NPN’s Jendi Reiter critiques Clay Calvert and Robert D. Richards, “Porn in Their Words: Female Leaders in the Adult Entertainment Industry Address Free Speech, Censorship, Feminism, Culture and the Mainstreaming of Adult Content” (PDF), published last year in the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law [9 Vand. J. Ent. & Tech. L. 255 (2006)].This article […]
First Amendment
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 […]
Anti-Porn Legend Gloria Steinem to Give 2007 Commencement Address at Smith College
We are excited to hear that Gloria Steinem, 1956 Smith graduate and feminist legend, will return to campus on May 20 to give the commencement address. Steinem’s early freelance work includes an undercover article for Show magazine on the working conditions of Playboy bunnies. Her stance against porn is clear: If you have two groups […]
US Fifth Circuit Appeals Court Affirms that Evidence of Secondary Effects of “Off-Site Consumption” Adult Enterprises Is Sufficient To Justify Zoning
Some porn merchants claim that adult bookstores (as opposed to adult theaters) only have off-site consumption of porn, that they generate no signficant secondary effects, and that they should be exempt from adult-use zoning. The US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals disagrees (PDF), and just found that the City of Kennedale, TX has sufficiently demonstrated […]
Harvard Law Professor Frederick Schauer’s “The Boundaries of the First Amendment”; Government Regulates Many Kinds of Speech
Anti-porn activists have typically had to defend themselves against charges that they are carving out partisan exceptions to a constitutional principle whose effectiveness, maybe even sacredness, derives from its neutrality. Justice, it seems, is never more blind than when she is reading Hustler. However, one might argue that the application of the First Amendment to […]
Catharine MacKinnon: Mass Media Reflexively, Subtly Protect Pornographers
Mass media often confuse their interests with those of pornographers, says Catharine MacKinnon in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.3-24). This is unnecessary and unfortunate, and has the effect of impoverishing the debate about porn and discrediting those opposed to porn. Until the publication of [In Harm’s Way], the public discussion of […]
Tommy Devine: “people like me, who in the past have taken an indifferent approach to pornography in the name of free speech, need to do more to educate ourselves and others about porn’s destructive properties”
Tommy Devine has been observing the Valley’s political culture for some years as the man behind The Baystate Objectivist [see interview]. In “Freedom and Decency”, posted on 1/13/07, he shares his reactions to one of NoPornNorthampton’s recent publications… Like most people who work in any field involving self-expression, I’m an absolutist where freedom of speech […]
Recommended Book: Local Regulation of Adult Businesses (2007 edition)
Those looking to draft local legislation regarding adult businesses should get a hold of Local Regulation of Adult Businesses (2007 edition), by Jules B. Gerard and Scott D. Bergthold. From the description: Provides detailed, up-to-date case law Focuses on the four main regulatory devices of obscenity, zoning, licensing, and nuisance control Examines recent United States […]
Rebutting ACLU President Nadine Strossen’s Defense of Pornography
Long-time anti-pornographer Diana Russell takes on Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union and author of Defending Pornography. Nadine Strossen’s OBJECTIVE in Defending Pornography is to destroy the reputation and achievements of the feminist movement against pornography. To this end, she dishes up the same tired old caricature of us as anti-sex prudes, […]
Capital Video Attorney Michael Pill: Fickle Defender of Free Speech
Capital Video Attorney Michael Pill has tried to portray himself as a First Amendment hero, suggesting that legal restrictions on porn shops are impermissible infringements on freedom of speech. However, not so long ago he was on the other side of the argument, trying to use the law to impede people from practicing their religions, […]