls that hook up culture is liberating, conditioning them to think that if you do not have extreme kinks at a young age then they are boring and vanilla

Question 5

Past vs. Present re: sex-positive feminism

Answer 5

• past: was able to ease the dissonance between what women want and what they feel they’re supposed to want for women who felt hemmed in by sexual taboos and pressured to deny their own turn-ons
• present: seems less relevant to women who feel brutalized by the expectation that they’ll be open to anything

Question 6

Reasons that Oxford students were in agreements in regards to porn being harmful

Answer 6

• objectifies/harms women (ex. anal is the last taboo, ties to phallic dominance)
• provides a sexual script that leaves them alienated and insecure (the physical body but also the way sexuality is enacted)
• does not speak to their longings/frustrations, is just about the physical act (no tenderness, intimacy, connection)
• increasing awareness of power differences in sex/sexual scripts

Question 7

How is sex positivity fused with culture of pornography?

Answer 7

• equates desire for intimacy, commitment, and monogamy as repression/oppression
• wanting emotional intimacy/vulnerability = oppressive

Question 8

SEIM

Answer 8

sexual explicit internet material

Question 9

What was the research question in the 2014 study involving young adults’ experience?

Answer 9

do urban heterosexual Canadian young adults, aged 19-29 perceive the consumption of SEIM to influence their sexual health, and if so, how?

Question 10

Measures of sexual health

Answer 10

• sexual knowledge
• sexual perception
• sexual activity
• sexual partners relations
• perceptions of sexuality
• overall wellbeing

Question 11

SEIM impacts on sexual knowledge in 2014 study?

Answer 11

• enhanced sexual knowledge
• what sex actually looks like
• because its so explicit and visual
• participants also highlighted that SEIM provides them with one of the only resources to learn about non-normative content

Question 12

SEIM impacts on sexual self-perception in 2014 study

Answer 12

• increased self-acceptance and self-confidence
• enhancing their self-perception
• on one hand because it normalized their desires
• on the other in increased self-confidence and ideas of body image for older aged individuals but not younger participants because older participants were able to view porn and think critically about what was going on

Question 13

SEIM impacts on sexual activity

Answer 13

• increased sexual activity
• they had an enhanced understanding of the mechanics of specific sexual activities
• felt more confident in their. abilities
• sexual activity satisfaction linked to wanting to be “good” at activities
• however some reported stress about sex earlier in life (ex. men not being able to last as long)
• decreased offline functioning via SEIM misconsumption

Question 14

SEIM impacts of Sexual Partners Relations

Answer 14

• limited influences on offline relationships
• mixed perceptions about gender representations in SEIM - men had conflicting feelings about the portrayal of women in the SEIM, women critically assessed other elements of SEIM

Question 15

SEIM impacts on perceptions of sexuality

Answer 15

• increased acceptance of sexual diversity
• became more openminded

Question 16

SEIM impacts to overall wellbeing

Answer 16

• means to address pressure and stressors
• perceived SEIM consumption for masturbatory purposes as a means to relax
• allowed them to explicitly and solely focus on sensory stimulation to “de-stress”
• SEIM also used to reduce social pressures or fears associated with engaging in sexual activities (ex. “dont want to go out and pick up a guy, can just turn on porn”)

Question 17

Conclusions to the 2014 SEIM study

Answer 17

SEIM consumption is “a complex process in which the participants actively engage with, analyze and reproduce messages in an altered form, in a manner that is directed by their social context and identity”