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Pornography & Civil Rights: A New Day for Women's Equality by Catharine A. MacKinnon, Andrea Dworkin
leelulah's review
3.0
Read for the PopSugar Challenge 2019
14. A book by two female authors: Pornography and Civil Rights
Good to think about how to oppose pornography from a legal standpoint, without getting muddled on the whole free speech debate, because as MacKinnon and Dworkin prove, this is not about free speech, not about an abstract idea, but the harm pornography causes in itself, which is often left out of debates. They pose the weaknesses of obscenity laws, since pornography shapes culture, the idea of softcore and hardcore has taken ground. I think it would be better to talk about gateway pornography instead of "softcore", as if there were such thing as "mild pornography".
Oh, also a memorable bit for the choice-choicey libfems of late: if someone can be coerced to a sexual act on a pornographic set, they can be coerced into signing a contract. And Hugh Hefner was absolutely despicable:
" Dorothy Stratten, a Playboy centerfold who was sodomized, tortured, murdered, then raped after she was dead by her pimp-husband, Paul Snider, was tricked and intimidated into photo sessions by Snider, who then sold the photos and access to Dorothy herself to Hefner. Ms. Stratten said she was sexually molested by Hefner. After her death, Hefner was made aware that Ms. Stratten had hated the pornography made of her and had hated posing for it. He responded by issuing more videotapes of Ms. Stratten posing."
14. A book by two female authors: Pornography and Civil Rights
Good to think about how to oppose pornography from a legal standpoint, without getting muddled on the whole free speech debate, because as MacKinnon and Dworkin prove, this is not about free speech, not about an abstract idea, but the harm pornography causes in itself, which is often left out of debates. They pose the weaknesses of obscenity laws, since pornography shapes culture, the idea of softcore and hardcore has taken ground. I think it would be better to talk about gateway pornography instead of "softcore", as if there were such thing as "mild pornography".
Oh, also a memorable bit for the choice-choicey libfems of late: if someone can be coerced to a sexual act on a pornographic set, they can be coerced into signing a contract. And Hugh Hefner was absolutely despicable:
" Dorothy Stratten, a Playboy centerfold who was sodomized, tortured, murdered, then raped after she was dead by her pimp-husband, Paul Snider, was tricked and intimidated into photo sessions by Snider, who then sold the photos and access to Dorothy herself to Hefner. Ms. Stratten said she was sexually molested by Hefner. After her death, Hefner was made aware that Ms. Stratten had hated the pornography made of her and had hated posing for it. He responded by issuing more videotapes of Ms. Stratten posing."
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