Dworkin V Mackinnon
Living in a first-world country, our freedoms and rights are protected above all else by the law. We are allowed freedom of speech, race, religion, thoughts and ideas, etc. These freedoms allow us to express ourselves to the best of our abilities. Yet some ideas that these freedoms allow us to transmit are censored in order to prevent harm to others; hate speech, propaganda, etc. is frowned upon as it may bring harm to others. The case of pornography in all this and its legal regulation is the belief of Catharine MacKinnon 's that it promotes the inequality in the sexes by discriminating women showing them as subordinates of men. MacKinnon wants to see pornography banned in order to help women 's position in the social spheres of society. Her opponent is Ronald Dworkin who stands for negative liberty in all its forms, believes that the banning of pornography is not the answer to help women 's status. Censorship to him is an infringement on one 's freedom and he does not advocate any sort of chains on freedom in anyway.
MacKinnon argues that pornography should be banned in order to help women become socially equal to men. Her logic is that since men see the visual subordination of women, in the form of rape, sexual harassment, and abuse, they will go on to commit these acts against women in reality. Abuse against women is common because of the numerous media by which pornography is transmitted. This commonness that pornography is now being attributed to is seen as its destructiveness in that it means that courts no longer have the ability to distinguish artwork and pornography. Not to so say that MacKinnon gives no evidence of its prevalence, she does so in her analogy between adult pornography and child pornography. Child pornography is regulated by law and is banned because it portrays sexual acts with children, which may cause them mental harm, and many of the children in these acts are harassed and abused. MacKinnon says that child pornography is banned
MacKinnon argues that pornography should be banned in order to help women become socially equal to men. Her logic is that since men see the visual subordination of women, in the form of rape, sexual harassment, and abuse, they will go on to commit these acts against women in reality. Abuse against women is common because of the numerous media by which pornography is transmitted. This commonness that pornography is now being attributed to is seen as its destructiveness in that it means that courts no longer have the ability to distinguish artwork and pornography. Not to so say that MacKinnon gives no evidence of its prevalence, she does so in her analogy between adult pornography and child pornography. Child pornography is regulated by law and is banned because it portrays sexual acts with children, which may cause them mental harm, and many of the children in these acts are harassed and abused. MacKinnon says that child pornography is banned
References: 1. Dyzenhaus, David, and Arthur Ripstein. Law and Morality. 2nd ed. Toronto: University of Toronto P, 2003. 2. FindLaw: For Legal Professionals. "U.S. Constitution: First Amendment". (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/)