Prostitution and pornography: The debate between radical and liberatian feminists

Feminist knowledge and social theory have continually posed challenges to traditional masculinist history in a variety of ways. Generally these challenges have represented an expansion of ideas within feminist and social theory, rather than conflicts of interest and are usually of great benefit to both disciplines. There is however a danger that as conflicts develop within Feminist theory, history could be misused or the events of history misrepresented in order to prove the validity of one theory over another. It is my intention in this article to examine the effect of one such theoretical split on the writing of the women's history. It is my contention that the split between radical and libertarian feminists over the issue of pornography has directly influenced the treatment of nineteenth century feminists by recent feminist scholars. Moreover the pro- pornography literature that has come out of the debate uses the example of nineteenth century feminists as a warning against a feminist stance that attempts to dictate what is and what is not acceptable sexual behaviour. I will firstly examine the split and the issues and debates it has raised. I will then examine what I consider to be the misuse of the example of nineteenth century feminists by modern libertarian feminists and how this has effected their historical treatment.