1. SIMON SCHAMA, CITIZENS: A CHRONICLE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 211 (1989).

  2. CAMILLE PAGLIA, SEX, ART, AND AMERICAN CULTURE 48 (1992).

  3. ELIZABETH FOX-GENOVESE, FEMINISM WITHOUT ILLUSIONS:   A CRITIQUE OF INDIVIDUALISM 87 (1991)

  4. The term "pornography" derives from the Greek words porne, meaning harlot, and graphos, meaning writing.

  5. Apparently, the term "pornotopia" was coined by STEVEN MARCUS, THE OTHER VICTORIANS: A STUDY OF SEXUALITY AND PORNOGRAPHY IN MID­NINETEENTH­CENTURY ENGLAND 216, 266­86 (1966). Our use of the term is not necessarily tied to Marcus's understanding of it.

  6. See infra pp. 1382­83.

  7. HARRY KALVEN, JR., A WORTHY TRADITION: FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN AMERICA (Jamie Kalven ed., 1988).

  8. See HARRY KALVEN, JR., THE NEGRO AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT 16 (1965).

  9. CASS R. SUNSTEIN, DEMOCRACY AND THE PROBLEM OF FREE SPEECH 18 (1993).

  10. Id. at 19 (quoting SAMUEL H. BEER, TO MAKE A NATION 96 (1993) and STEPHEN HOLMES, PASSIONS AND CONSTRAINT (forthcoming 1994)).

  11. Id.

  12. Id. at 21.

  13. JOHN RAWLS, POLITICAL LIBERALISM at xix (1993).

  14. SUNSTEIN, supra note 9, at 215.

  15. See id. at 10­11.

  16. See generally Commerce & Communication at 724­25 (describing America's shift from "citizen­democracy" to "consumer­democracy"); Paratroopers, supra note *, at 1090­97, 1120­21 (arguing that a "tyranny of pleasure" threatens Madisonian ideals of free speech).

  17. See, e.g., Kaplan v. California, 413 U.S. 115, 118­20 (1973) (holding an unillustrated book to be obscene).

  18. See 1 ATTORNEY GEN.'S COMM'N ON PORNOGRAPHY, U.S. DEP'T OF JUSTICE, FINAL REPORT 382­85 (1986) [hereinafter FINAL REPORT].

  19. This is the non­pictorial book that Chief Justice Burger and four of his colleagues found obscene in Kaplan, 413 U.S. at 118­20.

    In a few highly publicized but isolated cases, prosecutors have gone after so­called obscene lyrics in rap or rock music. See MARJORIE HEINS, SEX, SIN, AND BLASPHEMY: A GUIDE TO AMERICA'S CENSORSHIP WARS 77­94 (1993); Kenneth W. Masters, Law in the Electronic Brothel: How Postmodern Media Affect First Amendment Obscenity Doctrine, 15 U.PUGET SOUND L.REV. 415, 449­67 (1992).

  20. See generally Commerce & Communication at 724­26 (describing the "commercialization of discourse"); The First Amendment in an Age of Paratroopers at 1088 (warning of the danger of tyranny by "the public's insatiable appetite for amusement"); Pissing in the Snow at 785 (summarizing the "integrative forces of mass talk").

  21. New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 270 (1964) (stating that "debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide­open"); see also infra pp. 1387­88.

  22. Milk Wagon Drivers Union Local 753 v. Meadowmoor Dairies, Inc., 312 U.S. 287, 293 (1941).

  23. Susan E. Keller, Viewing and Doing: Complicating Pornography's Meaning, 81 GEO.L.J. 2195, 2223 (1993).

  24. ANNETTE KUHN, THE POWER OF THE IMAGE: ESSAYS ON REPRESENTATION AND SEXUALITY 44 (1985).

  25. See Elizabeth Cowie, Pornography and Fantasy: Psychoanalytic Perspectives, in SEX EXPOSED: SEXUALITY AND THE PORNOGRAPHY DEBATE 132, 141­ 43, 146 (Lynne Segal & Mary McIntosh eds., 1993) [hereinafter SEX EXPOSED].

  26. Id. at 145­46.

  27. See Commerce at 733­36; Ronald K.L. Collins & David M. Skover, The First Amendment in Bold Relief: A Reply, 68 TEX.L.REV. 1185, 1186­87 (1990); Paratroopers at 1120­21.

  28. JEROME A. BARRON & C. THOMAS DIENES, FIRST AMENDMENT LAW IN A NUTSHELL 91 (1993).

  29. DONNA TARTT, THE SECRET HISTORY 155 (1992).

  30. Id.

  31. SUSANNE KAPPELER, THE PORNOGRAPHY OF REPRESENTATION 188 (1986).

  32. Id. at 179.

  33. LINDA WILLIAMS, HARD CORE: POWER, PLEASURE, AND THE "FRENZY OF THE VISIBLE" 46 (1989).

  34. SUSIE BRIGHT, SUSIE BRIGHT'S SEXUAL REALITY: A VIRTUAL SEX WORLD READER 68 (1992) (quoting Richard Kadrey).

  35. Id. at 69.

  36. HOWARD RHEINGOLD, VIRTUAL REALITY 348 (1991).

  37. For a compendium of existing sexual opportunities in cyberspace, see PHILLIP ROBINSON, NANCY TAMOSAITIS, PETER SPEAR & VIRGINIA SOPER, THE JOY OF CYBERSEX: THE UNDERGROUND GUIDE TO ELECTRONIC EROTICA (1993). For imaginative accounts of the potential for cybersex, see Julian Dibbell, A Rape in Cyberspace, VILLAGE VOICE, Dec. 21, 1993, at 36; Joel Garreau, Bawdy Bytes: The Growing World of Cybersex, WASH. POST, Nov. 29, 1993, at A1; Chris Molnar, Cybersex, ADBUSTERS Q., Winter 1994, at 22.

  38. Whether anyone (including us) could be immune to such intoxication remains in doubt. Consider the text on p. 1386.

  39. See U.S. DEP'T OF JUSTICE, BEYOND THE PORNOGRAPHY COMMISSION: THE FEDERAL RESPONSE 6 (1988) [hereinafter RESPONSE].

  40. GORDON HAWKINS & FRANKLIN E. ZIMRING, PORNOGRAPHY IN A FREE SOCIETY 70 (1988).

  41. See Michael S. Kimmel, "Insult" or "injury": Sex, Pornography, and Sexism, in MEN CONFRONT PORNOGRAPHY 305, 317 (Michael S. Kimmel ed., 1990).

  42. See HEINS, supra note 19, at 35.

  43. See WILLIAMS, supra note 33, at 231, 293 n. 1 (citing a Redbook magazine survey of 26,000 women); Anne McClintock, Gonad the Barbarian and the Venus Flytrap, in SEX EXPOSED, supra note 25, at 111, 130. It is unclear to us whether the women represented in these studies engaged in the renting and viewing of pornography at their own or another's behest.

  44. Moreover, America's captains of commerce feed the public's sexual appetites by tendering ever more daring depictions of the erotic life to sell alcohol, cars, fragrances, jeans, and magazines (from Sports Illustrated to Vanity Fair). See generally ERIC CLARK, THE WANT MAKERS: INSIDE THE WORLD OF ADVERTISING 113­23 (1988) (describing the evolution of more and more sexually explicit advertising).

  45. See Giselle Benatar, Sex and Money, ENT. WKLY., Nov. 6, 1992, at 19, 20, 23.

  46. For moralists, pornography is the glorification of hedonism, the degradation of the noble in humanity, and the public exposure of private intimacy. The government must regulate to prevent these evils. See, e.g., HARRY M. CLOR, OBSCENITY AND PUBLIC MORALITY: CENSORSHIP IN A LIBERAL SOCIETY 6­7 (1969).

  47. For radical feminists, pornography subjugates, degrades, objectifies, defames, and even kills and rapes women. It is not mere speech, but gender inequality and violence, and ought to be regulated by government. See, e.g., ANDREA DWORKIN, PORNOGRAPHY: MEN POSSESSING WOMEN 13­47, 129­98 (1981); CATHARINE A. MACKINNON, ONLY WORDS 38­41 (1993).

  48. For liberals and libertarians, pornography is expression that largely impacts the realms of moral autonomy and individual privacy, and the government must not therefore regulate private consumption of pornography. See, e.g., MARTIN H. REDISH, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS 263 (1984); Ronald Dworkin, Is There a Right to Pornography?, 1 OXFORD J.LEGAL STUD. 177, 199, 206 (1981).

  49. For neo­Freudian feminists, pornography is the celebration of the innate human libidinal energy, and the government must not regulate to prevent women from becoming the equals of men where the enjoyment of sex­­in all its ugly and beautiful forms­­is concerned. See, e.g., Cowie, supra note 25, at 132­52.

  50. For Foucauldian feminists, pornography is discourse about power that is currently male­centered. The government must not intervene to prevent women from forming their own pornographic vision of the erotic life. See, e.g., WILLIAMS, supra note 33, at 229­30.

  51. FOX­GENOVESE, supra note 3, at 90.

  52. Leon Wieseltier, Total Quality Meaning, NEW REPUBLIC, July 19 & 26, 1993, at 16, 18. We adapt Mr. Wieseltier's words for our own purposes without expressing any view on his particular topic.

  53. Id.

  54. THOMAS HOBBES, LEVIATHAN 459 (Richard Tuck ed., Cambridge Univ. Press 1991) (1651) (emphasis omitted).

  55. GEORGES BATAILLE, EROTISM: DEATH AND SENSUALITY 16 (Mary Dalwood trans., City Lights Books 1986) (1957).

  56. See HOBBES, supra note 54, at 89, 91­92.

  57. LEO STRAUSS, NATURAL RIGHT AND HISTORY 169, 188­89 (1953); see also FREDERICK VAUGHAN, THE TRADITION OF POLITICAL HEDONISM 69­80 (1982) (crediting Hobbes for introducing the "politics of hedonism" into Western social thought).

  58. SHADIA B. DRURY, THE POLITICAL IDEAS OF LEO STRAUSS 135 (1988); see also C.B. MACPHERSON, THE POLITICAL THEORY OF POSSESSIVE INDIVIDUALISM I (1962) (attributing to Hobbes the development of a theory of "political rights and obligation[s] from the interest and will of dissociated individuals"); MICHAEL OAKESHOTT, The Moral Life in the Writings of Thomas Hobbes, in RATIONALISM IN POLITICS 248, 251­52 (1962) (characterizing Hobbes's theory as centered on human individuality driven by the pursuit of pleasure).

  59. See EDWARD DE GRAZIA & ROGER K. NEWMAN, BANNED FILMS: MOVIES, CENSORS AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT 343­45 (1982).

  60. See ARISTOPHANES, Lysistrata, in 3 ARISTOPHANES 2 (Benjamin B. Rogers trans., William Heinemann Ltd. 1924).

  61. CATHARINE A. MACKINNON, TOWARD A FEMINIST THEORY OF THE STATE 138 (1989).

  62. Id. at 197.

  63. See, e.g., American Booksellers Ass'n v. Hudnut, 771 F.2d 323, 328­ 29 & nn. 1­2 (7th Cir.1985) (Easterbrook, J.), aff'd mem., 475 U.S. 1001 (1986). On the matter of just what the American Booksellers Court "conceded," compare Catharine A. MacKinnon, Pornography: An Exchange, N.Y.REV.BOOKS, Mar. 3, 1994, at 47, 48 (arguing in a letter to the editor that the court conceded pornography's harm to women) and Ronald Dworkin, Reply, N.Y.REV.BOOKS, Mar. 3, 1994, at 48 (arguing the court conceded harm only arguendo).

  64. American Booksellers, 771 F.2d at 328.

  65. MACKINNON, supra note 47, at 93; see also Catharine A. MacKinnon, Crimes of War, Crimes of Peace, in ON HUMAN RIGHTS: THE OXFORD AMNESTY LECTURES 1993, at 83, 232 n. 7 (Stephen Shute & Susan Hurley eds., 1993) (asserting that American Booksellers condones pornography).

  66. THOMAS MANN, DEATH IN VENICE AND SEVEN OTHER STORIES 3­75 (H.T. Lowe­ Porter trans., Vintage Books 1954) (1912).

  67. Id. at 75.

  68. BATAILLE, supra note 55, at 17.

  69. Id. at 16.

  70. SIMON LEE, THE COST OF FREE SPEECH 125 (1990).

  71. ANDREA DWORKIN, Letter from a War Zone, in LETTERS FROM A WAR ZONE 308, 308 (1993).

  72. PAGLIA, supra note 2, at 74 (interview with CNN Television's Sonya Friedman).

  73. CATHARINE A. MACKINNON, FEMINISM UNMODIFIED: DISCOURSES ON LIFE AND LAW 174 (1987).

  74. Regina v. Butler, 2 W.W.R. 577, 609 (1992) (Can.). In Butler, the Canadian Supreme Court unanimously upheld its federal pornography law on the grounds of sexual equality. See id. at 618.

  75. Job 4I:II (New Oxford Annotated).

  76. BOB WOODWARD & SCOTT ARMSTRONG, THE BRETHREN: INSIDE THE SUPREME COURT 198 (1979).

  77. Id.

  78. Perhaps rubber also "spoke" to the nineteenth­century American anti­pornography crusader Anthony Comstock, who once boasted of using the federal law that was his namesake to confiscate and destroy 60,300 rubber articles. See HEINS, supra note 19, at 27­28.

  79. See HOBBES, supra note 54, at 48.

  80. See Alexander Meiklejohn, The First Amendment Is an Absolute, 1961 SUP.CT.REV. 245, 262.

  81. Id.

  82. Id.

  83. See PLATO, THE REPUBLIC X.600 (Francis M. Cornford trans., 1941).

  84. Robert H. Bork, Neutral Principles and Some First Amendment Problems, 47 IND.L.J. 1, 29 (1971).

  85. Ginzburg v. United States, 383 U.S. 463, 499 n. 3 (1966) (Stewart, J., dissenting) (quoting brief of U.S. Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall).

  86. Frederick Schauer, Speech and "Speech"­­Obscenity and "Obscenity": An Exercise in the Interpretation of Constitutional Language, 67 GEO.L.J. 899, 921­22 (1979).

  87. John M. Finnis, "Reason and Passion": The Constitutional Dialectic of Free Speech and Obscenity, 116 U.PA.L.REV. 222, 236 (1967).

  88. Frederick Schauer, Response: Pornography and the First Amendment, 40 U.PITT.L.REV. 605, 607 (1979).

  89. Finnis, supra note 87, at 241.

  90. Id. at 240 (quoting Ginzburg v. United States, 383 U.S. 463, 470 (1966)).

  91. 1 FINAL REPORT, supra note 18, at 266. Frederick Schauer served as one of the members of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography and significantly influenced the contents of its final report.

  92. JOEL FEINBERG, 2 THE MORAL LIMITS OF THE CRIMINAL LAW: OFFENSE TO OTHERS 169 (1985).

  93. 1 FINAL REPORT, supra note 18, at 266.

  94. FREDERICK SCHAUER, FREE SPEECH: A PHILOSOPHICAL ENQUIRY 182 (1982).

  95. EDWARD DE GRAZIA, GIRLS LEAN BACK EVERYWHERE: THE LAW OF OBSCENITY AND THE ASSAULT ON GENIUS 626 (1992) (quoting Robert Mapplethorpe).

  96. See Robert Mapplethorpe, X Portfolio, Jim and Tom, and Sausalito, in CULTURE WARS: DOCUMENTS FROM THE RECENT CONTROVERSIES IN THE ARTS 321 (Richard Bolton ed., 1992) (photographs); see also SUNSTEIN, supra note 9, at 226 (arguing Robert Mapplethorpe's photography merits "fierce protection").

  97. DE GRAZIA, supra note 95, at 652 (quoting Frederick Schauer).

  98. For a thoughtful discussion of circularity in definitions of art and pornography, see KAPPELER, supra note 31, at 84.

  99. DE GRAZIA, supra note 95, at 652 (quoting Frederick Schauer).

  100. BRIGHT, supra note 34, at 73 (quoting Camille Paglia).

  101. See SCHAUER, supra note 94, at 182­83.

  102. FOX­GENOVESE, supra note 3, at 107.

  103. FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL 93 (Walter Kaufmann trans., Vintage Books 1966) (1886).

  104. Letter from Niccolo Machiavelli to Francesco Guicciardini (May 17, 1521) in THE LETTERS OF MACHIAVELLI 200 (Allan Gilbert trans. & ed., 1961).

  105. SUNSTEIN, supra note 9, at 244 (drawing on the words of Jon Elster, Strategic Uses of Argument, in BARRIERS TO CONFLICT RESOLUTION (Kenneth Arrow ed., forthcoming 1994)).

  106. Id.

  107. Id. (quoting FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, MAXIMS 65 (Leonard Tancock trans., Penguin Books 1959) (1665)). It is well to remember that La Rochefoucauld also said: "We are never so ridiculous through qualities we have as through those we pretend to have." LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, supra at 54.

  108. SUNSTEIN, supra note 9, at 244; see also JON ELSTER, THE CEMENT OF SOCIETY 109 (1989) (describing the culture of hypocrisy, which holds that preservation of social norms may be more important than admission of violations of them).

  109. LEO STRAUSS, THE CITY AND MAN 102 (1964).

  110. Allan Bloom, Interpretive Essay, in PLATO, THE REPUBLIC 307, 367 (Allan Bloom trans., 1968).

  111. 208 U.S. 412 (1908) (upholding state legislation setting a maximum of ten hours work a day for women employed in factories and laundries).

  112. Robin Morgan, Theory and Practice: Pornography and Rape, in TAKE BACK THE NIGHT: WOMEN ON PORNOGRAPHY 134, 139 (Laura Lederer ed., 1980).

  113. Wendy Kaminer, Pornography and the First Amendment: Prior Restraints and Private Action, in TAKE BACK THE NIGHT: WOMEN ON PORNOGRAPHY, supra note 112, at 241, 241.

  114. ANDREA DWORKIN & CATHARINE A. MACKINNON, PORNOGRAPHY AND CIVIL RIGHTS: A NEW DAY FOR WOMEN'S EQUALITY 138 (1988).

  115. Of course, there are other notable arguments offered by the radical feminists to justify censorship of pornography, including rationales tied to civil equality and critical race theory. See, e.g., MACKINNON, supra note 47, at 45­68. We confine our discussion to the personal harm argument because it appears to have received the most public attention and because it has been frequently attacked as rhetorical.

  116. Nadine Strossen, A Feminist Critique of 'The' Feminist Critique, 79 VA.L.REV. 1099, 1173 (1993).

  117. FOX­GENOVESE, supra note 3, at 95.

  118. Edward Donnerstein & Daniel Linz, Mass Media Sexual Violence and Male Viewers: Current Theory and Research, 29 AM.BEHAVIORAL SCIENTIST 601, 616 (1986).

  119. Todd Gitlin, The Left and Porno, in MEN CONFRONT PORNOGRAPHY, supra note 41, at 102, 103.

  120. Joel Kovel, The Antidialectic of Pornography, in MEN CONFRONT PORNOGRAPHY, supra note 41, at 153, 167.

  121. Wendy Kaminer, Feminists Against the First Amendment, ATLANTIC MONTHLY, Nov. 1992, at 110, 118.

  122. KAPPELER, supra note 31, at 157.

  123. Gitlin, supra note 119, at 104; see also ZILLAH R. EISENSTEIN, THE RADICAL FUTURE OF LIBERAL FEMINISM 220­53 (1993) (arguing that the contemporary capitalist state strives to contain the subversive quality of liberal feminist attacks on society's patriarchal organization).

  124. George F. Will, Pornography Scare, WASH. POST, Oct. 28, 1993, at A23 (emphasis added).

  125. TIMOTHY WHITE, ROCK LIVES: PROFILES AND INTERVIEWS 254 (1990) (quoting Jimi Hendrix).

  126. See DE GRAZIA & NEWMAN, supra note 59, at 378­79. Penthouse International's Bob Guccione, one of the film's producers, characterized it thus: "Comparing an X­rated film to Caligula is like comparing the shootout at the O.K. Corral to the Second World War." Id. at 148.