ABSTRACT
A recurring concern within feminist philosophy of language has been with the ways in which women are systematically disadvantaged qua language users. There are several dimensions to this kind of disadvantage, but one that has particularly interested theorists is silencing. It is clear that a speaker can be silenced by being prevented from uttering words. Not every speaker who is silenced in one of the senses just distinguished is thereby harmed, or wronged. Much of the literature on silencing has focused on one particular wrong, namely, infringement of the silenced speaker's right to free speech. The Silencing Argument offers a response to those who would acknowledge that pornography systematically harms women, but still argues that, as speech, it must be protected under any reasonable principle of free speech. Miranda Fricker considers the hermeneutical injustice to be a species of epistemic injustice.
