Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women's Rights

by Nadine Strossen (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-0814781494

ISBN-10: 0814781497

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A women's rights–centered rationale for defending pornography

Traditional explanations of why pornography must be defended from would-be censors have concentrated on censorship's adverse impacts on free speech and sexual autonomy. In contrast, Nadine Strossen focuses on the women's rights-centered rationale for defending pornography.

Reissued with a new foreword and introduction by the author.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Antiporn feminists have been cruising for a forensic bruising since the early eighties. Defending Pornography lands quite a blow." ― Entertainment Weekly

"A passionately argued, cogently written, lively discourse on the increasingly peculiar politics of sex." ― New York Times Book Review

"Proves without a doubt that free expression is an essential foundation for women's liberty, equality, and sexuality." -- Betty Friedan

"Strong medicine for all those who would censor sexual expression in cyberspace." -- Jerry Berman,Executive Director, Center for Democracy and Technology

"Defending Pornography is valuable precisely because of its lucid, broad exploration of the long debate over pornography." ― The Washington Post Book World

About the Author

A nationally renowned speaker and debater, NADINE STROSSEN is Professor of Law at New York Law School and President of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ NYU Press (July 1, 2000)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0814781497
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0814781494
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.63 x 0.96 x 8.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,321,130 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #318 in Gender & the Law (Books)
- #453 in Study of Pornography
- #1,256 in Constitutional Law (Books)

Customer Reviews:
22 ratings

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G. R. Drake

One of the better books on the subject

Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2013

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A great book in the oft-forgotten polemic tradition. Strossen resists the temptation to attack the phony feminists for their political marriage with rightwing religious extremists, instead successfully following the arguments of the anti-porn moral police to their logical conclusion: an absolute end of any semblance of freedom of expression. This is of course all based in solid fact, unlike the old "studies prove porn is linked to violence" canard. Anti-sex crusader Andrea Dworkin, one of the subjects covered in detail in the book, found out first hand when she had her own works banned under anti pornography laws she helped to create!

Recommended reading for almost everyone, especially now that this topic is in the news again with "liberal" / "democratic" Icelandic parliament members threatening to outlaw sexual content on the internet.

3 people found this helpful

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nice book

Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2020

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fast shipping, good condition thank you!

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Harry J. Coffey

civil liberties

Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2008

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Excellent argument from civil liberties point of view. Very well written. Author was president of American Civil Liberties Union for 18 years; and a constitutional law professor.

4 people found this helpful

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Paul E CriderTop Contributor: Philosophy

Uncharitable to her foils

Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2020

As someone who regularly defends sex work and sex workers, I had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately it was quite a disappointment. I have actually read some Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin (the book's chief foils) and I found Strossen's treatment unfairly dismissive of these serious thinkers. For more than the first hundred pages of the book, the radical feminist ideas aren't even laid out in any detail. They're just gestured at with strong insinuations of their (apparently obvious) absurdity.

Strossen would fit in well with the so-called "Intellectual Dark Web" in how she identifies feminists--*some* feminists, who have "gone too far", to be sure--as a far greater threat themselves than the threats they speak out against. I kept having to remind myself that the book was written in the 90s (published 2000) and the live controversies were very different theb. Authorities in popular culture and in government really were antisex and censorious. Radical feminists were certainly a legitimate target given the kind of common cause intellectual heft they afforded regimes with real power to censor.

But then I got to the chapter about how the feminists--*some* feminists, of course--have just gone too far with "sexual harassment". Strossen worries that threats of sexual harassment have created a chilling environment for everyday sexuality. In the MeToo era, of course, this just seems utterly blind to the very existence of power dynamics. And there is no reason to suspect that power and hierarchy worked differently in the 90s than they do 20 years later.

I'd have given the book a lonely star but the second half of the book is much stronger, perhaps because Strossen is more in her element. This part of the book explores the strong libertarian and legal cases against censorship. Overall I'd give the book a pass, but if you do read it, make sure to endure through to the later chapters.

Helpful

Orna Ross

Authoritatively documented and persuasively argued

Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2012

About 30 years ago, a small faction of feminists changed the debate around pornography. Prior to their intervention the picture was simple: in one corner we had the liberals who had long sought more personal freedom in the realm of sexuality, and less governmental control over sexual representation - books, videos, magazines, art forms. In the opposite corner stood the conservatives, staunch defenders of controls over sexual conduct and expression.

Into this polarised picture stepped a segment of the feminist movement often dubbed "MacDworkinites" after their leaders: University of Michigan law professor Catherine MacKinnon and writer Andrea Dworkin. They argued that pornography should be suppressed not for traditional "moral" reasons but because it leads to discrimination and violence against women. They drafted an ordinance, or model law, which provided the basis for anti-pornography laws in a number of American states. They formed alliances with conservatives, many of whom were opposed to women's rights, and under a joint anti-pornography banner attacked a wide range of sexually oriented expression.

So successful has the MacDworkinite campaign been, that many people believe the suppression of pornography is a high priority for all feminists, or even for all women. But from the start their ideas and initiatives were countered by anti-censorship feminists.

This book adds an impressive voice to the anti-censorship argument. Nadine Strossen is a professor at New York Law School, editor of the Harvard Law Review and president of the American Civil Liberties Union. A feminist and passionate defender of free speech, her book sets out not just to present the well-worn argument that censorship is always injurious to freedom, but to counter the feminist rational for suppressing pornography with a feminist rational for defending it.

In summary, Strossen argues that any scheme for censoring pornography would undermine women's rights and interest in many ways: "It would be enforced in a way that discriminates against the least popular groups in our society, including feminists and lesbians: it would perpetuate demeaning stereotypes about women, including that sex is bad for us: it would perpetuate the disempowering notion that women are essentially victims; it would distract us from constructive approaches to countering discrimination and violence against women; it would suppress many works that are valuable to women and feminists; it would arm women's efforts to develop their own sexuality."

In contrast to these, and other, costs to feminist goals, the advocates of censorship can cite only on benefit - that it would reduce violence and discrimination against women - a benefit that is far from proven as repeated research had failed to find a casual link between pornography and sex crimes.

To support her case, Strossen has amassed a vast body of evidence. Perhaps most compelling comes form Canada, where a Supreme Court decision in 1992 (Butler V. The Queen) introduced MacDwokinite legislation.

The Canadian version is less sweeping than the original ordinance proposed by MacKinnon and Dworkin, but numerous commentators have demonstrated how it has been used, in Strossen's words, as "a potent weapon to suppress free speech for all, as well as the equality rights of various disempowered groups, including the very women whose rights it was supposed to enhance." Supremely ironic is that the Butler legislation has been used to confiscate two books written by Andrea Dworkin herself.

It's easy to see why the anti-pornography movement so readily gained support. It tapped into women's concern about sexual violence and seemed to offer a quick-fix solution or at least something concrete that could be done. It also tapped into the feelings of violation and disgust which pornography engenders in some women. Some, but not all.

And therein lies the difficulty - who decides which representations are "degrading" to women and what are merely a turn-on? Pornography is a vague term, with no legal definition or significance and is so amorphous that it can be - and is - used to encompass any sexual expression which a dominant group find objectionable.

When it comes to sex, and sexual representation, one person's revolting obscenity is another's treasured delight. That Western society find this hard to handle can be seen in the way we treat those dubbed sexually "deviant". Strossen's book demonstrates how the anti-porn movement feeds into this deep-rooted distrust of sex.

The book arises from the twists and turns the US justice system has taken around the issue and at times is US-centric but the questions it raises are relevant to all. If you'd like to move beyond polarised sloganeering around the contentious topic of pornography, this authoritatively documented and persuasively argued book provides an excellent place to begin.

5 people found this helpful

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pulling cheek swirl better shake up

smuggling people matters

Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2019

Restrictions on who can go where set up structures in which individuals who can accept bribes to get things done for big bucks has ducker plucker quicker sand reality. What anything says about who is doing what to whom is like fictive currencies spanning gaps in top dog ditch Gods leaping common sense. Any idea that is based on rights will get wiped out in lawsuit conflicts with Bork monopoly power issues. Cutbacks rule.

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Kids Aubry Kindle

Recommend!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 28, 2018

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A really compelling argument in defence of pornography from a feminist perspective. Written in such a way that is clear and easy to follow and the arguments presented are well-researched and compelling! I would suggest this book for anyone seeking to form an opinion on the so-called feminist 'sex wars'.

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Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women's Rights

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