Lessons from the Stigma of Segregation Apply to the Stigma of Porn

Some of our opponents claim that the stigma that surrounds porn is just a result of society’s hang-ups about sex, rather than reflecting people’s aversion to the sexism, racism, exploitation, abuse, disease, crime and blight that are associated with porn and adult enterprises… I don’t support the sort of zoning ordinance you advocate. I think […]

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Testimony in Indianapolis: Porn Wants You to Believe Women Secretly Love Bondage and Torture, that “No” Means “Yes”

Indianapolis city officials heard testimony about peoples’ encounters with porn at a hearing of the Indianapolis City-County Council Adminstration Committee on April 14, 1984. This account appears in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.283-285). Testimony of Deborah Daniels, Indianapolis Prosecutors’ Office I’d like to read you some of the titles of the […]

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Testimony in Indianapolis: Porn Teaches, Arouses Violent Behavior in Abuse Cases

Indianapolis city officials heard testimony about peoples’ encounters with porn at a hearing of the Indianapolis City-County Council Adminstration Committee on April 14, 1984. This account appears in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.281-282). Testimony of T. V. , a counselor in Indianapolis In ten years of counseling with men and women, […]

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Incest Victims: Social Action Can Be As Or More Healing Than Individual Therapy

We are again indebted to Dr. Diana Russell for permission to reprint this selection from her essay, “Politicizing Sexual Violence: A Voice in the Wildnerness”. A version of this essay appears in Feminist Foremothers in Women’s Studies, Psychology, and Mental Health (1995). Dr. Russell argues that mental health practitioners who treat incest victims and survivors […]

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A Review of Catharine MacKinnon’s Only Words

Only Words, a slim volume by University of Michigan law professor Catharine MacKinnon, published in 1993, might be considered the Bible of the radical feminist anti-pornography movement, providing a theoretical and legal framework to complement the more personal evidence presented in Andrea Dworkin‘s impassioned memoirs. MacKinnon’s intelligence and thirst for justice are undeniable, but some […]

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People on the Left and the Right Share Blame for the Sexual Miseducation of Americans

A correspondent brought to our attention this insightful interview published on the Media Education Foundation website. Jackson Katz, Ed.M. is one of America’s leading anti-sexist male activists. He is the co-founder of the Mentors In Violence Prevention (MVP) program, the leading gender violence prevention initiative in college athletics. He is the director of the first […]

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Time to Explore the Links Between Porn, Testosterone, Sexual Behavior and Violence

Not satisfied with the high degree of correlation between porn consumption and sexual callousness, our opponents keep pressing us to elaborate the mechanism that links porn and behavior. It looks like a clue lies in the role of testosterone. This hormone has many good qualities, but it is also linked with aggression and promiscuity. The […]

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Testimony in Indianapolis: Large amounts of porn in homes and cars of child molesters, used to train victims

Indianapolis city officials heard testimony about peoples’ encounters with porn at a hearing of the Indianapolis City-County Council Adminstration Committee on April 14, 1984. This account appears in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.276-280). Testimony of Mary My name is Mary and I came here today because I was a victim of […]

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A Review of Can’t Buy My Love

NPN’s Jendi Reiter reviews Jean Kilbourne, Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel. This book was published by Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, New York City (1999). Ms. Kilbourne’s documentaries are distributed by Northampton’s own Media Education Foundation. Activist filmmaker and educator Jean Kilbourne has been internationally recognized for such documentaries […]

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Porn Figures Prominently in Family’s Tragic History of Molestation

Anti-porn activists held a press conference in Minneapolis on July 25, 1984. This statement is published in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.264). Statement of Peggy Starting at age 4, old Mr. Edwards up the street used pornography to entice me into taking baths so he could watch, had me wearing his […]

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