Laura Kipnis – författare

A unique collection of essays on popular culture, politics, aesthetics, feminism, and postmodernism, along with complete scripts from three of Kipnis' videotapes."Laura Kipnis has made the leap from artist to theorist (or was it the other way around?) making videos which are informed by theory and writing essays that have and edge of the practice of everyday art. The book contains the scripts for three of Kipnis' videotapes and several essays which range form a critique of theories of the avant garde to colonialism. The best of the group has to be '(Male) Desire and (Female) Disgust: Reading Hustler,' which is an amazing argument for the radical potential of Hustler magazine based on an analysis of the notion of disgust. It's a stretch, but a well-argued and intriguing stretch. Kipnis' position on avant-garde film and video is also an articulate call for the merits of popular culture as the basis from which to build a contestatory cinema/video practice." -Film Maker

In a book that completely changes the terms of the pornography debate, Laura Kipnis challenges the position that porn perpetuates misogyny and sex crimes. First published in 1996, Bound and Gagged opens with the chilling case of Daniel DePew, a man convicted-in the first computer bulletin board entrapment case-of conspiring to make a snuff film and sentenced to thirty-three years in prison for merely trading kinky fantasies with two undercover cops.Using this textbook example of social hysteria as a springboard, Kipnis argues that criminalizing fantasy-even perverse and unacceptable fantasy-has dire social consequences. Exploring the entire spectrum of pornography, she declares that porn isn’t just about gender and that fantasy doesn’t necessarily constitute intent. She reveals Larry Flynt’s Hustler to be one of the most politically outspoken and class-antagonistic magazine in the country and shows how fetishes such as fat admiration challenge our aesthetic prejudices and socially sanctioned disgust. Kipnis demonstrates that the porn industry-whose multibillion-dollar annual revenues rival those of the three major television networks combined-know precisely how to tap into our culture’s deepest anxieties and desires, and that this knowledge, more than all the naked bodies, is what guarantees its vast popularity.Bound and Gagged challenges our most basic assumptions about America’s relationship with pornography and questions what the calls to eliminate it are really attempting to protect.

“A Meteor of Intelligent Substance”“Something was Missing in our Culture, and Here It Is”"Liberties is THE place to be."Liberties, a journal of Culture and Politics, is essential reading for those engaged in the cultural and political issues and causes of our time. Liberties features serious, independent, stylish, and controversial essays by significant writers and leaders throughout the world; new poetry; and, introduces the next generation of writers and voices to inspire and impact the intellectual and creative lifeblood of today’s culture and politics.In this issue of Liberties: Laura Kipnis on Genders Without FearDorian Abbot’s call to arms - Science to Politics: Drop DeadBernard Henri-Lévy on What is Reading?Bruce D. Jones on today’s reality of Taiwan, China, AmericaDavid Greenberg examines The War on ObjectivityHelen Vendler on Art vs. Stereotypes through the work of Marianne MooreIngrid Rowland captures Thucydides on our ConflictsDavid A. Bell exposes the Greatest Enemy of Democracy in FranceRobert Cooper reports on Myanmar, Atrocity in the Garden of EdenSteven M. Nadler on Bans and Excommunications, Then and NowMorten Høi Jensen on the State of Literary BiographyClara Collier on Women with Whips — Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck; Celeste Marcus on Unknown Heroes of Modern ArtLeon Wieseltier reveals Christianism in Modern PoliticsAnd new poetry from Durs Grünbein, Nathaniel Mackey, and Haris Vlavianos

Feminism is broken: the current attempts to protect women from sexual abuse on campus, and on line. Regulation is replacing education, and women's hard-won right to be treated as consenting adults is being repealed by well-meaning bureaucrats.In Unwanted Advances, passionate feminist Kipnis, find the object of a protest march by student activists at her university for writing an essay about sexual paranoia on campus. In response she starts to question women's role in national debates over free speech and "safe spaces". She explores the astonishing netherworld of accused professors and students, campus witch hunts, rigged investigations, and demonstrates the chilling effect of this new sexual McCarthyism on higher education. Without minimizing the seriousness of campus assault, Kipnis argues for more honesty: a timely critique of feminist paternalism and the covert sexual conservatism of hook-up culture.