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8 Harv. Women's L.J. 1 (1985)
Against the Male Flood: Censorship, Pornography, and Equality

handle is hein.journals/hwlj8 and id is 9 raw text is: AGAINST THE MALE FLOOD: CENSORSHIP, PORNOGRAPHY, AND EQUALITY ANDREA DWORKIN* Editor's Note: Andrea Dworkin's Against the Male Flood: Cen- sorship, Pornography, and Equality is not a traditional law journal article; it is a political essay. Her goal, in this as well as in her other works, is to change not only what people think, but also the way they think. Dworkin is a creator and one of the leading exponents of the feminist analysis of pornography. She is the author of several books, including Woman Hating (1974); Pornography: Men Pos- sessing Women (1981); and Right-wing Women (1983). With Catharine A. MacKinnon, she authored the anti-pornography or- dinances recently enacted in Minneapolis and Indianapolis. These ordinances declare pornography to be a form of discrimination against women and provide a civil remedy for its harms. Dworkin and MacKinnon have also drafted a model anti-pornography law, which is reproduced as Appendix A to this Essay. Against the Male Flood presents the feminist ideas and goals that underlie the anti-pornography laws. It is thus a crucial addition * Copyright © 1985 by Andrea Dworkin. I thank all of the women who talked to me about how pornography has been used on them over all the years when there was nothing we could do. I thank Jeanne Barkey in particular for her stunning work in organizing the first Minneapolis hearings on pornog- raphy; and Charlee Hoyt, for being the driving force behind getting the legislation written and enacted. I thank Van White for co-sponsoring the bill and conducting the hearings. I thank everyone who testified in behalf of the legislation at the first hearings and later in subsequent hearings, and also those who talked to the press about sexual abuse at great cost to themselves. I thank the people who organized and now run the Pornography Resource Center in Minneapolis, especially for their work in organizing victims. I espe- cially thank Therese Stanton for her extraordinary personal courage in testifying at the first Minneapolis hearings and for her untiring work in behalf of victims. I thank Steve Jevning for his tenacity, courage, and astuteness in working for the legislation, and for initiating the political process that led to both the legislation and a new kind of grassroots organizing. I especially thank my colleague, Catharine MacKinnon, for the honor of the intellectual and political dialogue we have had in conceiving and drafting the legislation, and for her indomitable will to stop the pornographers from hurting women. I thank John Stoltenberg for his many contributions to the politics of equality on which the legislation and this essay are built. All of these people contributed in both knowledge and faith to the writing of this essay. I dedicate this essay to all those resolute and brave people who worked to accomplish the passage of the first Minneapolis anti-pornography civil rights bill. Thank you.

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