Butterfly Politics : Changing the World for Women, With a New Preface

“Sometimes ideas change the world. This astonishing, miraculous, shattering, inspiring book captures the origins and the arc of the movement for sex equality. It’s a book whose time has come—always, but perhaps now more than ever.” —Cass Sunstein, coauthor of Nudge Under certain conditions, small simple actions can produce large and complex “butterfly effects.” Butterfly Politics shows how Catharine A. MacKinnon turned discrimination law into an effective tool against sexual abuse—grounding and predicting the worldwide #MeToo movement—and proposes concrete steps that could have further butterfly effects on women’s rights. Thirty years after she won the U.S. Supreme Court case establishing sexual harassment as illegal, this timely collection of her previously unpublished interventions on consent, rape, and the politics of gender equality captures in action the creative and transformative activism of an icon. “MacKinnon adapts a concept from chaos theory in which the tiny motion of a butterfly’s wings can trigger a tornado half a world away. Under the right conditions, she posits, small actions can produce major social transformations.” —New York Times “MacKinnon [is] radical, passionate, incorruptible and a beautiful literary stylist... Butterfly Politics is a devastating salvo fired in the gender wars... This book has a single overriding aim: to effect global change in the pursuit of equality.” —The Australian “Sexual Harassment of Working Women was a revelation. It showed how this anti-discrimination law—Title VII—could be used as a tool... It was the beginning of a field that didn’t exist until then.” —U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg The Theme Of This Book Is Intervening In The Process Of Social Change Through Legal Change. The Book Consists Of 28 Chapters With Introductory And Concluding Essays By Catharine Mackinnon. All Develop The Author's Signature Theme: That One Cannot Think That The Way The Law Approaches Things Is All There Is To Knowing About Them. The Focus Of The Argument Is That Some Wrongs (to Women) May Not Yet Be Intelligible As Legal Wrongs, And That Social Problems (of Oppression) May Yet Have No Adequate Legal Approach. The Collection Makes An Ideal Introduction To The Writing And Thinking Of This Foremost Legal Scholar-- To Change The World For Women (1980) -- A Radical Act Of Hope (1989) -- Law's Power (1990) -- To Quash A Lie (1991) -- The Measure Of What Matters (1992) -- Intervening For Sex Equality (2013) -- Introduction, Symposium On Sexual Harassment (1981) -- Sexual Harassment Supreme Court Brief For Mechelle Vinson (1986) -- Testimony On Pornography, Minneapolis (1983) -- Testimony, Attorney General's Commission On Pornography (1985) -- Substantive Equality (1989) -- On Torture (1990) -- Rape As Genocide : Appellate Argument, Kadic V. Karadzic (1995) -- Rape As Genocide : Summation To The Jury, Kadic V. Karadzic (2000) -- Trafficking, Prostitution, And Inequality (2015) -- Reality Not Fantasy (1985) -- To The American Civil Liberties Union On Pornography (1985) -- X-underrated (2005) -- Gender : The Future (2007) -- Gender Literacy (1994) -- Mainstreaming Feminism In Legal Education (2003) -- On Academic Freedom : From Powerlessness To Power (2002) -- Engaged Scholarship As Method And Vocation (2005) -- Defying Gravity (2013) -- Rape Redefined (2014) -- Restoring Institutional Accountability For Educational Sexual Harassment (2013) -- Toward A Renewed Equal Rights Amendment : Now More Than Ever (2014) -- Sex Equality In Global Perspective (2015). Catharine A. Mackinnon. Encompassing Legal And Political Interventions From 1976 To 2016, This Volume Collects Moments Of Attempts To Change The Inequality Of Women To Men And Reflections On Those Attempts--introduction. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. The minuscule motion of a butterfly's wings can trigger a tornado half a world away, according to chaos theory. Under the right conditions, small simple actions can produce large complex effects. In this timely and provocative book, Catharine A. MacKinnon argues that the right seemingly minor interventions in the legal realm can have a butterfly effect that generates major social and cultural transformations. Butterfly Politics brings this incisive understanding of social causality to a wide-ranging exploration of gender relations. The pieces collected here many published for the first time provide a new perspective on MacKinnon's career as a pioneer of legal theory and practice and an activist for women s rights. Its central concerns of gender inequality, sexual harassment, rape, pornography, and prostitution have defined MacKinnon's intellectual, legal, and political pursuits for over forty years. Though differing in style and approach, the selections all share the same motivation: to end inequality, including abuse, in women s lives. Several mark the first time ideas that are now staples of legal and political discourse appeared in public for example, the analysis of substantive equality. Others urge changes that have yet to be realized. The butterfly effect can animate political activism and advance equality socially and legally. Seemingly insignificant actions, through collective recursion, can intervene in unstable systems to produce systemic change. A powerful critique of the legal and institutional denial of reality that perpetuates practices of gender inequality, Butterfly Politics provides a model of what principled, effective, socially conscious engagement with law looks like. Cover 1 Title Page 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Butterfly Politics 12 I. Change 20 1. To Change the World for Women (1980) 22 2. A Radical Act of Hope (1989) 34 3. Law’s Power (1990) 39 4. To Quash a Lie (1991) 45 5. The Measure of What Matters (1992) 53 6. Intervening for Sex Equality (2013) 58 II. Law 66 7. Introduction, Symposium on Sexual Harassment (1981) 68 8. Sexual Harassment: Supreme Court Brief for Mechelle Vinson (1986) 74 9. Testimony on Pornography, Minneapolis (1983) 107 10. Testimony to the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography (1985) 110 11. Substantive Equality (1989) 121 12. On Torture (1990) 137 13. Rape as Genocide: Appellate Argument in Kadic v. Karadžić (1995) 151 14. Rape as Genocide: Summation to the Jury in Kadic v. Karadžić (2000) 163 15. Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality (2015) 173 III. Culture 192 16. Reality, Not Fantasy (1985) 194 17. To the American Civil Liberties Union on Pornography (1985) 200 18. X-Underrated (2005) 210 19. Gender: The Future (2007) 218 IV. Academy 226 20. Gender Literacy (1994) 228 21. Mainstreaming Feminism in Legal Education (2003) 236 22. On Academic Freedom: From Powerlessness to Power (2002) 253 23. Engaged Scholarship as Method and Vocation (2005) 274 24. Defying Gravity (2013) 289 V. Toward an Equal Future 294 25. Rape Redefined (2014) 296 26. Restoring Institutional Accountability for Educational Sexual Harassment (2013) 302 27. Toward a Renewed Equal Rights Amendment: Now More Than Ever (2014) 306 28. Sex Equality in Global Perspective (2015) 316 Intervening for Change, 1976–2016 336 Notes 344 Acknowledgments 484 Index 486 Introduction : butterfly politics -- To change the world for women (1980) -- A radical act of hope (1989) -- Law's power (1990) -- To quash a lie (1991) -- The measure of what matters (1992) -- Intervening for sex equality (2013) -- Introduction, symposium on sexual harassment (1981) -- Sexual harassment Supreme Court brief for Mechelle Vinson (1986) -- Testimony on pornography, Minneapolis (1983) -- Testimony, Attorney General's Commission on Pornography (1985) -- Substantive equality (1989) -- On torture (1990) -- Rape as genocide appellate argument, Kadic v. Karadzic (1995) -- Rape as genocide summation to the jury, Kadic v. Karadzic (2000) -- Trafficking, prostitution, and inequality (2015) -- Reality not fantasy (1985) -- To the American Civil Liberties Union on pornography (1985) -- X-Underrated (2005) -- Gender : the future (2007) -- Gender literacy (1997) -- Mainstreaming feminism in legal education (2003) -- On academic freedom : from powerlessness to power (2002) -- Engaged scholarship as method and vocation (2005) -- Defying gravity (2013) -- Rape redefined (2014) -- Restoring institutional accountability for educational sexual harassment (2013) -- Toward a renewed Equal Rights Amendment : now more than ever (2014) -- Sex equality in global perspective (2015) -- Intervening for change, 1976-2016