ABSTRACT
Antipornography laws, as restrictions on sexual speech, in many ways echo and expand upon the traditional legal analysis of sexually explicit speech under the rubric of obscenity. Since the ordinances allow for suits against materials in which men appear “in place of women,” far-right antipornography crusaders could use these laws to suppress gay male pornography. Antipornography feminists draw on several feminist theories about the role of violent, aggressive or sexist representations. Feminist theorists have also argued that the sexual terrain, however power-laden, is actively contested. Women are agents, and not merely victims, who make decisions and act on them, and who desire, seek out and enjoy sexuality. Most important, what underlies this legislation and the success of its analysis in blurring and exceeding boundaries is an appeal to a very traditional view of sex: sex is degrading to women.
