Brownmiller Objective Summary

Brownmiller Objective Summary

In Susan Brownmiller's article, "Let's Put Pornography Back in the Closet," the author makes an argument for limiting the availability of pornographic material. Susan Brownmiller, a prominent feminist activist, is an author of numerous books on female rights and a founding member of Women against Pornography. Brownmiller uses the first few paragraphs to discuss times when the First Amendment was used to protect authors of controversial material in the past that was labeled obscene. The author then discusses the United States Supreme Court case of Miller vs. California. Brownmiller talks about how the decision in the case was made to give power to the states but what actually happened is that it just caused confusion because of the lack of definition of the phrases "hardcore," "prurient interest," and "patently offensive". She also mentions later the dissent decision by Justice William O. Douglas that no one is "compelled to look" which Brownmiller then makes the point that she cannot buy a news paper without being exposed to an overabundance of obscene pornographic material. The last point that Susan Brownmiller makes is that in our society we have deemed certain thing inappropriate to say, such as yelling fire in a crowded movie theater, due to their potential hard on our society and that pornographic material poses an equal threat to our society.

Student Response

I disagree is Susan Brownmillers opinion on censorship and agree with Justice William O. Douglas that no one is "compelled to look". I feel that in today's society that there way that anybody can go through their entire life without being exposed to obscene material. In order for something like that to happened, I feel that it is the responsibility of the parents of that person to keep them from being exposed to those materials which the parents may deem