The Purpose of this blog

Your task on this blog is to write a brief summary of what we learned in class today. Include enough detail so that someone who was ill or missed the class can catch up with what they missed. Over the course of the term, these 'class scribe' posts will grow to be a guide for the course, written by students for students.

With each post ask yourself the following questions:
1) Is this good enough for our guide?
2) Will your post enable someone who wasnt here to catch up?

Tuesday, 5 July 2011

Marquis de Sade, Feminism and Moral pornography

At the start of the lesson we were asked the question "Is pornography bad?" which started the debate of feminism and morals vs "it`s okay as it`s their job".
The article we had read after that was by feminist Gail Dines and titled "All authentic desire is rendered plastic by this multibillion-dollar industry." Despite the unappealling title of the article it opened our eyes to possibly accept that porn only on the surface seems to empower women, as "savvy" businessmen put the ideals in their heads that it does empower them when in reality it does not.
We discussed Marquis de Sade breifly as he wrote pornographic texts which Carter later refered to in her works. Because of this we read the sheet titled "Angela Carter`s The Sadeian woman" which discussed Moral pornography. We found out that moral pornographers use their pornographic material to create a peice of "art" that empowers both genders about their sexuality and shows how real relationships are instead of the usual sexism displayed in contemparary ideals of porn.
We were told to write our own definition of Moral pornography and what it would be used for.
Lastly we had to gather evidence that showed Patriotarchy and women being victims of it and if it showed moral pornography. We had to find five quotes and do an Ao2 analysis of them. This was preparation for the practice essay we will do on Thursday.

For homework we have to handwrite ten facts on Marquis de Sade (1740-1814), look up sadomasochism and do the questions on the Bloody Chamber on the handout sheet. Also comment on the blog.

Tamsin (feel free to add anything I missed if I did miss out anything and sorry for spelling mistakes).


  1. Carter is a Moral pornographer due to her stories showing women empowerment by their sexuality. Maquis de sade is also a moral pornographer by showing relationship between two sexes in a political way. Sade is more viscious than Carter in their story telling. Sade is a crazy man by actually abusing women with his erotic desires.

  2. Sadomasochism = these are two sexual behaviours considered to be a psychological disorder. whereas Arousal is not associated with normal stimulus but that of inflicting/ receiving pain generally referencing to Domination.

  3. Just read about Marquies De Sade and I think that his writtings is a reflection of his disturbed state of mind. Angela Carter provides us with a feminist veiw of him or rather she presents him as a moral pornographer.


  4. I think that Marquis De Sade can't be described as a moral pornographer because his life and his background present him to be an extremely disturbed person. I think Carter constructed the moral pornographer concept from Sade, as most of The Bloody Chamber stories relate to Sade's brutality towards women.

  5. From the research I've done it appears the Marquis was frowned upon heavily - or, rather, his works were - during his time. They thought he was mental and stuck him in an asylum. Don't think that would happen today.


  6. I agree with the idea that Carter is a moral pornographist as her work highlights the injustice women face through the abuse of their sexuality and objectification. She is trying to outline the treachery of the patriarchal values present in western society.

  7. I agree with Daniel,
    If Marquie De Sade's work was created and published now it would be much more celebrated.
    It aoppears that Sade was much more advanced for his time as seen in the contents of his work.
    It is also intersting that Carter thought of him as a moral pornographer