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

by Nadine Strossen

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684197499
• ISBN13: 9780684197494
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.8" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

civil liberties

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.

A must read for debaters

Despite the acrimony of some (obviously biased) reviewers, this is an outstanding book. Strossen has become a regular source for high school and collegiate debaters for precisely the type of solid analysis you'll find here. The legal argumentation is great and its nice to hear from an actual lawyer, not merely a social scientist who thinks s/he understands the field.The rest of the book is also well-written, good structure and organization, decent index, entertaining style, excellent logic. It is obviously, designed to argue in favor of free speech, but her critics' responses that she ignores data do not impede the force of her argument. In fact, a lot of the data they rely on is less than ideally gathered, as Strossen points out. If it wasn't a powerful attack, Strossen's opponents wouldn't be as viciously opposed to this book as they are.If, like me, you need evidence for debate rounds or are preparing a thesis on free speech, this book is essential, if only because it has generated so much debate. Don't be mislead by the mediocre rating or the views of an unsuccessful porn star, this book is a "must read".

Don't Let the Title Fool You.

This is a well-written, insightful and thought-provoking book on women's rights. Strossen (a New York Law School professor and feminist) points out that women do not really have to choose between freedom and security as the pro-censorship feminists would have us all believe. She refutes the position of Dworkin and MacKinnon that all sexual expression is degrading to women because all sex is rape.Strossen shows that there is nothing intrinsically misogynistic about sex or sexual expression; that "pornography" is a McCarthyist label for anything one finds offensive; that the best tool against speech that offends is more speech, not less; and that the ultimate danger (and often the goal) of anti-sex censorship is to reinforce the traditional gender role of women as weak and helpless possessions of men rather than to change it.Claims that Strossen ignores the exploitation of women in this book miss the point. She is not writing that exploitation does not exist, just that it is not a product of the sexually-explicit expression itself (nor would banning "pornography" eliminate it). Would one ban the clothing industry and walk around naked because children suffer in sweatshops? Or does one recognize that the exploiters are the problem, not the clothes?Strossen has been accused of being a pawn of "pimps" in her role as the president of the American Civil Liberties Union. The ironic story of those same anti-sex, pro-censorship feminists running to the ACLU to (successfully) defend their right to publicly display and distribute "pornography" is quite an eye-opener -- so to speak.

Very Informative and Insightful

A carefully written book that tackles many of the difficult issues in the field of first amendment jurisprudence. Nadine Strossen explains the underlying inconsistancies with the anti-porn, procensorship view. Brilliantly written!! For those interested in reading about free speech issues, I also recommend "Beyond the Burning Cross : A Landmark Case of Race, Censorship and the First Amendment" by Edward Cleary.

An important defense of the First Amendment

I liked the carefully reasoned defense of pornography in this book. By the end of this book you will be able to stand up to the mcDworkinites and their ilk. You will also be just a bit tired of hearing the same argument repeated from every possible angle. The author points out that victim's like Linda Lovelace are rare and snuff films are mythology. However, you will have to go elsewhere to find a solid analysis of what pornography does to its practitioners