Wars sex

Newton and her students agreed to contribute an extended version of the site to OutHistory. During the s, much of the discourse in the feminist movement was dominated by discussions of lesbian feminism. Toward the end of the decade, however, the conversations within feminism began to focus on a new topic: sexuality. This included sexuality of all types, not just lesbian sexuality.

An early platform for lesbian photography, On Our Backs was instrumental in shaping a culture of desire. Antagonisms that characterized the movement in the s play out in an epistolary exchange, and through the rancor, a contrasting story emerges. A field of lesbian desire appears, one that was contested, shared, and shaped by contributors and readers alike. The two terms obscure the complexity of these debates yet gesture toward a stark ideological rift. To summarize, pro-sex feminists sought new languages for female desire.

By Emily Bazelon. L ast summer, the Harvard law professor Janet Halley sat down at her dining-room table to look through a set of policies that her university created for handling complaints of sexual assault and harassment. Halley had taught this area for years, and she was interested to see what the university came up with.

The feminist sex wars , also known as the lesbian sex wars , or simply the sex wars or porn wars , are terms used to refer to collective debates amongst feminists regarding a number of issues broadly relating to sexuality and sexual activity. Differences of opinion on matters of sexuality deeply polarized the feminist movement, particularly leading feminist thinkers, in the late s and early s and continue to influence debate amongst feminists to this day. The sides were characterized by anti-porn feminist and sex-positive feminist groups with disagreements regarding sexuality, including pornography , erotica , prostitution , lesbian sexual practices , the role of transgender women in the lesbian community, sadomasochism and other sexual issues.