Study Questions 12: Tu Apr 1: Pornography 2

1. What does Caputi mean by "everyday pornography"? How might the concept of everyday pornography relate to the issues raised in the video "Dreamworlds II"?

2. How does the range of texts Caputi examines shift the focus in regard to what constitutes pornography and what impact it may have? Do you think this shift in definitions clarifies or obscures the key issues in the debates about pornography?

3. How does the natural world figure in Caputi's notion of everday porngraphy? How are women of color connected to this scenario?

4. How does the moralism of sexuality as "dirty" find itself supported by pornography? How is "innocence," of children and others, used as an incitement in everyday pornography?

5. According to Dines, how do issues of race complicate questions of pornography, especially with regard to black males? How do sexual and economic power/insecurity linked according to her anlysis?

6. What alternatives to censorship do these articles offer to deal with problems they find in some kinds of pornography? What kinds of "sex positive" alternatives do they present?