I always thought that Catherine McKinnon was a marginalized extremist, comical, and not deserving of serious consideration on the legal or political arena.
But she refuses to go away. She just came out with a new book, published by Harvard Press, "Women's Lives, Men's Laws", in which presumably she continues her war against pornography as the root of all evil in America today.
Her basic thesis seems to be that pornography sets standards for behavior, including at work. And because pornography is ubiquitous, it threatens sexual harassment law.
Is that completely crazy, or what?
She's been saying this for at least 30 years, and now she's saying it again in her new book. My feeling is that she's nuts, basically. But why does she continue to get so much respect among academics, and now with Harvard Press?
Quote:
The single most powerful force in undercutting sex equality at work remains the cultural sexualization of women, which has gained momentum over the same 30 years. During this time, pornography has increasingly saturated the world, both public and private, making itself ever more legitimate. Major corporations and mainstream media increasingly distribute what the pornography industry produces, trafficking women and girls for sexual use. With pornography infusing daily life more and more, its power to turn women into sexual objects, to eroticize domination as the meaning of being a man and subordination as the meaning of being a woman, and to desensitize its users to sexual abuse effectively sets standards for behavior, including at work.
. . . .
At stake in Lyle vs. Warner Bros. is nothing less than whether the pervasive pornographization of women will be permitted to destroy the law against harassment at work. Few institutions have the power to stand up to the well-documented effects of pornography, including making violation normal and inequality sexy.
Will sexual harassment law collapse under this onslaught or continue to be a force for sex equality for women at work?
--Catherine McKinnon
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...mment-opinions
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