Editing Radical feminism (section)

==Views on the sex industry==
Radical feminists have written about a wide range of issues regarding the sex industry—which they tend to oppose—including but not limited to what many see as: the [[Feminist views of pornography#Harm to women during production|harm done to women]] during the production of pornography, [[Feminist views on pornography#Social harm from exposure to pornography|the social harm]] from consumption of pornography, [[Feminist views on prostitution#Coercion and poverty|the coercion and poverty]] that leads women to become prostitutes, [[Feminist views on prostitution#Long-term effects on the prostitutes|the long-term detrimental effects]] of prostitution, [[Feminist views on prostitution#The raced and classed nature of prostitution|the raced and classed nature]] of prostitution, and [[Feminist views on prostitution#Male dominance over women|male dominance over women]] in prostitution and pornography.

Feminists who oppose the acceptance and endorsement of prostitution by rebranding it as "[[sex work]]" are sometimes disparagingly labeled as "sex worker-exclusionary radical feminists" or "SWERFs". These argue that the term "sex work" contains political assumptions, rather than being a neutral term. They argue the term endorses the idea that sex is labour for women and leisure for men, according men the social and economic power to act as a ruling class in the matter of intercourse, and also implies that women's bodies exist as a resource to be used by other people.<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Ditum |first1=Sarah |title=Why we shouldn't rebrand prostitution as "sex work" |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/12/why-we-shouldnt-rebrand-prostitution-sex-work |magazine=[[New Statesman]] |date=1 December 2014 |access-date=12 April 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Dastagir |first1=Alia E. |title=A feminist glossary because we didn't all major in gender studies |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/16/feminism-glossary-lexicon-language/99120600/ |work=[[USA Today]] |date=March 16, 2017 |access-date=12 April 2021}}</ref>

===Prostitution===
{{main|Feminist views on prostitution}} 
Radical feminists argue that most women who become [[prostitutes]] are forced into it by a pimp, [[human trafficking]], poverty, [[Addiction|drug addiction]], or trauma such as child sexual abuse. Women from the lowest socioeconomic classes—impoverished women, women with a low level of education, women from the most disadvantaged racial and ethnic minorities—are over-represented in prostitution all over the world. [[Catharine MacKinnon]] asked: "If prostitution is a free choice, why are the women with the fewest choices the ones most often found doing it?"<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/fempsy3.html |title=Prostitution in Five Countries |journal=Feminism & Psychology |year=1998 |first1=Melissa |last1=Farley|first2=Isin |last2=Baral |first3=Merab |last3=Kiremire |first4=Ufuk |last4=Sezgin |pages=405–426 |doi=10.1177/0959353598084002 |s2cid=145618813 |access-date=2010-05-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110306002439/http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/fempsy3.html |archive-date=2011-03-06 }}</ref> Radical feminist [[Melissa Farley]] conducted a 2004 study of 854 people involved in prostitution internationally, finding that 89% of respondents stated they wanted to escape prostitution but could not, 72% were currently or formerly homeless, and 68% met criteria for [[post-traumatic stress disorder]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Farley |first1=Melissa |display-authors=etal |title=Prostitution and Trafficking in Nine Countries: An Update on Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder |journal=Journal of Trauma Practice |date=2004 |volume=2 |doi=10.1300/J189v02n03_03 |s2cid=153827303 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J189v02n03_03}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Farley |first1=Melissa |title=Prostitution: Factsheet on Human Rights Violations |url=http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/faq/000008.html |website=Prostitution Research & Education |date=April 2, 2000 |access-date=September 3, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051208052301/http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/faq/000008.html |archive-date=December 8, 2005 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

MacKinnon argues that "In prostitution, women have sex with men they would never otherwise have sex with. The money thus acts as a form of force, not as a measure of consent. It acts like physical force does in rape."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cpbn.org/program/intelligence-squared/episode/its-wrong-pay-sex |title=It's Wrong to Pay for Sex |date=5 August 2009 |publisher=Connecticut Public Radio |access-date=8 May 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100625230257/http://www.cpbn.org/program/intelligence-squared/episode/its-wrong-pay-sex |archive-date=25 June 2010 }}</ref> They believe that no person can be said to truly consent to their own oppression and no-one should have the right to consent to the oppression of others. [[Kathleen Barry]] argues that consent is not a "good divining rod as to the existence of oppression, and consent to violation is a fact of oppression".<ref name="Barry">Barry, Kathleen (1995). ''The Prostitution of Sexuality: The Global Exploitation of Women''. New York: New York University Press.</ref> [[Andrea Dworkin]] wrote in 1992:

{{blockquote|Prostitution in and of itself is an abuse of a woman's body. Those of us who say this are accused of being simple-minded. But prostitution is very simple.{{nbsp}}[...] In prostitution, no woman stays whole. It is impossible to use a human body in the way women's bodies are used in prostitution and to have a whole human being at the end of it, or in the middle of it, or close to the beginning of it. It's impossible. And no woman gets whole again later, after.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Dworkin|first1=Andrea|title=Prostitution and Male Supremacy|url=http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/MichLawJourI.html|website=Andrea Dworkin Online Library|publisher=No Status Quo|date=October 31, 1992|access-date=2010-05-09}}</ref>}}

Dworkin argued that "prostitution and equality for women cannot exist simultaneously" and to eradicate prostitution "we must seek ways to use words and law to end the abusive selling and buying of girls' and women's bodies for men's sexual pleasure".<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Hoffer, Kaethe Morris. "A Response to Sex Trafficking Chicago Style: Follow the Sisters, Speak Out"|journal=University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Academic Search Complete}}</ref>

Radical feminist thinking has analyzed prostitution as a cornerstone of [[patriarchal]] domination and sexual subjugation of women that impacts negatively not only on the women and girls in prostitution but on all women as a group, because prostitution continually affirms and reinforces patriarchal definitions of women as having a primary function to serve men sexually. They say it is crucial that society does not replace one patriarchal view on female sexuality—that women should not have sex/a relationship outside marriage and that casual sex is shameful for a woman—with another similarly oppressive and patriarchal view—acceptance of prostitution, a sexual practice based on a highly patriarchal construct of sexuality: that the sexual pleasure of a woman is irrelevant, that her only role during sex is to submit to the man's sexual demands and to do what he tells her, that sex should be controlled by the man, and that the woman's response and satisfaction are irrelevant. Radical feminists argue that sexual liberation for women cannot be achieved so long as we normalize unequal sexual practices where a man dominates a woman.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.catw-ap.org/resources/speeches-papers/sex-from-human-intimacy-to-sexual-labor-or-is-prostitution-a-human-right/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090201023435/http://www.catw-ap.org/resources/speeches-papers/sex-from-human-intimacy-to-sexual-labor-or-is-prostitution-a-human-right/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=2009-02-01 |title=SEX: From human intimacy to "sexual labor" or Is prostitution a human right? |author=Cecilia Hofmann |publisher=CATW-Asia Pacific |date=August 1997 |access-date=2010-05-09 }}</ref> "Feminist consciousness raising remains the foundation for collective struggle and the eventual liberation of women".<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal|title=Polis, Carol A. "A Radical Feminist Approach to Confronting Global Sexual Exploitation of Woman"|journal=Journal of Sex Research, Academic Search Complete}}</ref>

Radical feminists strongly object to the patriarchal ideology that has been one of the justifications for the existence of prostitution, namely that prostitution is a "necessary evil", because men cannot control themselves, and that it is therefore "necessary" that a small number of women be "sacrificed" to be abused by men, to protect "chaste" women from rape and harassment. These feminists argue that far from decreasing rape rates, prostitution actually leads to an increase in sexual violence against women, by sending the message that it is acceptable for a man to treat a woman as a sexual instrument over which he has total control. For instance, [[Melissa Farley]] argues that [[Nevada]]'s high rate of rapes is exacerbated by the patriarchal atmosphere encouraged by legal prostitution.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2007/Sep-07-Fri-2007/news/16519321.html |title=Panel: Brothels aid sex trafficking |author=MARK WAITE |publisher=Pahrump Valley Times |date=2007-09-07 |access-date=2010-05-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071217174035/http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2007/Sep-07-Fri-2007/news/16519321.html |archive-date=December 17, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Indigenous women are particularly targeted for prostitution. In Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, and Taiwan, studies have shown that indigenous women are at the bottom of the race and class hierarchy of prostitution, often subjected to the worst conditions, most violent demands and sold at the lowest price. It is common for indigenous women to be over-represented in prostitution when compared with their total population. This is as a result of the combined forces of colonialism, physical displacement from ancestral lands, destruction of indigenous social and cultural order, misogyny, globalization/neoliberalism, race discrimination and extremely high levels of violence perpetrated against them.<ref name="Lynne">{{cite journal |last1=Farley |first1=M. |last2=Lynne |first2=J. |last3=Cotton |first3=A. |title=Prostitution in Vancouver: Violence and the Colonization of First Nations Women |journal=Transcultural Psychiatry |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=242–271 |year=2005 |doi=10.1177/1363461505052667 |pmid=16114585 |s2cid=31035931}}</ref>

===Pornography===
{{main|Feminist views of pornography}}
[[File:MacKinnon.8May.CambridgeMA.png|thumb|[[Catharine MacKinnon]]]]

Radical feminists, notably [[Catharine MacKinnon]], charge that the production of pornography entails physical, psychological, and/or economic [[coercion]] of the women who perform and model in it. This is said to be true even when the women are presented as enjoying themselves.{{efn|MacKinnon (1989): "Sex forced on real women so that it can be sold at a profit to be forced on other real women; women's bodies trussed and maimed and raped and made into things to be hurt and obtained and accessed, and this presented as the nature of women; the coercion that is visible and the coercion that has become invisible—this and more grounds the feminist concern with pornography."{{sfn|MacKinnon|1989|p=196}}}}<ref>MacKinnon, Catherine A. (1984). "Not a moral issue". ''Yale Law and Policy Review'' 2:321-345.</ref><ref name="pbs.org">{{Cite episode| title = A Conversation With Catherine MacKinnon (transcript)| series = [[Think Tank]]|network= PBS| year = 1995| url = https://www.pbs.org/thinktank/transcript215.html}}</ref><ref name=stanford-shrage>Shrage, Laurie (13 July 2007). [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminist-sex-markets/#Por "Feminist Perspectives on Sex Markets: Pornography"]. In ''[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]''.</ref>

Radical feminists point to the testimony of well-known participants in pornography, such as [[Traci Lords]] and [[Linda Boreman]], and argue that most female performers are coerced into pornography, either by somebody else or by an unfortunate set of circumstances. The feminist anti-pornography movement was galvanized by the publication of ''Ordeal'', in which Linda Boreman (who under the name of "Linda Lovelace" had starred in ''[[Deep Throat (film)|Deep Throat]]'') stated that she had been beaten, raped, and [[pimp]]ed by her husband [[Chuck Traynor]], and that Traynor had forced her at gunpoint to make scenes in ''Deep Throat'', as well as forcing her, by use of both physical violence against Boreman as well as emotional abuse and outright threats of violence, to make other pornographic films. Dworkin, MacKinnon, and Women Against Pornography issued public statements of support for Boreman, and worked with her in public appearances and speeches.<ref>Brownmiller, ''In Our Time'', p. 337.</ref> She later became a [[Born again|born-again Christian]] and a spokeswoman for the [[Opposition to pornography|anti-pornography movement]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Briggs |first1=Joe Bob |title=Linda Lovelace dies in car crash |url=https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2002/04/23/Linda-Lovelace-dies-in-car-crash/54451019598347/ |work=[[United Press International]] |date=April 23, 2002 |access-date=27 April 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150423200636/http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2002/04/23/Linda-Lovelace-dies-in-car-crash/54451019598347 |archive-date=April 23, 2015 |quote=By 1980 she had become a mother of two, a born-again Christian, and a feminist -- and was living on welfare as her husband tried to make ends meet as a cable installer on Long Island. She had already become the feminist poster child for the demeaning effects of pornography, turning up in Andrea Dworkin's 1979 book ''Pornography: Men Possessing Women''.}}</ref>

Radical feminists hold the view that pornography contributes to sexism, arguing that in pornographic performances the actresses are reduced to mere receptacles—objects—for sexual use and abuse by men. They argue that the narrative is usually formed around men's pleasure as the only goal of sexual activity, and that the women are shown in a subordinate role. Some opponents believe pornographic films tend to show women as being extremely passive, or that the acts which are performed on the women are typically abusive and solely for the pleasure of their sex partner. On-face ejaculation and anal sex are increasingly popular among men, following trends in porn.<ref name="GailDines-JulieBindel-PornIndustry">Bindel, Julie (July 2, 2010). [https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/jul/02/gail-dines-pornography "The Truth About the Porn Industry"], ''The Guardian''.</ref> MacKinnon and Dworkin defined pornography as "the graphic sexually explicit subordination of women through pictures or words that also includes women dehumanized as sexual objects, things, or commodities...."<ref name=mackinnon-fu>{{cite book|last1=MacKinnon|first1=Catharine A.|title=Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law|date=1987|page=176|chapter=Francis Biddle's Sister: Pornography, Civil Rights, and Speech|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|isbn=0-674-29873-X|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/feminismunmodifi00mack/page/176}}</ref>

Radical feminists say that consumption of pornography is a cause of [[rape]] and other forms of [[violence against women]]. [[Robin Morgan]] summarizes this idea with her oft-quoted statement, "Pornography is the theory, and rape is the practice."<ref>Morgan, Robin. (1974). "Theory and Practice: Pornography and Rape". In: ''Going Too Far: The Personal Chronicle of a Feminist''. Random House. {{ISBN|0-394-48227-1}}</ref> They charge that pornography eroticizes the domination, humiliation, and coercion of women, and reinforces sexual and cultural attitudes that are complicit in rape and [[sexual harassment]]. In her book ''[[Only Words (book)|Only Words]]'' (1993), MacKinnon argues that pornography "deprives women of the right to express verbal refusal of an intercourse".<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal|title=Schussler, Aura. "The Relation Between Feminism And Pornography"|journal=Scientific Journal of Humanistic Studies, Academic Search Complete}}</ref>

MacKinnon argued that pornography leads to an increase in sexual violence against women through fostering [[rape myth]]s. Such rape myths include the belief that women really want to be raped and that they mean yes when they say no. She held that "rape myths perpetuate sexual violence indirectly by creating distorted beliefs and attitudes about sexual assault and shift elements of blame onto the victims".<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Maxwell, Louise, and Scott. "A Review Of The Role Of Radical Feminist Theories In The Understanding Of Rape Myth Acceptance."|journal=Journal of Sexual Aggression, Academic Search Complete}}</ref> Additionally, according to MacKinnon, pornography desensitizes viewers to violence against women, and this leads to a progressive need to see more violence in order to become sexually aroused, an effect she claims is well documented.<ref name="mackinnon-guardian">{{Cite news|last1=Jeffries |first1=Stuart |title=Are women human? (interview with Catharine MacKinnon) |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/apr/12/gender.politicsphilosophyandsociety |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=12 April 2006}}</ref>

German radical feminist [[Alice Schwarzer]] is one proponent of the view that pornography offers a distorted sense of men and women's bodies, as well as the actual sexual act, often showing performers with synthetic implants or exaggerated expressions of pleasure, engaging in fetishes that are presented as popular and normal.<ref>{{Cite web |last=redaktion |date=2014-11-10 |title=Feminismus und Pornografie: PorNo, PorYes oder PorLibre? - frauenseiten bremen frauenseiten.bremen |url=https://frauenseiten.bremen.de/blog/feminismus-und-pornografie-porno-poryes-oder-porlibre/ |access-date=2023-07-07 |website=frauenseiten bremen |language=de-DE}}</ref>