From: quilty@titan.ucc.umass.edu (Humberto Humbertoldi)
Subject: Re: MacKinnon Suffers Snuff Harassment (was: Feminists, Radical and Otherwise)
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 19:55:28 GMT

In article <1992Nov13.221815.25739@midway.uchicago.edu> thf2@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>In article <1992Nov11.010745.6423@netcom.com> sheaffer@netcom.com (Robert Sheaffer) writes:
>>In article <misdeva-101192162448@morse-college-kstar-node.net.yale.edu> misdeva@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu (Devjani Mishra) writes:

.......["Death threats" against MacKinnon for "researching" snuff films]....
>>The humor has nothing to do with anyone's ideology. Rather, it is the
>>claim that one has received death threats from nonexistent parties.
>
>I don't see MacKinnon claiming that it's snuff-film makers who are
>threatening her.  I just see her claiming that she's being threatened
>while she researches the subject.  I also see her claiming that she
>was threatened before she researched the subject.  
>I don't find this implausible -- nearly every celebrity in this screwed-
>up society of ours receives death threats at one time or another.  
>Whether the threats against MacKinnon are serious or not, I don't know,
>but I don't see any reason to doubt they exist.

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.

>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!

>When she has mentioned snuff in the past, she was kind enough to footnote
>that her "source" for the information was a speech by Arlen Specter on
>the Senate floor complaining about snuff films, and a murder case in
>California where two teens were accused of murdering a woman to make
>a snuff film (though the alleged videotape was never found, and it
>was clear that the teens were not part of a world-wide snuff film
>pornography distribution ring).  

GREAT! Next time I write for alt.feminism I'll footnote Alastair
Crawley, or maybe Franz Kafka (no disrespect meant to either).  I just
don't get what is so "kind" about footnoting the delusions of an
ultra-reactionary.  Is is just something about the presence of a
superscript letter which makes a claim truer? And yea, I suppose
someone was probably murdered in CA (probably a lot of people), but
just because some deluded prosecutor wants to make a carreer move by
calling the suspects "snuff-filmakers" doesn't mean much.  It
certainly doesn't show the grand conspiracy of patriarchal
pornographers which MacK rants about; nor does it justify "research"
on the topic.

>Perhaps she's bright enough that
>when she fails to unturn any evidence at all of snuff existing, she'll
>cease to claim that the "pornography industry" is engaged in murder.

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.
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