Synopsis
In the past twenty-five years, no one has been more instrumental than Catharine MacKinnon in making equal rights real for women. As Peter Jennings once put it, more than anyone else in legal studies, she "has made it easier for other women to seek justice." This collection, the first since MacKinnon's celebrated Feminism Unmodified appeared in 1987, brings together previously uncollected and unpublished work in the national arena from 1980 to the present, defining her clear, coherent, consistent approach to reframing the law of men on the basis of the lives of women.
By making visible the deep gender bias of existing law, MacKinnon has recast legal debate and action on issues of sex discrimination, sexual abuse, prostitution, pornography, and racism. The essays in this volume document and illuminate some of the momentous and ongoing changes to which this work contributes; the recognition of sexual harassment, rape, and battering as claims for sexual discrimination; the redefinition of rape in terms of women's actual experience of sexual violation; and the reframing of the pornography debate around harm rather than morality. The perspectives in these essays have played an essential part in changing American law and remain fundamental to the project of building a sex-equal future.
Library Journal
These 29 provocative essays investigate the role of law in women's everyday lives. Taking on such fundamental issues as rape, prostitution, and pornography, MacKinnon (Only Words) maintains that even when the law does not actually ignore women, its effects are usually negative, and that any law that does not take into account the basic sex inequality of male-female relationships cannot help women. The author is at her most passionate in essays describing the destructive effects of pornography on all women forced to engage in it, whether as participants, viewers, or partners of viewers; running through these essays is the story of her efforts to make pornography a civil offense in Minneapolis. Each essay stands alone but is also part of a finely crafted whole. One could wish, however, that MacKinnon's style was somewhat less academic; her arguments are important and should be accessible to both scholars and general readers. That said, this is a well-supported, timely, and necessary addition to both feminist and legal scholarship, and is highly recommended for academic libraries.-M.C. Duhig, Carnegie Lib. of Pittsburgh Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.