July 9, 2004

Freedom to Fantasize, but Not to Torture

To the Editor:

At the heart of Susan J. Brison's "Torture, or 'Good Old American Pornography'?" (The Chronicle Review, June 4) is this implicit argument: Women have been abused in the pornography industry in the West, and some material is offensive, so certain pornographic imagery should be censored. (Let me quickly note that I too am turned off by depictions of violence, sexual or otherwise.) ...

Everyone should be able to get legal recourse against any perpetrator of a