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Pornography's Many Meanings: A Reply to C.M. Concepcion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Alisa L. Carse
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Abstract

C.M. Concepcion's review of “Pornography: An Uncivil Liberty?” (Carse 1995) fundamentally misconstrues the position defended in that article. This paper examines possible sources of this misconstrual, focusing critical attention on the narrowly crafted, morally loaded notion of “pornography” that figures centrally in the original argument under review. Pornography is not a category of speech that can be characterized as having one crucial meaning or message, nor is the message of pornography easily identifiable in instances of pornographic speech. This raises the problem of interpretive privilege, which haunts many of the antipornography arguments being offered in the contemporary debate, including the author's own earlier argument.

Type
Comment/Reply
Information
Hypatia , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , Winter 1999 , pp. 101 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 by Hypatia, Inc.

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