SelectedWorks - Rebecca Whisnant

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Selected Works of Rebecca Whisnant

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Rebecca Whisnant is chair and professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Dayton. Her research and teaching combines her interests in philosophical thinking and social justice, introducing perspectives and ways of thinking that bear directly on students' lives and choices.

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About Rebecca Whisnant

Rebecca Whisnant is chair and professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Dayton. Her research and teaching combines her interests in philosophical thinking and social justice, introducing perspectives and ways of thinking that bear directly on students' lives and choices.

Articles (5)

[Not] Buying It: Prostitution as Unwanted Sex (Rebecca Whisnant) Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence (2017)

Noting the relative invisibility of prostitution buyers, or Johns, in discussions of the morality of prostitution, this article criticizes Johns’ behavior on the grounds that they are culpably involved in causing the typical harms of ...

Our Blood: Andrea Dworkin on Race, Privilege, and Women’s Common Condition (Rebecca Whisnant) Women's Studies International Forum (2016)

In this article, I make some initial moves toward addressing questions such as: In what specific or distinctive ways do radical feminists talk about race and racism? What are the strengths, as well as any ...

Pornography, Humiliation, and Consent (Rebecca Whisnant) Sexualization, Media, and Society (2016)

This article considers the role of humiliation in contemporary pornography, arguing that it constitutes a severe form of harm to many female pornography performers. It further contends that the apparently consensual nature of much humiliating ...

'But What About Feminist Porn?' Examining the Work of Tristan Taormino (Rebecca Whisnant) Sexualization, Media, and Society (2016)

This article examines the work of Tristan Taormino, a prominent self-described feminist pornographer, in order to illustrate themes and commitments common among those who produce, perform in, and/or support feminist pornography. I argue that her ...

Rethinking Nonviolence: Intimate Abuse and the Needs of Survivors (Rebecca Whisnant) Social Philosophy Today (2005)

The paper considers nonviolence, not merely as a set of tactics for demonstrations and protests, but as a broad ethical ideal governing attitudes as well as conduct. I argue that the meanings of nonviolence—its relationship ...

Afterword: On Fear and Resistance (Rebecca Whisnant) The End of Patriarchy: Radical Feminism for Men (2017)

Building Feminism, Resisting Porn Culture: Where To from Here (Rebecca Whisnant) Freedom Fallacy: The Limits of Liberal Feminism (2015)

In this chapter, I discuss the key elements that radical feminism can contribute to the rebuilding of a powerful movement for women's liberation in the era of porn culture. First things first, we need more ...

Not Your Father’s Playboy, Not Your Mother’s Feminist Movement: Feminism in a Porn Culture (Rebecca Whisnant) Freedom Fallacy: The Limits of Liberal Feminism (2015)

This chapter is about the state of contemporary feminism and how it relates to the porn culture that surrounds us. This is important because whatever porn culture is, and there are a variety of definitions, ...

Arresting Images: Anti-Pornography Slideshows, Activism, and the Academy (Gail Dines, Karen Boyle, Rebecca Whisnant, et al.) Everyday Pornography (2010)

Chapter 1 is a transcript of a roundtable on the anti-pornography efforts of the group Stop Porn Culture. The discussion took place at a two-day anti-pornography conference at Wheelock College in Boston in 2007.

From Jekyll to Hyde: The Grooming of Male Pornography Consumers (Rebecca Whisnant) Everyday Pornography (2010)

Robert Jensen has observed that "the danger of pornography is heightened exactly because it is only one part of a sexist system and because the message it carries about sexuality is reinforced elsewhere" (2007a: 103). ...

'A Woman’s Body is Like a Foreign Country': Thinking about National and Bodily Sovereignty (Rebecca Whisnant) Global Feminist Ethics: Feminist Ethics and Social Theory (2008)

Violations of national sovereignty and of bodily (especially sexual) sovereignty are routinely merged in rhetoric and metaphor: we speak of virgin territory, of Israeli troops penetrating deeper into Lebanon, of the rape of Iraq. Such ...

Global Feminist Ethics: Feminist Ethics and Social Theory (Rebecca Whisnant and Peggy DesAutels) Philosophy Faculty Publications (2007)

This volume contains four sections, the first of which examines some of the special moral concerns that arise from assigning distinct activities and responsibilities to women and men respectively. It is difficult to argue against ...

Letter from a War Zone: Some Thoughts on Setting an Activist Agenda (Rebecca Whisnant) Pornography: Driving the Demand for International Sex Trafficking (2007)

Essay is from a conference sponsored by Captive Daughters and DePaul University in Chicago.

Confronting Pornography: Some Conceptual Basics (Rebecca Whisnant) Not For Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography (2004)

There can be no doubt, at this moment in history, that pornography is a truly massive industry saturating the human community. According to one set of numbers, the US porn industry's revenue went from $7 ...

Woman Centered: A Feminist Ethic of Responsibility (Rebecca Whisnant) Moral Psychology: Feminist Ethics and Social Theory (2004)

Feminists have been especially concerned, of course, with the particular personal and moral perils that may be associated with the sociopolitical situation( s) of women. In particular, as many have observed, the cultural assignment of ...

Feminist Ethics (Rebecca Whisnant) Reflections on Philosophy: Introductory Essays (2002)

Review: 'Trafficking and Prostitution Reconsidered: New Perspectives on Migration, Sex Work, and Human Rights' (Rebecca Whisnant) Hypatia (2007)

Contributors to the volume more often presume or assert these central contentions than they provide evidence or arguments in their defense. Although most of the authors clearly share the editor’s view that prostitution per se ...

Review: 'Challenging Liberalism: Feminism as Political Critique' (Rebecca Whisnant) Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (2007)

In Challenging Liberalism: Feminism as Political Critique, Lisa Schwartzman brings her sharp interpretive and critical perspective to bear on the vexed relationship between feminism and liberal political philosophy. Noting (as have others before her) that ...

Review: 'Immovable Laws, Irresistible Rights: Natural Law, Moral Rights, and Feminist Ethics' (Rebecca Whisnant) Vera Lex (2002)

This collection of Pierce's essays traces the evolution of her thinking about natural law theory--and, more broadly, about talk of "natures" as normatively significant--over a period of 30 years. We see her move from a ...

Global Feminist Ethics: Feminist Ethics and Social Theory (Rebecca Whisnant and Peggy DesAutels) Philosophy Faculty Publications (2007)

This volume contains four sections, the first of which examines some of the special moral concerns that arise from assigning distinct activities and responsibilities to women and men respectively. It is difficult to argue against ...

Not For Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography (Christine Stark and Rebecca Whisnant) Philosophy Faculty Publications (2004)

Including the latest research on prostitution and pornography, this essay anthology shows how the sex industries harm those within them while undermining the possibilities for gender justice, human equality, and stable sexual relationships. From sex ...

Feminist Ethics (Rebecca Whisnant) Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2005)

Encyclopedia entry (2)

Feminist Perspectives on Rape (Rebecca Whisnant) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2009)

Although the proper definition of rape is itself a matter of some dispute, rape is generally understood to involve sexual penetration of a person by force and/or without that person's consent. Rape is committed overwhelmingly ...

Pornography, Contemporary-Mainstream (Rebecca Whisnant) Encyclopedia of Gender and Society (2008)

Once a relatively small‐niche market, pornography in recent years has become a mainstream, technologically sophisticated multi‐billion‐dollar industry, one that plays a significant role in shaping our ideas about gender and sexuality. Like many complex and ...

News article (1)

Pornography and Humiliation (Rebecca Whisnant) Kvinnofronten (the Swedish Women’s Front) (2015)

In discussions about pornography, the boundary of the harmful and unacceptable is, for many, the lack of consent. But my brief analysis here shows that this is a dangerous simplification. Images of women who accept ...