18. Obscene Division: Feminist Liberal Assessments of Prostitution Versus Feminist Liberal Defenses of Pornography

A review of the academic literature on both prostitution and pornography reveals a striking difference: while pornography has become a popular topic in the academy, there is still comparatively little written about prostitution per se. In philosophical circles, prostitution and pornography are thought to raise different sets of questions: pornography is discussed in the context of free speech issues and postmodern thought about subjectivity, while prostitution is typically only discussed (if at all) in the context of paternalism and gender oppression. Historically, this has much to do with the development of classical liberal interest in speech issues and traditionally feminist interest in concerns about women’s labor, set against a back-drop of changes in technology and the legal concept of obscenity.2 But bound up with the differing legal,