Women's Lives, Men's Laws by Catharine A. MacKinnon

Most of them are forced to do so by pimps or because of drug abuse, past sexual abuse, or lack of other avenues for income - not by free choice. First, the women who appear in pornographic films are debased by the filming itself.In her writings, MacKinnon argues that pornography - along with sexual violation, physical violence, and prostitution - helps perpetuate the dominance of men over women in society. Pornography harms women, perpetuates gender subordination Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan and is a visiting professor at the University of Chicago. Currently, she serves as the Elizabeth A. She earned a law degree and a doctorate in political science from Yale University. In MacKinnon’s view, there exists a tension, embodied in the pornography debate, between the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech and the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection.īorn in Minneapolis, Minnesota, MacKinnon graduated from Smith College. Her most controversial work has dealt with pornography. Her book Sexual Harassment of Working Women (1979) helped lay the foundations of sexual harassment law in the United States. MacKinnon is an advocate of women's rights Here, she is speaking at the Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, Mass., on (Photo via Wikimedia Commons, public domain)Ĭatharine MacKinnon (1946– ), one of America’s foremost feminist legal scholars and theorists, is a passionate advocate of women’s rights. She believes pornography should not have protection under the First Amendment. Catharine MacKinnon is a leading American feminist who has campaigned against pornograhy, believing it perpetuates inequality between the sexes.

Women's Lives, Men's Laws by Catharine A. MacKinnon