Porn as Hate Speech

In a 1993 address to a law conference, attorney Catharine Mackinnon stated that aggressive and violent porn harm not only the subjects abused to make it but also porn consumers, who experience “primitive conditioning” and “unconscious mental intrusion and physical manipulation” to objectify women and sex. A model ordinance she co-wrote would have allowed porn victims to sue for damages, but it was struck down by a US federal court. In Canada, however, the Supreme Court found in 1992 that materials that degrade women were similar to hate speech.

Catharine Mackinnon is a Yale Law PhD and the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. In 2017, she released a new book, titled The Butterfly Effect.

Credits:

Audio recorded by Lee Ann Lodder in Chicago; production and narration by Lorraine Crouch; Series Producer, Frieda Werden.


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