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Porn as a Pathway to Empowerment? A Response to Peterson’s Commentary

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Abstract

In my article on the idealization of female adolescent sexuality, I raised questions for feminist theorists and researchers about our theorizing about “desire”, “pleasure”, and “subjectivity”. Zoe Peterson’s commentary on this article responds to one of 5 critical points I make, that the description of the ideal sexual adolescent who feels pleasure, desire, and subjectivity may be ironically similar to the commodified, sexualized, marketed teen girl. Here I correct some misrepresentations of my point of view in Peterson’s commentary and reply to first her warning that to interpret girls differently than they interpret themselves is akin to dismissing their voices and second to her idea that a porn-influenced expression of sexuality can be seen as a step in the direction of sexual empowerment.

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Lyn Mikel Brown and Gail Dines for their comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Counseling and School Psychology, Graduate College of Education, 100 Morrissey Blvd., UMass Boston, Boston, MA, 02130, USA

    Sharon Lamb

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  1. Sharon Lamb
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Correspondence to Sharon Lamb.

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Lamb, S. Porn as a Pathway to Empowerment? A Response to Peterson’s Commentary. Sex Roles 62, 314–317 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9756-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9756-8

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