Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Childress, Steven Alan

Titel

Reel "Rape Speech": Violent Pornography and the Politics of Harm

Ist Teil von

• Law & Society Review, 1991, Vol.25 (1), p.177-214

Ort / Verlag

Beverly Hills, Calif: Law and Society Association

Erscheinungsjahr

1991

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• A review essay on books by: Edward Donnerstein, Daniel Linz, & Stephen Penrod, The Question of Pornography: Research Findings and Policy Implications (New York: Free Press, 1987); Gordon Hawkins & Franklin E. Zimring, Pornography in a Free Society (Cambridge: Cambridge U Press, 1988); & Donald A. Downs, The New Politics of Pornography (Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1989 [see listings in IRPS No. 60]). Donnerstein et al review two decades of research on the harmful effects of pornography, concluding that sexualized violent speech is the only form of pornography that clearly produces harmful effects, & perhaps no more so than does violent speech without explicitness. A weakness of the book is the lack of integration of the findings on pornography's harmful effects into the law & politics of pornography. Hawkins & Zimring examine the politics of the 1970 & 1986 US Commissions on Pornography & the comparable 1979 Williams Committee in England, arguing that the 1986 Meese Commission was merely an accommodation to the widespread availability of pornography & will have little impact. Downs explores the radical feminist argument against pornography, comparing the political theory underlying the feminist civil rights approach with the First Amendment defense of free speech. The regulation of rape through restriction of speech is discouraged, though focus on the specific content of "rape speech" may have merit. 36 References. D. Generoli