Researcher ORCID Identifier
0009-0006-5378-3223
Graduation Year
2025
Date of Submission
4-2025
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Philosophy
Reader 1
Professor Adrienne Martin
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2025 Katherine S Lanzalotto
Abstract
This thesis critiques popular sex-positive narratives that espouse sex as the path to female liberation and empowerment despite ideological and material constraints that tailor female sexual expression to male desires. It interrogates sex-positive feminism's evolution and impact on female freedom. Despite its progressive intentions, mainstream sex-positive discourse has paradoxically constrained female freedom. This thesis analyzes how sex positivity inhibited female freedom, developing a nuanced framework of negative, positive, and republican freedom. This framework elucidates new constraints introduced by pro-sex thinking, such as compulsory female sexuality, the commodification of women under capitalism, and intersectional oversights in sex-positive thinking that particularly affect marginalized women. With a detailed intersectional and material critique of sex-positive thinking, this work contends that pro-sex feminism has unintentionally reinforced female sexualization and commodification, limiting female freedom, and perpetuating their domination. Ultimately, this work proposes a refined pro-erotic framework that defines empowering sexual encounters and provides safeguards against the malaise of pro-sex thinking. With the pro-erotic framework, it is possible to critically address the shortcomings of sex positivity while promoting a more authentic, reflective, and intersectionally inclusive feminist praxis that enhances female freedom.
Recommended Citation
Lanzalotto, Katherine S., "The Paradox of Pleasure: How Sex-Positive Feminism Constrains Female Freedom" (2025). CMC Senior Theses. 3957.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/3957
