Nadine Strossen

A clear and thorough review of the arguments against additional hate speech laws, suitable for arming oneself for debates on the topic. I say additional because, as Strossen helpfully points out, we already have emergency, direct incitement, and harassment laws on the books.

"Hate" is a bit dry overall. More treatment of horror stories of the abuses of hate speech statutes in Europe would have been very welcome, perhaps even a very egregious story with a personal interview, to open the book and prime the reader, as is usual with popular muckraking books. Otherwise, Strossen seems to be preaching to the law profession choir. Some readers might not make it to the all-important counterspeech, or what to do instead, section at the end, but the book is quite short.… (more)

I didn't manage to start and finish reading this book (started it a couple of times but never finished) until just this year (2007). I found it to be interesting, and I found that it made many good points, but I also found that it was a bit dated.

Most people I know now have never heard of Andrea Dworkin or Catharine MacKinnon. The feminist movement has transformed into one that is more towards sexual freedom than the restrictive, almost neo-con, feminism of Dworkin and MacKinnon, and it seems that the pro-censorship feminists have been marginalized to a great extent.

Defending Pornography spends its time rallying the troops against the pro-censorship faction of modern feminism, as it needed to at the time, but perhaps it was too successful. The danger is no longer from that faction, but, rather, from the traditional places (e.g. the religious right). This makes it kind of preaching to the choir and not seemingly as applicable.

It is a good read if someone is a student of 90's politics, but beyond that, it didn't have much to offer me.… (more)