From: farthing@leland.Stanford.EDU (ljf)
Subject: Re: MacKinnon Suffers Snuff Harassment (was: Feminists, Radical and Otherwise)
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 92 21:15:40 GMT

In article <BxrwoH.7I1@nic.umass.edu> quilty@titan.ucc.umass.edu (Humberto Humbertoldi) writes:
>So by whom is she threatened? And what possible significance does this
>have if she's threatened by someone who has nothing to do with "snuff
>films"? What if I decide to declare that I am "researching" radical
>feminism (I do read books in this topic frequently, so I guess I am);
>then later, sometime years down the road, I receive a death threat?
>(Perhaps from a disgruntled student of mine, or ex-lover, or
>something) Should I then conclude that radfems are the type to make these
>threats? Of course not.  MacKinnon's juxtopostion of these two "facts"
>is as perfectly dishonest as most of her writing.  I would guess that
>she's outright lying about "death threats" -- she frequently does so
>on other topics... but even if she isn't it's highly dishonest to
>report them in this context.  The one thing we can be CERTAIN of is
>that MACKINNON HAS NEVER RECEIVED A DEATH THREAT FROM SNUFF-FILMAKERS!
>Sorry to shout, but the plain fact is that there is no such creature
>as a snuff-filmaker.  She might as well claim she's receiving threats
>from martians or angels.

Has MacKinnon said that she is receiving death threats from snuff-film
makers?  I haven't seen anything in this thread with an actual quote
from her.  

If she's investigating snuff-films (to see if they exist or not) and
she has received death threats, that seems reasonable to me.  I bet
she received death threats long before she decided to research
snuff-films.

It's really easy to receive death threats btw.  You can come out in a
local newspaper and receive death threats.  You can be "too" vocally
queer on a newsgroup and receive death threats.  You can receive death
threats for your political views.

>>I believe MacKinnon's overstated the case regarding snuff, but at least
>>she's doing research, rather than parroting the urban legend.  
>                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Really! I can't think of anything which more parrots the urban legend
>about the existence of snuff-films than "researching" them!

Why is investigating snuff-films parroting an urban legend?  It seems
to me that people who claim snuff-films don't exist would welcome her
investigation.  What better end to the urban legend than to have a
very vocal anti-porn female feminist annouce that she spent months
(perhaps years) trying to find one and never did?

>I have no question that she's bright enough.  I'm quite certain, in
>fact, that's she's quite intelligent enough to know already that
>there's no such thing.  The problem is that she has no problem
>whatsoever about deploying LIES, DECEPTIONS, AND HALF-TRUTHS is her
>rhetorical strategies.

So if you're intelligent, you automatically assume that there is no
such thing as a snuff-film?

I've never seen one, but I think they could exist (not saying that any
do).  And I'll tell you why.  I've talked with child abuse survivors
who tell of experiences that many people wouldn't want to think were
true.  They were.  If people can mistreat children so terribly, it's
not such a stretch to imagine that somewhere there are people who
would pay to watch women, children, or men fucked and killed.

Newsgroups: alt.feminism