Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book addresses the politics of sexual dissent in three arenas, in sexual representation, in the law, and in activism and the academy. Because sexual representations construct identities, restriction and regulation of sexual expression is a form of political repression aimed at sexual minorities and gender non-conformists. Borrowing rhetorical devices from Cold War anticommunists, antiporners defined all dissent on sexual issues as 'collaboration and treason. In the United States, the rhetoric of antiporn feminism has provided a modernizing spin for continuing conservative campaigns against sexual expression. Feminists have found themselves divided, unable to weigh into public controversies over the content of safe-sex education, or over the funding of allegedly 'obscene' art. In Canada, antiporn feminists helped the Supreme Court reinterpret the obscenity law, which has since been used against gay bookstores and feminist and lesbian publications.