A 'Postgender' Issue and Candidate?

Originally submitted by: jadelay

There are issues I would like to write about on the a2ethics.org forum, because the popular view on the issue either leaves me confused or it makes me uneasy about its ethical consequences. I also feel intimidated sometimes, for the reason that I don't know the facts, or that what I know about an issue is old and perhaps not relevant to today. There are also some ethical issues I feel are already sorted out in my mind, and which I am too lazy to revisit. Over the last month or so, however, I have had to revisit the issue of pornography. At a2ethics.org, we have been inundated with the ever inventive spammers, in this case, spammers of the pornographic kind. When I started an ethics course in the early 1980s, pornography was an important topic. Students were interested in talking about it. Most discussions were over questions about: whether pornography exploited women; whether the argument about"being offensive to others" was a good enough reason to censor it; whether pornography was a form of commercial or political speech; and finally whether the viewing of pornography that glorified violence toward women led to further violence. As I recall, the last issue was the most controversial. And based on the studies I looked at and the expert commentary I happened to read at the time, my view on pornography went negative and has stayed that way ever since. Then pornography seemed to retire itself as an ethical hot button, and I didn't give it much thought after retiring from teaching the class. It is only with the blanket spamming our our a2ethics.org website that has revived it again. It strikes me that I may be more angry about the violation of our website by pesky spammers than I am by their content. This makes me uneasy. Why? Is it because pornography has gone mainstream and that it is now just another economic and career opportunity that women consider? Is it that pornography is too minor an issue to talk about when we have so many other pressing ethical issues of exploitation and coercion to contend with, given the pervasive commodotization and trading in people today--from the international smuggling of child prostitutes and sex slavery, to global markets in baby selling to those who are desperate to have children? Or finally, is it that pornography has become a "postgender" issue, which is a variation on what some have suggested that Barack Obama has done for race, that is he has established himself as the "postracial" candidate? And what does "postgender,"and for that matter "postracial," really mean? Does it mean that if Hillary Clinton had been a "postgender" candidate she would have won the nomination? And where is pornography in a "postgender" world?