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Getting Radical: Feminism, Patriarchy, and the Sexual-Exploitation Industries

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Robert Jensen
Robert Jensen
Robert Jensen
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Abstract

The sexual-exploitation industries, including prostitution and pornography, are patriarchal institutions that are inconsistent with dignity, solidarity, and equality. Radical feminism offers a compelling analysis not only for women but also for men striving to be fully human.
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GETTING RADICAL: FEMINISM, PATRIARCHY,
AND THE SEXUAL-EXPLOITATION INDUSTRIES
Robert Jensen
University of Texas at Austin
ABSTRACT
        


KEYWORDS
       
       
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


 







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Jensen: Getting Radical
Published by DigitalCommons@URI, 2021


Homo sapiens





 



Patriarchy


  



 

      

    




  



 

the same
social circumstances as that girl









   

2
Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence, Vol. 6, Iss. 2 [2021], Art. 6
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/dignity/vol6/iss2/6
DOI: 10.23860/dignity.2021.06.02.06



            


 



Radical Feminism
 


  

   






   
   

     

            











  
   
          






3
Jensen: Getting Radical
Published by DigitalCommons@URI, 2021
           




   
 







    


 


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          
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          
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Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence, Vol. 6, Iss. 2 [2021], Art. 6
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/dignity/vol6/iss2/6
DOI: 10.23860/dignity.2021.06.02.06
The Radical Feminist Critique of the Sexual-Exploitation Industries

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






5
Jensen: Getting Radical
Published by DigitalCommons@URI, 2021
 

        


Why Should Men Care?









        





 




  


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

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Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence, Vol. 6, Iss. 2 [2021], Art. 6
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/dignity/vol6/iss2/6
DOI: 10.23860/dignity.2021.06.02.06

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      
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           
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


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The End of Patriarchy: Radical Feminism for Men


Dignity
            

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Robert Jensen             
             

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REFERENCES
The prostitution of sexuality
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

History matters: Patriarchy and the challenge of feminism


Home girls: A black feminist anthology



University of Chicago Legal Forum1


Pornography: Men possessing women
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Jensen: Getting Radical
Published by DigitalCommons@URI, 2021
Willful virgin: Essays in feminism 1976-1992
Voice Male

The end of patriarchy: Radical feminism for men
Why history matters: Life and thought.
The creation of patriarchy.
8
Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence, Vol. 6, Iss. 2 [2021], Art. 6
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/dignity/vol6/iss2/6
DOI: 10.23860/dignity.2021.06.02.06
... Radical feminism also highlights violence and coercion made by men through rape, sexual harassment, child sexual assault, domestic violence; abuse for women, children, and vulnerable men in patriarchy (Jensen, 2021). It blames the exploitation of women on men, who have benefited from the subordination of women. ...
... Radical feminists believe that prostitution, pornography, stripping, massage parlors, escort services are sexual exploitation industries, and men routinely buy and sell objectified female bodies for their sexual pleasure. Feminists like Andrea Dworkin and Catherine Mackinnon are very strongly against pornography, because it is dehumanizing and degrading for women (Jensen, 2021). In the 1980s, some radical feminists argued that participation of women in the manufacture of pornography and in prostitution were not link to patriarchy (Shrage, 1994). ...
... Neither any one of these factors is solely responsible for women oppression, nor would handling any one of these could provide a solution to the problem of suppression of women (Butler, 1999). In the 21 st century we are living in the postmodern world, but prejudice and discriminatory attitudes about women have not changed much over a period of time (Jensen, 2021). ...
An Overview on the Feminism and Its Categories
Article
Full-text available
  • Sep 2022
This paper tries to analyze the origin and progress of global feminism. Feminism is a mass movement commenced by women of all groups to eradicate all forms of feminist oppressions by men that are prevailing in a patriarchal society. It always fights against all types of oppressions on women. It is a procedure that takes attempts to understand and conceptualize gender roles and advocates for the annexation of women's interests in social organization. It tries to explain the phenomenon of gender inequality. It is considered as a politics to achieve gender equality in all spheres of the society. Feminists support of ensuring equal individual rights and liberties for women and men. This study takes attempts to discuss a comprehensive understanding of feminism, and the different variants of feminism. This paper also tries to highlight the major challenges that the feminists are facing and the future goals of the feminist movement should be.
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... Seen from the spectacle of radical feminists, patriarchal culture is the main limiting factor which constrains women's selfactualization and personal development. Ironically, women's scope of work and involvement in the economy reveal grim facts about the patriarchal culture (Jensen, 2021;Pandey, 2022;Bastian et al., 2019). When viewed from a national perspective, gender inequality in public sphere has created retardation in the development of a country (Altuzarra, 2021) where the status of working men is always higher than women in terms of position and income (Klemparskyi et al., 2022). ...
Women’s tendency in work involvement: A study of female labour force in Indonesia
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2024
Culture is perceived as the most prominent factor which causes inequality in work involvement, especially in the context of gender. In many cultures, “glass ceiling” of gender bias often makes women less productive than their male counterparts because of their domestic duties. As a matter of fact, Indonesian women have proven their potentials and abilities in boosting the national economy. This study focuses on the effect of domestic duties, wages, and education on women’s participation in the workforce. Using logistic regression and SUSENAS 2018 dataset, this research finds that women with higher education and greater number of children do not get involved in the workforce. This situation is inextricably associated with the predominant patriarchal culture in their domestic lives, in which the husbands assume absolute control, and women’s roles are usually limited to domestic sphere. As is the case of the other workers, women are more engaged in their work when they get higher wages. Women who live in urban areas tend to have opportunities to be economically productive.
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... Yet, it blocks women from their rights and makes them dependent on men. Furthermore, a male-dominant society works within a circle of patriarchal stability where men claim to be human and superior (Benett, 2009;Jensen, 2021). As a whole, feminist applies the word patriarchy to explain the power relationship between women and men, issuing a prime concern of seeking the root cause of their subordination and deprivation of their rights. ...
Feminist Narrativization of Patriarchy in Swosthani Vrata Katha
Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2022
The paper explores Thulo Shree Swosthani Vrata Katha profoundly examining its fasting process and the stories of the protagonists through feminist perception on patriarchy. Goddess Parvati, Shiva, Goma Brahmini, Vrinda and Chandrawati in the book represent all married and unmarried Hindu women living with a rooted brainwashed psychology of patriarchy. The women taking vrata envision the same ancient mindset of getting a husband and fortune. The old patriarchal ideology of not allowing daughter(s) get prasad of Swosthani has not completely changed yet. Patriarchy refers to the institutionalized system of a society wherein the father rules and controls the mother and other female family members. Moreover, it confines women within the routinized law and order of men. Thus, the paper aims to explore the status of patriarchy in Swasthani Vrata Katha from a feminist perspective. The theoretical modality for the study is a descriptive-based qualitative research design primarily applying Sylvia Walby’s notion of Theorizing Patriarchy (2016). The paper collects data from secondary sources though few are collected via personal communications with Swami Ishwor Chaitanya Ji Maharaj and a social worker Madhuri Joshi. The significance of the study lies in the investigation of the patriarchal instinct of Swosthani vrata. Thus, the finding of the study affirms that the radical feminists critique Varta Katha as being full of personal and patriarchal.
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... Di mana, patriarki menjunjung tinggi pandangan bahwa laki-laki memiliki kontrol superior yang dilambangkan dengan 'kekuasaan laki-laki atas perempuan' (Wood, 2019). Masyarakat dengan sistem patriarki pun mengembangkan sebuah pembenaran untuk melanggengkan ketidaksetaraan tersebut dengan ungkapan "menang dunia seperti ini adanya" (Jensen, 2021). ...
KETIDAKADILAN GENDER AKIBAT STEREOTIP PADA SISTEM PATRIARKI
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2022
Dewasa ini kita sering menemukan berbagai ketidakadilan gender dalam sebuah masyarakat dengan sistem penindasan yang mengakar dan membudaya. Ketidakadilan gender ini dapat termanifestasi dalam berbagai bentuk seperti marginalisasi, subordinasi, stereotip, kekerasan, dan beban ganda. Sistem sosial pada masyarakat yang menganut sistem patriarki ini, telah membentuk sebuah konsepsi atas stereotip gender baik itu pada laki-laki maupun perempuan yang terkonstruksi sejak sosialisasi gender ketika anak-anak. Budaya patriarki yang menempatkan laki-laki pada hierarki teratas sedangkan perempuan sebagai warga kelas dua, memunculkan sebuah pransangka seksis yang berangkat dari stereotip maskulinitas dan feminitas yang mengarah pada ketidakadilan gender. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan menggunakan metode sintesis penelitian kualitatif milik Barnett-Page & Thomas dengan meta-study miliki Zhao yang berfokus pada komponen meta-teori, yakni dengan mengkaji Kembali fenomena yang sama yang telah dipelajari sebelumnya dan mempelajari hasil serta proses dari penelitian terdahulu. Hasil temuan dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa seksisme yang meyakini bahwa salah satu jenis kelamin lebih unggul daripada yang lainnya, dalam konteks patriarki maka laki-laki yang lebih unggul, hadir sebagai salah satu bentuk yang berusaha untuk melanggengkan dan menormalisasikan sistem patriarki dalam suatu masyarakat.
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Sexual Violence in Indonesian Law Number 12 Of 2022: Viewed from the Concept of Radical Feminism
Article
Full-text available
  • Feb 2023
Violence against women is a widespread phenomenon in Indonesia. It is a crime that disturbs many parties, especially women. Many parties fight for justice for women, especially victims, to get legal protection. Law Number 12 of 2022 gives legal protection concerning Criminal Acts of Sexual Violence. Apart from the regulation on criminal acts of sexual violence, there is also legislation Number 13 of 2006, amended into law number 31 of 2014, concerning the rights of victims and witnesses. Legal protection is held as an instrument to minimize the crime of violence against women. The writing of this research aims to analyze legal protection regulations for women who are victims of sexual violence using the concept of radical feminism. This theory considers that the rule of Law is formed based on the views of men, so the current rule of Law is considered a product of patriarchy. This research uses normative legal research with library materials in its research. The results of this study reveal that preventive legal protection regulations are still limited in scope. Although the Indonesian state has established a law to protect women from sexual crimes and violence where the perspective comes from the victim, the Law is still limited in its application. There is still a great need for legislation products that prioritize the principles of radical feminist legal theory.
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Why History Matters: Life and Thought
Book
  • Oct 2023
All human beings are practicing historians,’ writes Gerda Lerner. ‘ We live our lives; we tell our stories. It is as natural as breathing.’ And it is as important as breathing too. It is how we define ourselves and our community, how we understand our time and place and the context of our lives. History can be the vital thread that holds a nation together, as demonstrated most strikingly with the Jewish people. Conversely, for women, who have lived in a world in which they apparently had no history, its absence can be devastating. In Why History Matters, Lerner brings together her thinking and research of the last sixteen years, combining personal reminiscences with innovative theory that illuminate the importance of history and the vital role women have played in it. Why History Matters contains some of the most significant thinking and writing on history that Lerner has done in her entire career - a summation of her life and work. The chapters are divided into three sections, each widely different from the others, each revelatory of Lerner as a woman and a feminist. We read first of Lerner’s coming to consciousness as a Jewish woman. There are moving accounts of her early life as a refugee in America, her return to Austria fifty years after fleeing the Nazis (to discover a nation remarkable both for the absence of Jews and for the anti-Semitism just below the surface), her slow assimilation into American life, and her decision to be a historian. If the first section is personal, the second focuses on more professional concerns. Included here is a fascinating essay on nonviolent resistance, tracing the idea from the Quakers (such as Mary Dyer), to abolitionists such as Theodore Dwight Weld (the ‘ most mobbed man’ in America), to Thoreau’s essay Civil Disobedience, then across the sea to Tolstoy and Gandhi, before finally returning to America during the civil rights movement of the 1950s. There are insightful essays on ‘ American Values’ and on the tremendous advances women have made in the twentieth century, as well as Lerner’s presidential address to the Organization of American Historians, which outlines the contributions of women to the field of history and the growing importance of women as a subject of history. The highlight of the final section of the book is Lerner’s bold and innovative look at the issues of class and race as they relate to women, an essay that distills her thinking on these difficult subjects and offers a coherent conceptual framework that will prove of lasting interest to historians and intellectuals. A major figure in women’s studies and long-term activist for women’s issues, a founding member of NOW and a past president of the Organization of American Historians, Gerda Lerner is a pioneer in the field of Women’s History and one of its leading practitioners. Why History Matters is the summation of the work and thinking of this distinguished historian.
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History matters: Patriarchy and the challenge of feminism
Article
  • Jan 2007
Written for everyone interested in women's and gender history, History Matters reaffirms the importance to feminist theory and activism of long-term historical perspectives. Judith M. Bennett, who has been commenting on developments in women's and gender history since the 1980s, argues that the achievement of a more feminist future relies on a rich, plausible, and well-informed knowledge of the past, and she asks her readers to consider what sorts of feminist history can best advance the struggles of the twenty-first century. Bennett takes as her central problem the growing chasm between feminism and history. Closely allied in the 1970s, each has now moved away from the other. Seeking to narrow this gap, Bennett proposes that feminist historians turn their attention to the intellectual challenges posed by the persistence of patriarchy. She posits a "patriarchal equilibrium" whereby, despite many changes in women's experiences over past centuries, women's status vis-à-vis that of men has remained remarkably unchanged. Although, for example, women today find employment in occupations unimaginable to medieval women, medieval and modern women have both encountered the same wage gap, earning on average only three-fourths of the wages earned by men. Bennett argues that the theoretical challenge posed by this patriarchal equilibrium will be best met by long-term historical perspectives that reach back well before the modern era. In chapters focused on women's work and lesbian sexuality, Bennett demonstrates the contemporary relevance of the distant past to feminist theory and politics. She concludes with a chapter that adds a new twist the challenges of textbooks and classrooms to viewing women's history from a distance and with feminist intent. A new manifesto, History Matters engages forthrightly with the challenges faced by feminist historians today. It argues for the radical potential of a history that is focused on feminist issues, aware of the distant past, attentive to continuities over time, and alert to the workings of patriarchal power.
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The prostitution of sexuality
  • Jan 1995
  • Kathleen Barry
Barry, Kathleen. (1995). The prostitution of sexuality. New York University Press.
History matters: The grand finale
  • Mar 2009
  • Judith M Bennett
Bennett, Judith M. (2009, March 29). "History matters: The grand finale." The Adventures of Notorious Ph.D., Girl Scholar. http://girlscholar.blogspot.com/2009/03/historymatters-grand-finale-guest-post.html
Heartbreak: The political memoir of a feminist militant
  • Jan 2002
  • Andrea Dworkin
Dworkin, Andrea. (2002). Heartbreak: The political memoir of a feminist militant. Basic Books.
Getting Radical Published by DigitalCommons@URI
  • 2021
  • Jensen
Jensen: Getting Radical Published by DigitalCommons@URI, 2021