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Sex Positive Feminism’s Values in Search of the Law of Pleasure

Document Type

Book Section

Publication Date

2021

Publication Title

The Oxford Handbook of Feminism and Law in the United States

Abstract

In challenging traditional stereotypes of female sexualities centered on passivity, subordination, harm, and repronormativity, proponents of sex-positive feminism criticize legal feminism generally for undervaluing women’s pleasure, which they celebrate. Yet these proponents often struggle with charting a supportive and affirmative course for law and legal institutions, which have long fostered sex negativity. Part I of this article identifies sex positivity as a thread that runs through multiple feminisms and that offers a potential answer to criticisms and problems. Along the way, this part demonstrates the importance of power and power disparities in sex-positive feminism and of the role of gender. Part II turns to the place of law and legal institutions in sex-positive feminism, juxtaposing prevailing critiques of law’s sex negativity with promising opportunities for change. Part III continues on this note of optimism, consulting popular culture for possibilities to support a more fully developed sex-positive and feminist legal regime.

Keywords

Sex, Pleasure, Feminisms, Power, Sex Education, BDSM, Popular Culture

Publication Citation

Susan Appleton, Sex Positive Feminism’s Values in Search of the Law of Pleasure, in The Oxford Handbook of Feminism and Law in the United States (Deborah L. Brake, Martha Chamallas, & Verna Williams, eds., Oxford University Press) (2022)

Comments

Preprint available full-text on SSRN at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3644689

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