‘Defending Pornography’ in the Age of Safe Spaces: A Nadine Strossen Q&A

Concerns about free speech undermining the equality and dignity of women helped usher in the now-fashionable equation between speech and violence, says famed civil liberties lawyer Nadine Strossen. Feminists have gone from arguing “that there is a causal connection” between discriminatory expression (a category in which many would include pornography) and violence to “denying that there is any distinction at all.”

I had the pleasure of interviewing her last week about Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women’s Rights, her 1995 book that was reissued with a new preface last month, and why free speech is a cause that all feminists should support.

Now a professor at New York Law School and a senior fellow with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), Strossen headed up the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from 1991 to 2008. She was also prominent in anti-censorship feminist action late last century, taking on the likes of Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon over the legal status and cultural meaning of sexual expression.

You can read part one of our interview in last Monday’s Sex & Tech newsletter. Here’s part two.