Cultural Feminism: Feminist Capitalism and the Anti-Pornography Movement

Abstract

This article offers a critique of the dominant strain in current radical feminism, cultural feminism, whose ideology, I argue, mirrors dominant cultural assumptions about gender and sexuality. This is a critique which has developed from within the women's movement and it reflects the author's involvement in the lesbian-feminist community over the past eight years. Within this movement in general there has been a stifling of debate over the last decade. For instance, anti-pornography feminists try to discredit their feminist critics by labeling them non-feminist or by suggesting that they represent but a tiny offshoot of the movement. Cultural feminism's selective reevaluation of femininity has contributed to this prohibition against dissent. Cultural feminists have not only characterized criticism as unsisterly or a carryover from the trashing style of the male left, but as maleidentified. It is hoped that this paper will contribute to the re-opening of debate around the crucial areas of gender and sexuality.