understood that this is what occurs in pornography, that certain speech acts can
become unspeakable for women (Langton, 1993, pp.299) e.g., refusal, then this
presents a case for the censorship or even the banning of pornography and
pornographic content.
The subordination within pornography is not routed in its content alone but by the
authority it holds. Thus, some may view the case for censorship as extreme and
instead suggest that there could be a way to redefine the status of pornography to
undermine the authority held beyond banning it. The redefining of pornography would
require women to have the power to fight speech with more speech. However, if
Langton (1993) is correct in her claim that pornography goes further than
subordination, and silences women, then they are unable to fight against the speech
silencing them, and so until this can be resolved the case for censorship is strong.
More broadly, this dissertation demonstrates the importance of finding an accurate
theory of how speech acts occur as well as the importance of applying the theory
correctly to specific circumstances. For example, despite Langton (1993) accurately
drawing upon Austin’s (1976) speech act theory in her claim that pornography leads to
the subordination of women, the way she chooses to define illocutionary disablement
leaves her with difficult questions to address within the court of law e.g. if a woman
hasn’t refused sex how can the man be prosecuted on a charge of rape.
Chapter 2: Uptake
This chapter draws upon the works of Lucy McDonald (2020) and Alexander Bird
(2002) to debate how we should view uptake. As stated earlier uptake can be defined
as “the hearer’s recognition of the speaker’s communicative intention” (McDonald,
2020, pp. 1). McDonald (2020) presents two theories of uptake, the ratification theory,
and the constitutional theory. Both suggest that uptake is necessary for the success of
an illocutionary act (McDonald, 2020, pp.4) however differ in their beliefs of what is
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