Letter from the Sex for Sale Symposium Committee

Abstract

The Yale Journal of Law and Feminism had good reason to believe that a conference on the subject of feminism and commercialized sex was well overdue. Since the "sex wars," we have entered a new generation of feminism with ever more diverse viewpoints on the sex industry. America has entered a new phase of "pornification." This is an age in which Hooters is considered a family restaurant, in which news about some recent celebrity sex tape is more likely to be greeted with a yawn than with offense. Add to this the impact of the internet, allowing people to access and participate in amateur and mainstream pornography and sexual commercialization with heightened privacy. The issues, passions and injustices that caused the "sex wars" are far from resolved. Pornography and prostitution remain two of the most contentious topics within feminist communities. They remain two of the topics on which feminist activists and academics most often find themselves at odds. For this reason, the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism organized a symposium, Sex for Sale, to explore feminist issues in the context of commercialized sex.