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Feminist Philosophy and Social Theory Seminar: Colin Troesken “Pornography, Videogames, and Ideology”
22nd June 2022 @ 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
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Abstract: In her 2018 paper “Pornographic Videogames: A Feminist Examination,” Mari Mikkola argues that pornographic videogames as a category are not problematic or worthy of condemnation from a feminist perspective. Contra Mikkola , I advance a view which says that pornographic videogames have category-specific features which make them especially disposed to reinforce bad sexual ideology. I investigate the ways in which art-categories such as medium and genre ascribe value and meaning to contents within depictions. I then show that both virtual media and pornography have unique expectations from audiences which partly constitute them both as categories. In the case of pornographic videogames, I argue that part of what constitutes the category is an expectation of harmful or misleading sexual imagery which the audience can have a prescribed interactive engagement with. I go on to show why the interactive and immersive components of pornographic videogames aid in reinforcing harmful sexual ideology. I conclude that pornographic videogames, as a category, are worthy of condemnation from a feminist perspective.
