Over the past decade, abolitionist feminist and evangelical Christian activists have directed increasing attention toward the “traffic in women” as a dangerous manifestation of global gender inequalities. Despite renowned disagreements around the politics of sex and gender, these groups have come together to advocate for harsher penalties against traffickers, prostitutes’ customers, and nations deemed to be taking insufficient steps to stem the flow of trafficked women. In this essay, I argue that what has served to unite this coalition of “strange bedfellows” is not simply an underlying commitment to conservative ideals of sexuality, as previous commentators have offered, but an equally significant commitment to carceral paradigms of justice and to militarized humanitarianism as the preeminent mode of engagement by the state. I draw upon my ongoing ethnographic research with feminist and evangelical antitrafficking movement leaders to argue that the alliance that has been so efficacious in frami...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/652918

Militarized humanitarianism meets carceral feminism: the politics of sex, rights, and freedom in contemporary antitrafficking campaigns.

Highlights the issues in feminist theory, epistemology and methodology. Combining introductory overviews with reflections, this title focuses on analytical approaches to gendered power differential ...

Feminist Studies: A Guide to Intersectional Theory, Methodology and Writing

Whether and how civil society should recognize committed relationships between same-sex partners has become a prominent, often divisive, policy issue. The present article reviews relevant behavioral and social science research to assess the validity of key factual claims in this debate. The data indicate that same-sex and heterosexual relationships do not differ in their essential psychosocial dimensions; that a parent's sexual orientation is unrelated to her or his ability to provide a healthy and nurturing family environment; and that marriage bestows substantial psychological, social, and health benefits. It is concluded that same-sex couples and their children are likely to benefit in numerous ways from legal recognition of their families, and providing such recognition through marriage will bestow greater benefit than civil unions or domestic partnerships. Trends in public opinion toward greater support for legal recognition of same-sex couples are discussed.

https://freemarry.3cdn.net/edae5babaf2b770506_30m6bxf6r.pdf

Legal recognition of same-sex relationships in the United States: a social science perspective.

Sexuality is generally considered an important aspect of self-hood Therefore, individuals who do not experience sexual attraction, and embrace an asexual identity are in a unique position to inform the social construction of sexuality This study explores the experiences of asexual individuals utilizing open ended Internet survey data from 102 self-identified asexual people In this paper I describe several distinct aspects of asexual identities: the meanings of sexual, and therefore, asexual behaviors, essentialist characterizations of asexuality, and lastly, interest in romance as a distinct dimension of sexuality These findings have implications not only for asexual identities, but also for the connections of asexuality with other marginalized sexualities

/pdf/coming-to-an-asexual-identity-negotiating-identity-rftj4d8vca.pdf

Coming to an Asexual Identity: Negotiating Identity, Negotiating Desire.

This article draws upon recent works in sociology, jurisprudence, and feminist theory in order to assess the ways in which feminism, and sex and gender more generally, have become intricately interwoven with punitive agendas in contemporary US politics. Melding existing theoretical discussions of penal trends with insights drawn from my own ethnographic research on the contemporary anti-trafficking movement in the United States—the most recent domain of feminist activism in which a crime frame has prevailed against competing models of social justice—I elaborate upon the ways that neoliberalism and the politics of sex and gender have intertwined to produce a carceral turn in feminist advocacy movements previously organized around struggles for economic justice and liberation. Taking the anti-trafficking movement as a case study, I further demonstrate how human rights discourse has become a key vehicle both for the transnationalization of carceral politics and for the reincorporation of these policies into the domestic terrain in a benevolent, feminist guise. I conclude by urging greater and more nuanced attention to the operations of gender and sexual politics within mainstream analyses of contemporary modes of punishment, as well as a careful consideration of the neoliberal carceral state within feminist discussions of gender, sexuality, and the law.

Carceral politics as gender justice? The “traffic in women” and neoliberal circuits of crime, sex, and rights

This book is a collection of essays written during the 1980s and 1990s, generated as parts of other, larger activist efforts going on at the time. Read together, the essays trace the progress of the conversations between different activist groups, and between the authors of the pieces, Lisa Duggan and Nan Hunter, creating a bridge between feminists, gay activists, those in politics, and those in the law. Since the 1995 publication of Sex Wars, the political landscape has altered significantly. Yet the issues (and essays) are still relevant today. The anniversary edition contains a new chapter dealing with the changes in the law since the book's publication (Lawrence v. Texas, for example).

Sex Wars: Sexual Dissent and Political Culture

Women Against Censorship

This collection of essays, written between 1978 and 1986, embodies both anti-censorship activism and a "fluid dialogue between women and sex". Incorporates current and historic pornographic photographs.

Nan D. Hunter

Papers

Sex Wars: Sexual Dissent and Political Culture

Women Against Censorship

Caught Looking : Feminism, Pornography and Censorship

False Promises: Feminist Antipornography Legislation

False Promises: Feminist Anti-Pornography Legislation in the U.S.