Contributions of the feminist criticism of porn to a sexual education curriculum

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2011 im Fachbereich Philosophie – Philosophie des 20. Jahrhunderts, Note: 2,0, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Institut für Philosophie), Veranstaltung: Pornography and Objectification, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: I want to discuss in this paper what the feminist criticism of porn has to contribute to a sexual education curriculum. I will first sketch the feminist criticism of porn and show that it is based on a conception of basic values. Then I will have to talk about two of the most important recent debates in sexual education. This is necessary because to answer the question what the feminist criticism has to contribute to sexual education I have to unfold my understanding of what a sexual education curriculum should contain. I will argue, that a sexual education curriculum should take the ethical dimension of sexuality serious and rely on a non-dogmatic concept of basic values. Based on this conception of sexual education I will argue that the feminist criticism has something to contribute to the task of sexual education to support students in their concern to develop an ethical orientation towards sexuality. One of the main contributions it has to make is the notion of gender equality as a basic value and the reflection on the ethical relevance of representations.