Nadine Strossen

Reissued with a new foreword and introduction by the author 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.

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

Defending Pornography

Megan Snodgrass

Starting this book I came in with no specific viewpoint on pornography and how that fit into the feminist agenda. With that said, my mind was quickly awakened to the rhetoric on both sides on how pornography relates to women's rights, violence, and views on women. I think Nadine Strossen does a great job laying out the framework to the current issues (re: 1995 I should say), finding a balance of research to support her views, and highlighting to the reader how pro-censorship can be a slippery slope in regards to free speech and free sexual expression. I myself think we as a society need to do a better job educating individuals about sex and at removing the feeling of shame people feel about being open sexual beings. I liked that Strossen touched on this and how if we begin to censor porn, and free sexual speech in art, literature, etc. we are only pushing things further in the dark which can be worse than having everything in the light. 

I would love to see how Strossen would speak about this issue nowadays. With internet being so prevalent, and porn being so accessible, it's not really feasible to censor it. Overall I think it's a fascinating read because it touches on all the potential ramifications censorship could bring. I do think it gets repetitive and could potentially have been shorter and still got its point across. Further, she notes that but I still think it's important to echo, in that I don't think porn in itself causes men to assault individuals, but I also don't think it's necessarily showing people uneducated in how sex works how to treat women well.

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

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