FEMINIST ORDINANCE RESTRICTING PORNOGRAPHY VIOLATES 1ST AMENDMENT

The First Amendment may seem like a simple piece to the Constitution, but in reality, it is far from simple. Written in 1791 as one of nine amendments in the Bill of Rights, the First Amendment has taken an entirely new form due to the digital age. 

For this blog post, I decided to date back to the 1970s and ’80s. Due to studying Women and Gender Studies, the First Amendment has posed problems in gender equality since its origin. Although this is not a “current event”- it still poses just as problematic today. The First Amendment in regards to all intersections of women (trans women, black women, Muslim women, etc.) generates interesting debate on if it is in fact, equal. 

Feminist radicalism gained prominence in the 1970s as people began to realize how gender affects all areas of the human experience. Many scholars denoted the Constitution during this era, due to it being written much before women’s suffrage. The main point of women in regards to the First Amendment at the time was: 

“Court said feminist ordinance restricting pornography violated the First Amendment

MacKinnon and Dworkin drafted an ordinance designed to restrict pornography not as obscenity, but on the grounds that it reinforced the subordination of women and encouraged violence against them. To proponents of the radical feminist view on pornography, the argument that the material might have some other value was irrelevant, because the harm to over half the population outweighed other considerations.” 

This excerpt shows the complex nature of the debate on the First Amendment protecting pornography and how it may reinscribe its role. 

Today, feminists take many different stances on pornography but this event in itself shows the complex nature of the First Amendment and its role in human life.

Source:

https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1255/feminist-theory