Citation

Keith HE. J. Specul. Philos. 2001; 15(2): 122-136.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, Penn State University Press)

DOI

10.1353/jsp.2001.0018

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Last summer in the United States, a father allegedly molested and stabbed his son after downloading more than a hundred pornographic pictures from the Internet (Gibb 2000). In the same year in Indonesia, a defendant implied to a reporter a connection between a group viewing of violent pornography and the group rape and murder of a young woman ( Jakarta Post 2000). Meanwhile, in England, police investigated a "snuff" film allegedly depicting the actual torture and murder of a young boy trapped in a pornography and pedophilia ring (Davies 2000). Feminists in this country have long debated the acceptability of mixing sex and violence in the hardcore pornography industry, discussing issues of harm and freedom of speech. Increasing sexual violence keeps this issue at the forefront of public concern. Perhaps it is time for a new tradition of discourse to emerge from the discussion of feminist social issues like pornography--one that has at its foundations the interconnection of theory and practice, making it well suited for addressing serious social issues that are embedded in human experience. This paper will apply feminist-pragmatist ethics to the issue of violent pornography, attempting to both describe this emerging moral tradition in American philosophy and put it to use.