J.M Coetzees The Harms of Pornography - 1909 Words

J.M Coetzees The Harms of Pornography As the debate over pornography and its place in society grows hotter every day, several authors in particular shed a new light on the subject. Both their intuition and insight involving their beliefs can help the reader a great deal in seeing aspects of this debate that might have otherwise gone without the consideration that they so deserve. I believe that pornography is not only okay, but is allowing our country to take a step back and ask ourselves how far we are willing to go and what we are willing to sacrifice in order to preserve free speech and our rights to personal choice. The argument over pornography is not merely the debate over right or wrong, but also involves the theory†¦show more content†¦Coetzee goes to great lengths to bring to light indescrepancies and unclarified ideas throughout MacKinnons article. One of Coetzees most prominent points is that the differences between obscenity and pornography go far beyond a difference in term based on either political or moral argument. While at times Coetzee seems to generally disagree with or at least greatly challenge MacKinnons ideas, there are times at which the two authors trains of thought almost seem to coincide. One such issue would be that MacKinnon is not necessarily looking to hunt out all occurrences of pornography in todays literature and media, but to snuff out the commercial end of it. The end that makes billions based on women being used by men, and does nothing at all to improve their social standing in our society. But why must everything be used to bolster the social position of women? It is this topic specifically that seems to have gone un-argued by Coetzee. Coetzees stand on this issue of pornography and obscenity as a part of todays culture is never quite addressed may very well remain a mystery to the reader. From many of the authors statements and criticisms of MacKinnon, one could gather that he takes a much more liberal stand and yet somehow successfully avoids pressing his opinions. He a lso does a wonderful