Pornography as a Representation of Sexual Objectification: The Analysis from Radical Feminist Perspective

Abstract

This article had the primary purpose of analyzing a problem of pornography and women sexual objectification through radical feminist perspective.

According to radical feminists, such as Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon, pornography was a main interest of feminists. This was related to concept of treating women as sexual objectification in three aspects: 1) pornography caused women sexual instruments; 2) pornography devalued women; 3) pornography degraded women. However,
I realized that there were two other interesting causes that can best describe this problem. The first cause of treating women a sexual object was male gaze under patriarchal society. Another cause was women’s narcissism. In addition, it was found that pornography was, as seen by radical feminist, merely a medium used to transmit the presentation of human sexual expression. Or it can be interpreted and defended differently by other feminists.

Keywords: feminist, instrumentality, narcissism, representative, objectification, patriarchy, pornography