Read on Twitter
Read this thread--on biblicist Jan Joosten's conviction for child porn and how his work is actually entwined w/that.
As a sexual ethicist who also does text I want to focus on something that comes up in a link in the 2nd tweet: linking Joosten's crimes w/ porn in general. 1/ https://twitter.com/oligopistos/status/1275777111010181120
As a sexual ethicist who also does text I want to focus on something that comes up in a link in the 2nd tweet: linking Joosten's crimes w/ porn in general. 1/ https://twitter.com/oligopistos/status/1275777111010181120
To be clear, the conflation's in the linked post (which I'm not gonna link again), NOT in @oligopistos's thread! In fact, in the replies they explicitly and rightly reject the conflation. 2/13
The writer expresses dismay that those academics "calling for [Joosten's] head" would simultaneously oppose actions to "remove the scourge of pornography from the internet."
And...no. "Pornography" as such is not the problem. 3/13
And...no. "Pornography" as such is not the problem. 3/13
Porn can be morally complicated, without question. There's v. good scholarship out there that does crucial work grappling w/ the gendered, raced, classed, etc. moral complications of consuming images, sounds, descriptions, and so on of others' bodies for personal pleasure. 4/13
But my dude: if you can't tell the difference between porn involving adults who have consented to participate (even acknowledging that the agency to do so is often constrained by a number of factors) and porn which involves brutalizing children, IDK what to tell you. 5/13
And along these lines, it is telling that the linked post frames Joosten as suffering from an "addiction" and being victimized by the nebulous "scourge" of pornography, conveniently excusing him from any significant moral agency...6/13
But let's get real: Joosten is a white man who's a giant in his field and has held massive institutional clout. He shares culpability with a system that, as @AnnetteYReed puts it, is... 7/13
"defined in pt by governing assumption that *reputations* of men are more important to keep safe than the *bodies* of women, children, &c." 8/ 13 https://twitter.com/AnnetteYReed/status/1275098536187658240
"The pornographers" did not, I promise you, create that governing assumption. Systems of power produced and upheld by *moral choices* made by people like Joosten created that assumption and continue to create it. 9/13
I'm currently reading @mpgPhD's EXCELLENT new book, "Abusing Religion," and one of the (IMO, correct) central theses is that when USians fixate on religious others as paradigmatic sexual abusers and as SOURCES of sexual abuse...10/13
...it provides a convenient excuse to ignore sexual abuse as a systemic problem; because now it's a "religion" problem.
In this case, "pornography" is fulfilling a similar rhetorical and moral function. 11/13
In this case, "pornography" is fulfilling a similar rhetorical and moral function. 11/13
If "pornography" is the problem, then the academy doesn't have to interrogate the ways it as institution produces, facilitates, and obfuscates abuse--see, for example, @SBLsite's appallingly inadequate response: 12/ 13 https://twitter.com/SBLsite/status/1275766598322868230
Dirty films, pictures, and stories do not abusers make. Failures of accountability, misogynist, racist, patriarchal, ableist, etc. norms and power structures, however, sure as shit help abusers thrive. 13/13.
(Oh, and an addendum--I HIGHLY recommend Jennifer Nash's "The Black Body in Ecstasy" as a place to start if you're looking for scholarship on the moral contours of porn...1a/2a
Nash combines brilliant original analysis throughout with a VERY good primer on the history of the feminist "porn wars" and the contours of the major stances on porn in the intro chapter. 1a/2a
Because, as usual, if y'all had been paying attention to Black womxn's scholarship and more generally DOING THE DAMN RESEARCH you would actually know some important stuff that could theoretically help avoid fucking something like this up so spectacularly. 3a/2a)
