Hey everyone! I just wanted to alert ya’ll to an upcoming feminist event at JMU. Feminist anti-porn activist Dr. Robert Jensen is going to be giving a lecture titled “Pornography’s Perfect Storm of Inequality: Patriarchy, White Supremacy, and Capitalism.” Whether you’re pro-porn or anti-porn or confused about porn (I know I have an internal debate that goes something like: “it’s degrading, but what about sexual agency, ugh this is too confusing I’ll just deal with this tomorrow.” Pretty much every day.) this event will be incredibly interesting with a very knowledgeable and compelling speaker.
He’ll be at JMU on Monday, September 19 at 7 p.m. in Harrison 2105. Here’s a link to the facebook event page! A description of the talk and a bio of Dr. Jensen are under the cut:
Dr. Robert Jensen is a Professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. His work “draws on a variety of critical approaches to media and power. Much of his work has focused on pornography and the radical feminist critique of sexuality and men’s violence, and he also has addressed questions of race through a critique of white privilege and institutionalized racism. ” He is the author numerous articles and many books, including Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity, The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism, and White Privilege, Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity, and All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice.
Although there has been considerable criticism of pornography on the basis of judgments of the type of sexual behavior depicted, there is less systematic critique of pornography as a manifestation of hierarchical systems of power. The feminist critique has offered this analysis, looking at the issue with a focus on sexism, racism, and hyper-commercialized mass media. As pornography has become increasingly normalized and pop culture becomes increasingly pornographic, it’s more necessary than ever to highlight this analysis. Pornography is a genre in which we can see the worst aspects of patriarchy (relentless misogyny), white supremacy (overtly racist depictions), and corporate capitalism (the commodification of all aspects of our lives). In this lecture, Robert Jensen will offer an analysis based on two decades of research on the industry, the images it produces, and men’s use of pornography that highlights how these forces come together to form a “perfect storm of inequality.”
ShoutOut! James Madison University 