so that they can be identified and constructively critiqued. Moreover, this perspective not only acknowledges the sexual diversity among women but also recognizes, to use Teresa de Lauretis's term, the diversity "within" women,
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since one story from one woman may not be all there is to tell about her.
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On the other hand, not every, if any, story of her sexual life will be one that a woman will want to tell. A feminist philosophy of sex from the "view from somewhere different" also recognizes that sex means discrete and very private conduct for many women who would reject the feminist assertion that the personal is political. Some women who subscribe to the feminist claim that pornography and prostitution are patriarchal institutions in the business of subordinating women to men may still wish to make their own sexual activity a nonpolitical event. In addition, a feminist philosophy of sex from the "view from somewhere different" should remind us that both distinct and overlapping boundaries exist in our descriptions and evaluations of sex. When does sexual pleasure stop and pain begin? Is consensual sadomasochistic sex between husband and wife "good'' sex or "bad"? In a patriarchal society in which heterosexual sex is commonly used to dominate women, does the very personal nature of any sex require a political interpretation? With help from the "view from somewhere different," the chapters that follow will allow us to examine these types of questions in more detail.
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In the beginning of this section I noted that the subject investigated by a feminist philosopher both influences and is influenced by the particular sexual experience, preference, and desires of the philosopher herself. Specifically, the social location that informs my own feminist philosophical inquiry into women's sexuality is that of a white, middle-class, married, educated, forty-something, heterosexual woman; and I live in a Western industrialized culture inhabited by women whose gender is still a barrier to equitable employment and political power. The dialectical nature of the relation between gender and sexuality often translates being a woman into being the victim of both violent and subtle forms of sexual intimidationintimidation that is a systemic and structural feature of the patriarchal world in which women live. A feminist philosopher of sex who is located in such a culture and who subscribes to the "view from somewhere different" recognizes that she is the member of a gendered class which is often identified primarily, if not solely, by women's sexual accessibility to men and for which that very identification is often a central vehicle for the exploitation, harassment, and abuse of women.
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Under these constraints, racism, classism, and homophobia are real and compelling concerns for women who are already gender-oppressed. Indeed, many women of color argue that feminism will never be a priority for them if related social oppressions are not addressed with the same energy and commitment as that given to feminism. Some women of color eschew feminist activism altogether because they believe that other social oppressions take priority and because they believe that feminist gains are gains for white, middle-class women, not women of color. A feminist philosopher of sex must address the question of whether developing new ways for thinking and talking about sex is relevant to liberating women oppressed by overwhelming poverty or racial prejudice.
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Yet no matter what our race or ethnicity, women in Western culture are bombarded by feminine images defined by an extremely narrow range of acceptable criteria of beauty. It is a culture where a woman's
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