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

Massachusetts. T he city council refused to allow it on theballot; we had to sue for ballot access; the civil libertiespeople opposed our having that access; we won the courtcase and the city was ordered to put the law on the ballot.We got 42 percent of the vote, a higher percentage thanfeminists got on the first wom en’s suffrage referendum .In 1988, the law was on the ballot in Bellingham, W ashington,in the presidential election; we got 62 percent ofthe vote. T he city had tried to keep us off the ballot; againwe had to get a court order to gain ballot access. T he Cityof Bellingham was sued by the ACLU in federal court forhaving the law, however unwillingly; a federal districtjudge found the law unconstitutional, simply reiteratingthe previous appeals court decision in the Indianapoliscase— indeed, there was a statem ent that the harm s ofpornography were recognized and not in dispute.We have not been able to get the courts to confront areal woman plaintiff suing a real pornographer for deprivingher o f real rights through sexual exploitation orsexual abuse. This is because the challenges to the civilrights law have been abstract argum ents about speech, asif women’s lives are abstract, as if the harm s are abstract,conceded but not real. T he women trapped in the picturescontinue to be perceived as the free speech of the pimpswho exploit them. No judge seems willing to look such awoman, three-dim ensional and breathing, in the face andtell her that the pim p’s use of her is his constitutionallyprotected right o f speech; that he has a right to expresshimself by violating her. T he women on whom the pornographyis used in assault rem ain invisible and speechlessin these court cases. No judge has had to try to sleep atnight having heard a real wom an’s voice describing whathappened to her, the incest, the rape, the gang rape, thebattery, the forced prostitution. Keeping these women silentin courts o f law is the main strategy of the free speechlaywers who defend the pornography industry. Hey, theylove literature; they deplore sexism. If some women gethurt, that’s the price we pay for freedom . Who are the