Chapter 32 Chapter Summary

Feinberg considers a number of arguments for the legal control of pornography and finds each lacking. The claim that pornography defames women and thus harms them is not well supported because pornography makes no explicit assertions. Whatever inferences consumers of pornography draw will be significantly influenced by their preexisting attitudes. If pornography were to meet the threshold for defamation, then so too would many other representations of women in popular culture. The claim that pornography incites violence against women and thus harms them faces its own problems. Principally, the empirical evidence necessary to link the existence of pornography causally with increased violence is lacking. Rather, Feinberg argues, rape is a complex social phenomenon significantly explained by cultural ideals of manhood. A ban on pornography would leave intact the social constructions, such as machismo, that make it appealing in the first place. What is required, Feinberg suggests, is an emphasis on moral education. Individuals should be taught about the cult of machismo and how damaging it can be to important values. This instruction, Feinberg stresses, should send a straightforward message but also be sensitive to facts about the nature of adolescence.