Xxx

Seriously, fuck Catherine MacKinnon. McElroy, a former president of Feminists for Free Expression, does a fantastic job picking apart the messy and ultimately failing argument that pornography is bad for women. Censorship and attempts to externally regulate (through governmental regulation or morality campaigns) sexuality is what is bad for women. This would be an easy book to navigate even if you're not familiar with the tensions in feminism regarding what to “do” about pornography, and even though I am familiar with the old debates, McElroy does an excellent job bringing a historical perspective that really draws out her point that when feminists and religious conservatives make friends, it's never a happy ending. My one dislike is that the book is now over 10 years old, and so doesn't cover internet porn. I wish she'd do a re-write.