Feminism

== Sexuality ==
{{Main|Feminist views on sexuality}}
[[Feminist views on sexuality]] vary, and have differed by historical period and by cultural context. Feminist attitudes to female sexuality have taken a few different directions. Matters such as the [[sex industry]], sexual representation in the media, and issues regarding consent to sex under conditions of male dominance have been particularly controversial among feminists. This debate has culminated in the late 1970s and the 1980s, in what came to be known as the [[feminist sex wars]], which pitted [[Anti-pornography movement|anti-pornography feminism]] against [[sex-positive feminism]], and parts of the feminist movement were deeply divided by these debates.<ref name=Duggan /><ref name=Hansen>{{cite book |last1=Hansen |first1=Karen Tranberg |last2=Philipson |first2=Ilene J. |title=Women, Class, and the Feminist Imagination: A Socialist-Feminist Reader |year=1990 |publisher=Temple University Press |location=Philadelphia |isbn=978-0-87722-630-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/womenclassfemini0000unse }}</ref><ref name=Gerhard>{{cite book |author=Gerhard, Jane F. |title=Desiring Revolution: Second-Wave Feminism and the Rewriting of American Sexual Thought, 1920 to 1982 |year=2001 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-231-11204-8}}</ref><ref name=Leidholdt>{{cite book |last1=Leidholdt |first1=Dorchen |author-link=Dorchen Leidholdt |last2=Raymond |first2=Janice G. |title=The Sexual Liberals and the Attack On Feminism |year=1990 |publisher=Pergamon Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-08-037457-4}}</ref><ref name=Vance>{{cite book |author=Vance, Carole S. |title=Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality |year=1989 |publisher=Thorsons Publishers|isbn=978-0-04-440593-1}}</ref> Feminists have taken a variety of positions on different aspects of the [[sexual revolution]] from the 1960s and 70s. Over the course of the 1970s, a large number of influential women accepted lesbian and [[bisexuality|bisexual women]] as part of feminism.<ref>{{cite web|last=McBride|first=Andrew|title=The Sex Wars, 1970s to 1980s |date=2008 |website=OutHistory|url=http://www.outhistory.org/exhibits/show/lesbians-20th-century/sex-wars}}</ref>

=== Sex industry ===
{{main|Sex industry|Feminist views on pornography|Feminist views on prostitution|Feminist sex wars| Male prostitution#Feminist studies}}
Opinions on the sex industry are diverse. Feminists who are critical of the sex industry generally see it as the exploitative result of patriarchal social structures which reinforce sexual and cultural attitudes complicit in rape and sexual harassment. Alternately, feminists who support at least part of the sex industry argue that it can be a medium of feminist expression and reflect a woman's right to control and define her own sexuality. For the views of feminism on male prostitutes see the article on [[Male prostitution#Feminist studies|male prostitution]].

[[Individualist feminism|Individualist feminists]] support the existence of a sex industry on the grounds that adult women have the right to consent to sexual acts as they choose and should have access to [[labor rights]], to earn money how they choose.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.libertarianism.org/topics/sex-work |access-date=2023-08-31 |website=Libertarianism.org |title=Sex Work }}</ref> In this view, banning the sex industry effectively strips women of their right to work and earn money on their own terms, treating them as children who cannot make decisions for themselves. In this view, women who consider the sex industry degrading do not have to partake in it. Women who do choose to work in the sex industry however should not be banned from doing so, given that they are doing so willingly. Libertarian Feminist Zine, [https://feministsforliberty.com/reclaim-volume-1-issue-1/ Reclaim], has argued that sex work has helped more women (including students, freelancers, and women in poverty) achieve financial independence than all [[Grant (money)|government grants]] combined. 

Feminist views of pornography range from condemnation of pornography as a form of violence against women, to an embracing of some forms of pornography as a medium of feminist expression and a legitimate career.<ref name="Duggan">{{cite book|author1=Duggan, Lisa |author2=Hunter, Nan D. |title=Sex Wars: Sexual Dissent and Political Culture |year=1995 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-0-415-91036-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sexwarssexualdis0000dugg/page/1 1–14] |url=https://archive.org/details/sexwarssexualdis0000dugg/page/1 }}</ref><ref name="Hansen" /><ref name="Gerhard" /><ref name="Leidholdt" /><ref name="Vance" /> Similarly, feminists' views on prostitution vary, ranging from critical to supportive.<ref>{{cite book |last=O'Neill |first=Maggie |year=2001 |title=Prostitution and Feminism |publisher=Polity Press |location=Cambridge |pages=14–16}}</ref>  

=== Affirming female sexual autonomy ===
{{See also|My body, my choice}}
For feminists, a woman's right to control her own [[Right to sexuality|sexuality]] is a key issue and one that is heavily contested between different branches of feminism. [[Radical feminism|Radical feminists]] such as [[Catharine MacKinnon]] argue that women have very little control over their own bodies, with female sexuality being largely controlled and defined by men in patriarchal societies. Radical feminists argue that sexual violence committed by men is often rooted in ideologies of male sexual entitlement and that these systems grant women very few legitimate options to refuse sexual advances.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Rohana Ariffin|author2=Women's Crisis Centre (Pinang, Malaysia)|title=Shame, Secrecy, and Silence: Study On Rape in Penang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HfsDAQAAIAAJ|access-date=1 October 2011|year=1997|publisher=Women's Crisis Centre|isbn=978-983-99348-0-9}}</ref><ref>Bennett L, Manderson L, Astbury J. [http://academic.udayton.edu/health/01status/rape01.htm Mapping a global pandemic: review of current literature on rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment of women] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121102214813/http://academic.udayton.edu/health/01status/rape01.htm |date=2 November 2012 }}. University of Melbourne, 2000.</ref> Some radical feminists have argued that women should not engage in heterosexual sex, and choose [[Political lesbianism|lesbianism]] as a lifestyle and political choice, a view that has fallen out of favor, as [[Human sexuality|sexuality]] is seen as largely biologically influenced rather than a choice one can make for political reasons.  

Some radical feminists argue that all cultures are, in one way or another, dominated by ideologies that deny women's right to sexual expression, because men under a patriarchy define sex on their own terms. This entitlement can take different forms, depending on the culture. In some [[conservative]] and religious cultures marriage is regarded as an institution which requires a wife to be sexually available at all times, virtually without limit; thus, forcing or coercing sex on a wife is not considered a crime or even an abusive behaviour.<ref>{{cite journal|vauthors=Jewkes R, Abrahams N |title= The epidemiology of rape and sexual coercion in South Africa: an overview|pmid=12365533|year=2002|volume=55|issue=7|pages=1231–44|journal=[[Social Science & Medicine]]|doi=10.1016/s0277-9536(01)00242-8}}</ref><ref>Sen P. Ending the presumption of consent: nonconsensual sex in marriage. London, Centre for Health and Gender Equity, 1999</ref>

In 1968, radical feminist [[Anne Koedt]] argued in her essay ''[[The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm]]'' that women's biology and the [[Clitoris|clitoral]] orgasm had not been properly analyzed and popularized, because men "have orgasms essentially by friction with the vagina" and not the clitoral area.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Wahlquist|first=Calla|date=31 October 2020|title=The sole function of the clitoris is female orgasm. Is that why it's ignored by medical science?|url=http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/nov/01/the-sole-function-of-the-clitoris-is-female-orgasm-is-that-why-its-ignored-by-medical-science|access-date=20 December 2020|website=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=6 January 2013|title=The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm by Anne Koedt|url=http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/CWLUArchive/vaginalmyth.html|access-date=20 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130106211856/http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/CWLUArchive/vaginalmyth.html|archive-date=6 January 2013}}</ref>

Other branches of feminism such as individualist feminism consider themselves [[Sex-positive movement|sex-positive]], and see women's expression of their own sexuality as a right. In this view, what is or is not "degrading" is subjective, and each person has a right to decide for themselves what sexual acts they find degrading and if they want to participate in them or not. Individualist feminist, [[Wendy McElroy]] wrote in her book, [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/621306.XXX XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography], "let's examine [...] the idea that pornography is degrading to women. Degrading is a subjective term. Personally, I find detergent commercials in which women become orgasmic over soapsuds to be tremendously degrading to women. I find movies in which prostitutes are treated like ignorant drug addicts to be slander against women. Every woman has the right—the need!—to define degradation for herself." 

According to this view, part of sexual autonomy is the right to define one's boundaries, desires and limits around their sexuality rather than accept a narrative in which all women are victims of men during a sex act.