Sexual objectification

1
Sexual objectification exploitation

• Scott Stewart
• PHILOSOPHY 2103

2
Is it wrong to sexually objectify someone?

• Kant sexual desire overpowering
• treating someone solely as a means to an end
• Instrumental vs. intrinsic value
• Treating people as things (Nussbaum) (1) a tool
  (2) deny self-determination, (3) deny agency, (4)
  interchangeable with other objects, (5) lacking
  boundaries, (6) something that can be owed or
  sold, (7) something that lacks feelings or inner
  states.
• Marriage
• Other ways to avoid objectification?
• Recognize partners as unique indivisuals with
  their own ends, values, goals, feelings,
  boundaries, intrinsic vale, etc.

3
Is consent a sufficient condition for moral sex?

• Consent requires a mentally competent adult who
  has adequate information and is not coerced.
• What constitutes adequate information? (STD
  status? Long term goals? Relationship history?)
• What constitutes coercion? Obvious cases
  physical force or threat of it. Less obvious
  cases psychological pressure, patriarchy,
  socio-economic disparity, etc? (Catherine
  MacKinnon)

4
Commercial sex

• Is it truly consensual?
• Does it avoid Nussbaums seven points regarding
  treating people as things?
• Is sex itself the problem or is it something
  else? Nussbaum claims we need to abandon our
  irrational stigmas regarding sex.
• Debra Satz female prostitution perpetuates
  pernicious stereotypes regarding women and
  exacerbates existing gender inequalities.
• Sex workers not really free
• Seiriol Morgan consent not enough e.g., Cruel
  Intentions/Dangerous Liaisons, Casanova. The
  complete cad.

5
BDSM and consent

• Women as submissives
• Mental health

6
Setting the consent bar too high?

• Sexual contracts?
• Government interest in public health and
  protection of its citizens?

7
Commercial Sex Again

• Can we distinguish b/w voluntary adult sex work
  and trafficking in persons?
• Recent Ontario court case regarding prostitution
  laws (specifically ones prohibiting sex-trade
  workers from operating a common bawdy house,
  living off the avails of prostitution and
  communicating for the purposes of prostitution)
  as violating Charter of Rights and Freedoms by
  violating the security rights of prostitutes.
• Does decriminalization/legalization of (certain
  types of) prostitution) lead to greater
  trafficking? Greater safety?

8
What does it mean to have sexual autonomy?

• Up in the Air
• Ryan Bingham, (his girlfriend) Alex, and (his
  young co-worker) Natalie
• Freedom from and connection to liberalism vs.
  communitarianism
• Do our relationships constrain us help to give
  our life meaning?

9
What is the connection between exoticizing and
eroticizing someone?

• The Exotic Other foreign, mysterious, strange
• Sex tourism
• Interracial dating sites
• Sticking to our own?
• Personal taste vs. prejudices