MacKinnon’s Sexuality is a Man’s World
Catharine MacKinnon argues through sexuality male domination and female subordination are reproduced. She frames what we understand as “sexuality” as fundamentally structured by the erotics of male domination. What men want defines sexuality, and this desire is premised on “women sexually accessible.” (Sexuality, 138) Pornography, with its inherently coercive and degrading depictions of women, both enforces and reinforces this dynamic of dominance and subordination, mirroring the broader inequality between the sexes. MacKinnon contends that male domination is not simply an inevitable byproduct of biological differences but a deliberately constructed system that grants men power over all aspects of society. Within this framework, women’s sexuality is not autonomous but rather an extension of male desire. Even female sexuality—particularly in the context of lesbian relationships—is, according to MacKinnon, shaped by and ultimately reinforces male dominance. However, to what extent does MacKinnon oversimplify and totalize the dynamics of gender oppression? She claims, “no pornography, no male sexuality.” (Sexuality, 139) Her assertion that pornography serves as the central force behind male dominance, which in turn defines sexuality and acts as the master key to women’s subjugation, risks overlooking other dimensions of oppression.
While MacKinnon posits pornography as a central mechanism in the reproduction of male dominance, the persistence of patriarchal structures in societies with little to no access to pornography suggests that oppression is sustained by forces beyond sexuality. In countries such as China and many Islamic states, where pornography is banned and access is severely restricted, male dominance remains deeply entrenched. Even MacKinnon acknowledges that “male dominance appears to exist cross-culturally, if in locally particular forms” (Sexuality, 130), yet she attributes its reproduction primarily to sexuality. However, if male supremacy persists even in such societies, this challenges the causal primacy MacKinnon assigns to sexuality in sustaining gender inequality. The fact that these states uphold rigid gender hierarchies through legal, political, economic, and religious systems indicates that the root of oppression may not lie solely in sexuality but in broader institutionalized power dynamics. MacKinnon can argue that even these roots of oppression are influenced by sexuality, this argument risks circular reasoning by attributing all forms of oppression back to sexuality, regardless of their distinct origins. If male dominance is upheld in societies where sexuality and pornography are heavily regulated or even criminalized, then sexuality cannot be the foundational cause of gender inequality. Instead, sexuality may function as a reinforcing mechanism rather than the root structure of oppression itself. Thus, the absolutist claim that sexuality is the driver of male dominance weakens when examined in these contexts.
Motherhood exists largely outside the realm of sexuality yet remains a site of profound gender oppression. In this role, women’s oppression is justified through their role as child-bearers and caretakers, in ways that have little to do with sexuality. Mackinnon writes, “Anything women have claimed as their own—motherhood...—is made specifically sexy, dangerous, provocative, punished, made men’s in pornography.” (Sexuality, 138) While MacKinnon argues that motherhood is sexualized in pornography, her claim inadvertently acknowledges that gender oppression is enforced in non-sexual domains as well. Even if motherhood is sexualized in pornography, it is not sexualized in the same way in real life, nor does this sexualization directly translate into the material oppression mothers face. In pornography, the sexualization of motherhood serves as a fantasy that distorts and fetishizes maternal roles, often portraying mothers as sexually available and submissive to male desire. However, in reality, motherhood is not eroticized as a site of pleasure but rather instrumentalized as a tool of control, reinforcing women's subjugation. These burdens from unpaid domestic labor to workplace discrimination and legal inequalities are such examples independent of male sexual dominance.
In MacKinnon’s argument of gender oppression in regards to abortion, she removes the facet of women’s agency and autonomy from her argument totalizing sexuality to a product of man. MacKinnon writes, "Sexual intercourse, still the most common cause of pregnancy, cannot simply be presumed coequally determined." (Abortion, 184) MacKinnon critiques how the abortion debate, both from the left and right, assumes that women have control over sex, when in reality, gender inequality shapes sexual interactions and reproductive choices. While it is undeniable that gender inequality influences sexual dynamics, MacKinnon’s absolutist framing leaves no room for the possibility that women can enthusiastically consent to sex or engage in it for their own empowerment. Especially given the fact that MacKinnon does not propose any substantive solutions to dismantling male dominance beyond exposing its mechanisms, women’s empowerment through sex on their own terms is a space for resistance.
