Publication details
Normalise Me! Sexual and Gender Identity in Sexological, Criminological, and Feminist Discourses on Pornography
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| Year of publication | 2008 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| Citation | |
| Description | To a large extent, the regulatory discourses of sexology and criminology control our understandings of sexual as well as gender identity. By pathologising some identities, they highlight the normal and acceptable, thus reproducing the heteronormative status quo. In this text I analyse Czech sexological and criminological writing on the topic of pornography, as well as feminist anti-pornography arguments, as articulated both in the United States and contemporary Europe. I argue that not only do sexology and criminology produce normalising accounts of gender and sexuality, but that surprising congruences arise between these disciplines and feminist anti-pornography discourse. These discourses share a perception of gender as a binary and stable category and sexuality as essentially heterosexual. Although this is perhaps to be expected from confining discourses such as sexology and criminology, it remains objectionable and proves especially unwelcome in progressive social powers such as feminism. |
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