scenarios should be treated differently, as in both a woman has been raped and the
perpetrator should be dealt with accordingly but highlighting that when it comes to
identifying how pornography harms women that illocutionary disablement (in its
newly defined way) is better able to capture this. This difference shows that for
Langton’s (1993) claim to be justified she does not have to reduce illocutionary
disablement and perlocutionary frustration to the same thing (Illocutionary frustration
(Hesni, 2018)). She does however have to accept that uptake is a part of illocutionary
disablement.
Overall, the main issue brought to light by this dissertation regards Langton’s
(1993) notion of illocutionary disablement. It does not possess the ability to capture a
women’s refusal of sex due to its denial that uptake has taken place when a woman
utter s “no” to refuse sex. Through the work of Hesni (2028, pp. 954) and her
development of nonliteral speech, this dissertation has shown that even in cases when
women utter “no” and a man ‘hasn’t understood this no as a refusal’ that uptake, and
thus a succes sful refusal has taken place (Hesni, 2018, pp. 954). Langton’s (1993)
inability to recognise this through the way she defines illocutionary disablement leaves
how she finances her claim that pornography silences women unjustified despite
reliability and accurately drawing upon Austin (1976) to show how pornography is
speech. If Langton (1993) is serious about defending her claim she should accept that
uptake occurs in instances of illocutionary disablement. Accepting that uptake occurs
in situations of illocutionary disablement by drawing upon the model of non-literal
speech allows for Langton’s (1993) claim to be justified. She would not be faced with
the objections surrounding the constitutional theory of uptake as her claims could now
fall into the category of the ratification theory.
More broadly this dissertation has highlighted how “the asymmetry of the power
balance” is reflected in the asymmetry of minority groups including women to
perform certain illocutionary acts (Langton, 1993, pp. 316). It draws upon the works
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