Abstract: The current waves of feminism (or tapestry strands per Professor Liz Kelly’s analysis) are particularly divided on whether pornography can be a sex-positive tool for women’s empowerment or whether it continues to be the “common erotic project of destroying women”. Unsurprisingly, evangelical Christian culture’s engagement with pornography remains ignorant of any feminist analysis of pornography. This presentation will explore the nature of evangelical Christian culture’s engagement with pornography, its focus on the male pornography consumer as the victim of the “pornography siren”, and the centring of male consumer’s feelings within the response to pornography.
This talk was delivered at the 2018 Religion and Rape Culture Conference. Click here to see more videos.
Natalie Collins is a Gender Justice Specialist, and works to enable individuals and organisations to prevent and respond to male violence against women. She is the Creator and Director of the DAY Programme, an innovative youth domestic abuse and exploitation education programme. She organises Project 3:28, is a co-founder of the UK Christian Feminist Network, and founded the Fifty Shades is Domestic Abuse campaign. She has written a Grove Book on “Gender Aware Youth Practice”, is publishing a book with SPCK on Christians and domestic abuse, and is currently doing a Masters in Integrative Theology with London School of Theology.
Header Image: The Sirens, Wilhelm Kray 1874 [via WikiCommons]
