NCJ Number
107288
Journal
Georgetown Law Journal Volume: 75 Issue: 4 Dated: (April 1987) Pages: 1475-1508
Date Published
1987
Length
34 pages
Annotation
Traditional legal standards for denying first amendment protections to obscene materials have focused on its moral harms to society.
Abstract
Feminist analyses of pornography have refocused the issue by emphasizing the concrete and physical harms it causes to women and have viewed it as a form of sex discrimination. While ordinances based on a feminist analysis have not been upheld by the courts, they provide a basis for a compromise approach to resolving the obscenity issue. Under such a compromise, pornography would be defined as violent, sexually explicit material without redeeming artistic, political, or scientific value. This approach would preserve the form and protections of the traditional standard, while undercutting the notion that sexuality is itself harmful and shifting the focus from moral to physical and psychological harms. In addition, such an approach more clearly defines pornography and narrows the scope of potentially regulated speech by adding a new prong to the existing definition. 217 footnotes.