Words are deemed to be so powerful that syllables are acts in and of themselves. Indeed, to eliminate such words, radical feminists have been willing to damage other causes near to their hearts. Consider the 1992 Butler decision by which the Supreme Court of Canada wrote a radical feminist definition of obscenity into Canadian law. Vigorously championed by most feminists in Canada and the US, the Butler decision allows Canadian customs to seize what it judges to be pornography at the border as the material is being imported. Yet radical feminists and many lesbian activists continued to defend the Butler decision.
Lesbian bookstores are acceptable casualties in the war against pornography, the war against words.
According to radical feminists, only a profound political difference between the two sexes could explain why women have been the victims of men throughout time. Men oppress women because it is in their class nature to do so. Radical feminists point to pornography as one of the main mechanisms through which male structure maintains its incredible longevity. Because, to them, sex and a woman s body are social constructs. Foucault argued that history and culture are indispensable to an understanding sexuality.