The new politics of pornography /

The springboard for this book is the Minneapolis obscenity ordinance created by feminists Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin. This ordinance rejected liberalism's doctrine of free speech, maintained that pornography consists of harm to women, and made pornography a civil rights offense. Downs (University of Wisconsin at Madison), citing pornography's potential for both benefits and harm, rejects the extremism of both liberalism and radical feminism. Instead, he attempts to balance the interests of the two by addings a fourth prong to the Supreme Court's 1973 Miller test that would, in effect, limit it to prohibiting "violent obscenity." Downs draws his conclusions from his study of the "new politics" of pornography as exhibited in the passage of the ordinance by the town councils of Minneapolis and Indianapolis. Based on transcripts of council debates and extensive interviewing, he faults the feminists for engaging in guerilla theater, and the officials for neglecting their duty to protect rights. The portrayal of MacKinnon as having exerted extraordinary powers over unsuspecting council members implies feminist witchery. In place of interviews with either MacKinnon or Dworkin, Downs relies on quotations from their works ripped out of context. A controversial issue and book. Recommended for all libraries. S. Behuniak-Long Le Moyne College

Political science professor at the University of Wisconsin, Downs ( Nazis in Skokie ) undertakes an objective and thought-provoking analysis of the unusual marriage of right-wing conservative philosophy and leftist extremist feminism in the crusade against pornography. According to Downs, just when American culture seemed to have achieved an equilibrium between First Amendment rights and protection from obscenity, grass-roots feminists and moralists in Minneapolis recast the issue. They lobbied for city ordinances that were passed in 1983 only to be vetoed by the mayor. A modified version was enacted in Indianapolis in 1984 but was ruled unconstitutional. Downs reconstructs the momentum and fervor of the activists, balancing his account with the perspective that the participants lacked, and deftly examines the national ramifications, both political and legal, of these local battles. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved