2 uptake is secured in the more traditional way, it is not reliant on any model of
speech. After the successful uptake of the women’s refusal in scenario 2, the uptake
remains to be taken seriously. Despite the man still pursuing sex with the woman
(rape), at no point did he believe that the woman wanted to pursue sexual activity.
However, in scenario 1 although uptake of refusal did occur this was not taken as
seriously as it was in scenario 2. When the man pursued sex with the woman (raped
the woman) he believed that the woman wanted to engage in sexual activity. He
thought that “no” meant yes. This difference in how uptake has occurred in both
scenarios and the extent to which refusal is taken seriously demonstrates that there is a
difference between the two scenarios. Therefore, to reduce both scenarios to the same
thing, illocutionary frustration (Hesni, 2018), is incorrect.
Conclusion
This dissertation has explored how Austin’s (1976) speech act theory can be used to
understand Langton’s (1993, pp. 316) claim that pornography silences women through
her notion of illocutionary disablement. In the first section, I explored what speech
act s are, and how they occur through Austin’s (1933) breakdown of locutionary,
illocutionary and perlocutionary acts. From here I was able to explore how Langton
(1993) draws upon this in order to classify pornography as speech. Langton (1993,
pp.296) was able to deem pornography a speech act by identifying subordination as
the illocutionary force, as well as highlighting its ability for its locutions to possess
authority. Once pornography can be seen as speech, I used Langton’s (1993) work to
show how it silences women through illocutionary disablement, drawing attention to
the fact that illocutionary disablement does not require uptake (Langton, 1993,
pp.315). Next, I drew upon the work of McDonald (2020) to evaluate the
constitutional and ratification theory of uptake. I concluded in agreement with
McDonald (2020) that the ratification theory was the most coherent theory of uptake.
After looking at how the ratification theory of uptake compared with Bird’s (2002)
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