Pornography: Men Possessing Women, by: Andrea ... - Feminish

new social truth emerged, one that had been buried infear, shame, and the silence of the socially powerless: nowoman hurt by pornography was alone—she never hadbeen; no woman hurt by pornography would ever be aloneagain because each was— truly—a “living rem nant of thegeneral struggle. ” What the survivors said was speech; thepornography had been, throughout their lives, a means ofactively suppressing their speech. They had been turnedinto pornography in life and made mute; terrorized by itand made mute. Now, the mute spoke; the socially invisiblewere seen; the women were real; they mattered. Thisspeech—their speech—was new in the world of public discourse,and it was made possible by the development of alaw that some called censorship. The women came forwardbecause they thought that the new civil rights law recognizedwhat had happened to them, gave them recourseand redress, enhanced their civil dignity and human worth.The law itself gave them existence: I am real; they believedme; I count; social policy at last will take my life into account,validate my worth— me, the woman who was forcedto fuck a dog; me, the woman he urinated on; me, thewoman he tied up for his friends to use; me, the womanhe masturbated in; me, the woman he branded or maimed;me, the woman he prostituted; me, the woman they gangraped.The law was passed twice in Minneapolis in 1983 and1984 by two different city councils; it was vetoed each timeby the same mayor, a man active in Amnesty International,opposing torture outside of Minneapolis. The law waspassed in 1984 in Indianapolis with a redrafted definitionthat targeted violent pornography—the kind “everyone”opposes. The city was sued for passing it; the courts foundit unconstitutional. The appeals judge said that pornographydid all the harm we claimed—it prom oted insultand injury, rape and assault, even caused women to havelower wages—and that these effects proved its power asspeech; therefore, it had to be protected. In 1985, the lawwas put on the ballot by popular petition in Cambridge,