Vince, R. (2018) Testimonial smothering and pornography. Feminist Philosophy Quarterly, 4 (3). 5. ISSN 2371-2570
Abstract
This paper defends the claim that there are two previously underexplored ways in which pornography silences women. These ways that pornography silences are (1) the smothering of refusal and (2) the smothering of sexual assault reports, and they can be explained in part through Kristie Dotson’s account of “testimonial smothering.” Unlike the work of other writers in the pornography as silencing literature, my discussion of silenced refusal of sex deals with the cases where women have said yes to sex but would have said no if they had felt that they could have. I show that this, and cases where women do not report sexual assault, count as testimonial smothering through identifying rape myths as a species of “pernicious ignorance.” I make the connection to pornography in presenting evidence that pornography contributes to acceptance of rape myths. This takes us to my general conclusion: Dotson’s account of testimonial smothering gives us a way in which pornography contributes to the silencing of women, by silencing their refusal of sex and their reports of sexual assault.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 Rosa Vince. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | silencing, speech, Kristie Dotson, pornography, sexual assault, rape myths, refusal |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sheffield) > Department of Philosophy (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 12 Mar 2019 10:36 |
Last Modified: | 12 Mar 2019 10:37 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.5206/fpq/2018.3.5784 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | University of Western Ontario |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.5206/fpq/2018.3.5784 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:143547 |