John Stoltenberg
Books by John Stoltenberg
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What Makes Pornography "sexy"?
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Quotes by John Stoltenberg
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If you look at all the variables in nature that are saidto determine human —sex,— you can't possibly find one that will unequivocally split the species into two. Each of the so-called criteria of sexedness is itself a continuum— including chromosomal variables, genital and gonadal variations,reproductive capacities, endocrinological proportions, and any other criterion you could think of. Any or all of these different variables may line up in any number of ways, and all of the variables may vary independently of one another.
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They have sex. They do not have a sex. In their erotic lives, they are not required to act out their status in a category system— because there is no category system. There are no sexes to belong to, so sex between creatures is free to be between genuine individuals— not representatives of a category. They have sex. They do not have a sex.
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But the idea of an Aryan race could never become metaphysically true, despite all the violence unleashed to create it, because there simply is no Aryan race. There is only the idea of it— and the consequences of trying to make it seem real. The male sex is very like that.
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Finally, the dirty little secret about sexual objectification is that it is an act that cannot be performed with any attention to its ethical meaning. Experientially — from the point of view of a man who is sexually objectifying— sexual objectification and ethical self awareness are mutually exclusive. A man cannot reflect on what he is doing and its real consequences for real people and at the same time fully accomplish the act of sexual objectifying. There's no way it can be done, because hos own subjective reality is too contingent upon the unreality of someone else. All that can be left out there in his field of awareness is the other person's sexedness— an abstract representation of a gender— in comparison with which his own sexedness may flourish and engorge. So it is that a man shuts off his capacity for ethical empathy— whatever capacity he may ever had— in order to commit an act of despersonalization that is gratifying essentially because it functions to fulfill his sense of an identity that is authentically male.
Read quote -
They have sex. They do not have a sex. In their erotic lives, they are not required to act out their status in a category system— because there is no category system. There are no sexes to belong to, so sex between creatures is free to be between genuine individuals— not representatives of a category. They have sex. They do not have a sex.
Read quote -
If you look at all the variables in nature that are saidto determine human —sex,— you can't possibly find one that will unequivocally split the species into two. Each of the so-called criteria of sexedness is itself a continuum— including chromosomal variables, genital and gonadal variations,reproductive capacities, endocrinological proportions, and any other criterion you could think of. Any or all of these different variables may line up in any number of ways, and all of the variables may vary independently of one another.
Read quote -
Finally, the dirty little secret about sexual objectification is that it is an act that cannot be performed with any attention to its ethical meaning. Experientially — from the point of view of a man who is sexually objectifying— sexual objectification and ethical self awareness are mutually exclusive. A man cannot reflect on what he is doing and its real consequences for real people and at the same time fully accomplish the act of sexual objectifying. There's no way it can be done, because hos own subjective reality is too contingent upon the unreality of someone else. All that can be left out there in his field of awareness is the other person's sexedness— an abstract representation of a gender— in comparison with which his own sexedness may flourish and engorge. So it is that a man shuts off his capacity for ethical empathy— whatever capacity he may ever had— in order to commit an act of despersonalization that is gratifying essentially because it functions to fulfill his sense of an identity that is authentically male.
Read quote -
But the idea of an Aryan race could never become metaphysically true, despite all the violence unleashed to create it, because there simply is no Aryan race. There is only the idea of it— and the consequences of trying to make it seem real. The male sex is very like that.
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Pornography tells lies about women. But pornography tells the truth about men.
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