Editing Catharine A. MacKinnon

{{Short description|American feminist scholar and legal activist}}
{{for-multi|the Canadian actress and singer|Catherine McKinnon|the comedic actress and former [[Saturday Night Live]] cast member|Kate McKinnon}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = Catharine A. MacKinnon
| image = Catharine MacKinnon, May 2006.jpg
| caption = MacKinnon at the [[Brattle Theatre]], Cambridge, 2006
| birth_name = Catharine Alice MacKinnon
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1946|10|7}}
| birth_place = [[Minneapolis]], [[Minnesota]], U.S.
| discipline = Legal scholar
| work_institutions = [[University of Michigan]] <br>[[York University]]<br>[[University of Minnesota]]
| education = [[Smith College]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br>[[Yale University]] ([[Master of Studies in Law|MSL]], [[Juris Doctor|JD]], [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]])
| main_interests = [[Radical feminism]], [[socialist feminism]], [[feminist legal theory]]
| influences = [[Andrea Dworkin]], [[August Bebel]], [[György Lukács]],  [[Karl Marx]], [[Simone de Beauvoir]]
| influenced = Andrea Dworkin, [[Martha Nussbaum]]
}}
'''Catharine Alice MacKinnon''' (born October 7, 1946) is an American feminist legal scholar, activist, and author. She is the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the [[University of Michigan Law School]], where she has been tenured since 1990, and the James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at [[Harvard Law School]]. From 2008 to 2012, she was the special gender adviser to the [[Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court]].<ref name="Harvardbio">{{cite web |title=Catharine A. MacKinnon |url=https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10540/MacKinnon |publisher=Harvard Law School |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180223052244/http://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10540/MacKinnon |archive-date=February 23, 2018 |access-date=October 22, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Michiganbio>{{cite web|title=MacKinnon, Catharine A.|url=http://www.law.umich.edu/FacultyBio/Pages/FacultyBio.aspx?FacID=camtwo|publisher=University of Michigan Law School |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181010191458/http://www.law.umich.edu/FacultyBio/Pages/FacultyBio.aspx?FacID=camtwo|archive-date=October 10, 2018}}</ref>

As an expert on international law, constitutional law, political and legal theory, and jurisprudence, MacKinnon focuses on women's rights and sexual abuse and exploitation, including [[sexual harassment]], [[rape]], [[prostitution]], [[sex trafficking]] and [[pornography]]. She was among the first to argue that pornography is a civil rights violation, and that sexual harassment in education and employment constitutes sex discrimination.<ref name=Harvardbio/>

MacKinnon is the author of over a dozen books, including ''Sexual Harassment of Working Women'' (1979);<ref>{{cite news|last1=Bellafante|first1=Gillia|title=Before #MeToo, There Was Catharine A. MacKinnon and Her Book 'Sexual Harassment of Working Women'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/books/review/metoo-workplace-sexual-harassment-catharine-mackinnon.html|work=The New York Times|date=March 19, 2018 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180319152151/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/books/review/metoo-workplace-sexual-harassment-catharine-mackinnon.html|archive-date=March 19, 2018}}</ref> ''[[Feminism Unmodified]]'' (1987), ''[[Toward a Feminist Theory of the State]]'' (1989); ''[[Only Words (book)|Only Words]]'' (1993); a casebook, ''Sex Equality'' (2001, 2007, 2016); ''Women's Lives, Men's Laws'' (2005); and ''Butterfly Politics'' (2017).

==Early life and education==
MacKinnon was born in [[Minneapolis]], [[Minnesota]], the first of three children (a girl and two boys) to Elizabeth Valentine Davis and [[George MacKinnon|George E. MacKinnon]]; her father was a lawyer, congressman (1947–1949), and judge on the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit]] (1969–1995).<ref name="Bio.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.biography.com/people/catharine-a-mackinnon-9393211|title=Catharine A. MacKinnon biography|publisher=Biography.com|access-date=March 20, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911071356/https://www.biography.com/people/catharine-a-mackinnon-9393211|archive-date=September 11, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

She is the third generation of her family to attend her mother's [[alma mater]], [[Smith College]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Smith|first1=Dinitia|title=Love is Strange|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=61MAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA36|work=New York Magazine|date=March 22, 1993|page=43}}</ref> She earned her [[Master of Studies in Law|MSL]] and then a [[Juris Doctor|J.D.]] from [[Yale Law School]] in 1977 and a [[PhD]] in [[political science]], also from [[Yale University]], in 1987. While at Yale, she received a [[National Science Foundation]] fellowship.<ref name=UMBio/><ref name=Harvardbio/>

==Career overview==
MacKinnon is the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School<ref name="UMBio">[http://cgi2.www.law.umich.edu/_FacultyBioPage/facultybiopagenew.asp?ID=219 University of Michigan faculty biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050923114948/http://cgi2.www.law.umich.edu/_FacultyBioPage/facultybiopagenew.asp?ID=219|date=2005-09-23}}; accessed February 10, 2015.</ref> and the James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. In 2007, she served as the [[Roscoe Pound]] Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School<ref name=Harvardbio/> and has also visited at [[NYU]], [[University of Western Australia]], [[University of San Diego]], [[Hebrew University]], [[Columbia Law School]], [[University of Chicago]], [[University of Basel]], Yale Law School, [[Osgoode Hall Law School]], [[UCLA School of Law]], and [[Stanford Law School]].

MacKinnon is an often-cited legal scholar<ref>{{cite web|url=http://highlycited.com/names/m/|title=Highly Cited Research 2011 - Name: "M"|date=2012-01-01|website=Thomson Reuters Research Analytics|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120101155221/http://highlycited.com/names/m/|archive-date=January 1, 2012|access-date=2018-01-03}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stanford.edu/dept/EIS/okin_conference/speakers.html#mackinno|title=Catharine MacKinnon|access-date=2006-02-22|url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050830063643/http://www.stanford.edu/dept/EIS/okin_conference/speakers.html#mackinno|archive-date=2005-08-30}} 2005 Fellow of Stanford's [[Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences]]</ref> and regular public speaker.<!--Put this somewhere else: On February 10, 2005, she attended the premiere of ''[[Inside Deep Throat]]'' (for which she was featured as an interviewee) and took part in a panel discussion after the film.<ref>McGrath, Charles (February 9, 2005). [https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/09/arts/09iht-Chuh.html "Academic look at 'Deep Throat'"], ''The New York Times''.</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/09/movies/09thro.html Profile], ''The New York Times''. Accessed February 10, 2015.</ref><ref>[[Tina Brown|Brown, Tina]] (February 10, 2005). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12637-2005Feb9.html "'Deep Throat': When Naughty Was Nice"], ''The Washington Post''.</ref> On April 29, 2009, MacKinnon argued for the proposition "it's wrong to pay for sex" in an [[Intelligence Squared|''Intelligence Squared U.S.'']] debate.<ref>[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103639465 "Is It Wrong To Pay For Sex?"], npr.org, April 29, 2009; accessed February 10, 2015.</ref>--> Her ideas can be divided into three overlapping areas: [[sexual harassment]], [[pornography]] and [[prostitution]], and international work. She has also written extensively on social and political theory and methodology.<ref name="points">MacKinnon, Catherine A. (2000). "Points Against Postmodernism", 75, ''Chi.-Kent L. Rev.'', pp. 687–688.</ref>

==Research and legal work==
===Sexual harassment===
In 1977, MacKinnon graduated from [[Yale Law School]] having written a paper on sexual harassment for Professor [[Thomas I. Emerson]] arguing that it was a form of sex-based discrimination. Two years later, Yale University Press published MacKinnon's book, ''Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case of Sex Discrimination'' (1979), creating the legal claim for sexual harassment as a form of [[sex discrimination]] under [[Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964]] and any other sex-discrimination prohibition. She also conceived the legal claim for sexual harassment as sex discrimination in education under Title IX, which was established through litigation brought by Yale undergraduates in ''[[Alexander v. Yale]].'' While the plaintiff who went to trial on the facts, Pamela Price, lost, the case established the law: the [[U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit]] recognized that, under the civil rights statute [[Title IX]] of the [[Education Amendments of 1972]], schools must have procedures to address sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimination.<ref>Alexander v. Yale Univ., 631 F.2d 178, 181 n.1 (2d Cir. 1980).</ref>

In her book, MacKinnon argued that sexual harassment is sex discrimination because the act is a product of, and produces, the social inequality of women to men (see, for example, pp.&nbsp;116–18, 174). She distinguishes between two types of sexual harassment (see pp.&nbsp;32–42):   
# "quid pro quo", meaning sexual harassment "in which sexual compliance is exchanged, or proposed to be exchanged, for an employment opportunity (p. 32)" and 
# the type of harassment that "arises when sexual harassment is a persistent condition of work (p. 32)".

In 1980, the [[Equal Employment Opportunity Commission]] followed MacKinnon's framework in adopting guidelines prohibiting sexual harassment by prohibiting both quid pro quo harassment and hostile work environment harassment (see 29 [[Code of Federal Regulations|C.F.R.]] § 1604.11 (a)). Courts also used the concepts.

In 1986, the [[SCOTUS|U.S. Supreme Court]] held in ''[[Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson]]'' that sexual harassment may violate laws against sex discrimination. MacKinnon was co-counsel for Mechelle Vinson, the plaintiff, and wrote the brief in the Supreme Court. In ''Meritor'', the Court recognized the distinction between quid pro quo sexual harassment and hostile workplace harassment. In a 2002 article, MacKinnon wrote, quoting the Court:
<blockquote>"Without question," then-Justice Rehnquist wrote for a unanimous Court, "when a supervisor sexually harasses a subordinate because of the subordinate's sex, that supervisor 'discriminate&#91;s&#93;' on the basis of sex." The D.C. Circuit, and women, had won. A new common-law rule was established.<ref name="logic">Catharine A. MacKinnon, "The Logic of Experience: Reflections on the Development of Sexual Harassment Law", 90 ''Geo. L.J.'' 813, 824 (2002).</ref></blockquote>

''Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case of Sex Discrimination'', is the eighth most-cited American legal book published since 1978, according to a study published by [[Fred R. Shapiro]] in January 2000.<ref>{{cite book|last1=MacKinnon|first1=Catharine|title=Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case of Sex Discrimination|url=https://archive.org/details/sexualharassment00cath|url-access=registration|date=1979|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=9780300022995|page=[https://archive.org/details/sexualharassment00cath/page/1 1]|edition=19}}</ref>

===Pornography===
====Position====
{{Further|Anti-pornography movement}}
MacKinnon, along with fellow [[radical feminism|radical feminist]] writer and activist [[Andrea Dworkin]], tried to change legal approaches to pornography by framing it as a civil rights violation in the form of sex discrimination, and as human trafficking. They defined pornography as:

{{blockquote|the graphic sexually explicit subordination of women through pictures or words that also includes women dehumanized as sexual objects, things, or commodities; enjoying pain or humiliation or rape; being tied up, cut up, mutilated, bruised, or physically hurt; in postures of sexual submission or servility or display; reduced to body parts, penetrated by objects or animals, or presented in scenarios of degradation, injury, torture; shown as filthy or inferior; bleeding, bruised, or hurt in a context that makes these conditions sexual.{{sfn|MacKinnon|1987|page=[https://archive.org/details/feminismunmodifi00mack/page/176 176]}}}}

In ''Toward a Feminist Theory of the State'', MacKinnon writes, "Pornography, in the feminist view, is a form of forced sex, a practice of sexual politics, and institution of gender inequality". As documented by extensive empirical studies, she writes, "Pornography contributes causally to attitudes and behaviors of violence and discrimination which define the treatment and status of half the population".<ref name=":0">{{cite book|title=Toward A Feminist Theory of The State|url=https://archive.org/details/towardfeministth00mack|url-access=registration|last=Mackinnon|first=Catharine |publisher=Harvard|year=1989|isbn=0674896467|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts}}</ref>{{Rp|196}} (However, the evidence for this claim is not definitive; studies have also shown no relationship between pornography and discriminatory views nor violence against women, with some even suggesting pornography use could be correlated with more egalitarian views.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=Dan J. |last2=Kidd |first2=Garry |last3=Raggatt |first3=Peter T. F. |last4=McBain |first4=Kerry Anne |last5=Li |first5=Wendy |date=2020-05-26 |title=Pornography use and sexism among heterosexual men |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08824096.2020.1777396 |journal=Communication Research Reports |language=en |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=110–121 |doi=10.1080/08824096.2020.1777396 |s2cid=264265376 |issn=0882-4096}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kohut |first1=Taylor |last2=Baer |first2=Jodie L. |last3=Watts |first3=Brendan |date=2016 |title=Is Pornography Really about "Making Hate to Women"? Pornography Users Hold More Gender Egalitarian Attitudes Than Nonusers in a Representative American Sample |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26305435/ |journal=Journal of Sex Research |volume=53 |issue=1 |pages=1–11 |doi=10.1080/00224499.2015.1023427 |issn=1559-8519 |pmid=26305435|s2cid=23901098 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Does Pornography Promote Sexism? {{!}} Psychology Today |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/all-about-sex/202106/does-pornography-promote-sexism |access-date=2023-11-25 |website=www.psychologytoday.com |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781118896877 |title=The International Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality |date=2015-04-10 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-4051-9006-0 |editor-last=Bolin |editor-first=Anne |edition=1 |language=en |doi=10.1002/9781118896877.wbiehs357 |editor-last2=Whelehan |editor-first2=Patricia}}</ref>)

====Anti-pornography ordinances====
{{Main|Antipornography Civil Rights Ordinance}}
In 1980, [[Linda Boreman]] (who had appeared, under the name Linda Lovelace in the pornographic film ''[[Deep Throat (film)|Deep Throat]]'') said her ex-husband [[Chuck Traynor]] had violently coerced her into making ''Deep Throat'' and other pornographic films. Boreman made her charges public for the press corps at a press conference, together with MacKinnon, members of [[Women Against Pornography]], and feminist writer [[Andrea Dworkin]] offering statements in support. After the press conference, Dworkin, MacKinnon, Boreman, and [[Gloria Steinem]] began discussing the possibility of using federal civil rights law to seek damages from Traynor and the makers of ''Deep Throat''. This was not possible for Boreman because the [[statute of limitations]] for a possible suit had passed.<ref>* {{cite book | last = Brownmiller | first = Susan | author-link = Susan Brownmiller | title = In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution|publisher=Dial Press|location=New York|year=1999|isbn=9780385314862|page=337 |url=https://archive.org/details/inourtimememoiro00brow_0}}</ref>

MacKinnon and Dworkin continued to discuss civil rights litigation, specifically sex discrimination, as a possible approach to combating pornography. MacKinnon opposed traditional arguments and laws against pornography based on the idea of morality or filth or sexual innocence, including the use of traditional criminal obscenity law to suppress pornography. Instead of condemning pornography for violating "community standards" of sexual decency or modesty, they characterized pornography as a form of sex discrimination and sought to give women the right to seek damages under civil rights law when they could prove they had been harmed. Their anti-pornography ordinances make actionable only sexually explicit material that can be proven to discriminate on the basis of sex.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

In 1983, the [[Minneapolis]] city government hired MacKinnon and Dworkin to draft an anti-pornography civil rights ordinance as an amendment to the Minneapolis city human rights ordinance. The amendment defined pornography as a [[civil rights]] violation against women and allowed women who claimed harm from trafficking in pornography to [[lawsuit|sue]] the producers and distributors for damages in [[Civil law (common law)|civil court]]. It also allowed those who had been coerced into pornography, had had pornography forced upon them, or were assaulted in a way caused by specific pornography to sue for harm they could prove. The law was passed twice by the Minneapolis city council but was vetoed by the mayor. Another version of the ordinance passed in [[Indianapolis, Indiana]] in 1984, but was ruled [[United States Constitution|unconstitutional]] by the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit|Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals]], a decision summarily affirmed (without opinion) by the U.S. Supreme Court.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

MacKinnon wrote in the ''Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review'' in 1985:

<blockquote>And as you think about the assumption of consent that follows women into pornography, look closely some time for the skinned knees, the bruises, the welts from the whippings, the scratches, the gashes. Many of them are not simulated. One relatively soft core pornography model said, "I knew the pose was right when it hurt". It certainly seems important to the audiences that the events in the pornography be real. For this reason, pornography becomes a motive for murder, as in "[[Snuff film|snuff]]" films in which someone is tortured to death to make a sex film. They exist.<ref>Catharine A. MacKinnon, "Pornography, Civil Rights, and Speech", 20 ''Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review'' 1 (1985). As support for the existence of snuff films, MacKinnon wrote in footnote 61, "In the movies known as snuff films, victims sometimes are actually murdered."' 130 Cong. Rec. S13192 (daily ed. October 3, 1984; statement of Senator [[Arlen Specter]] introducing the [[Pornography Victims Compensation Act|Pornography Victims Protection Act]]). See ''People v. Douglas'', Felony Complaint No. NF 8300382 (Municipal Court, Orange County, Cal. August 5, 1983); "'Slain Teens Needed Jobs, Tried Porn"' and "Two Accused of Murder in 'Snuff' Films", ''[[Oakland Tribune]]'', August 6, 1983 (on file with ''Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review''); L. Smith, The Chicken Hawks (1975)(unpublished manuscript; on file with ''Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review'').</ref></blockquote>

MacKinnon represented Boreman from 1980 until Boreman's death in 2002. Civil libertarians frequently find MacKinnon's theories objectionable (see "[[#Criticism|Criticism]]" section), arguing there is no evidence that sexually explicit media encourages or promotes violence against women.<ref>Dworkin, Ronald. "Women and Pornography", ''[[New York Review of Books]]'' 40, no. 17 (October 21, 1993): 299. "no reputable study has concluded that pornography is a significant cause of sexual crime: many of them conclude, on the contrary, that the causes of violent personality lie mainly in childhood"</ref> Max Waltman states that empirical evidence (based on changes to obscenity doctrine in Canada) suggests that civil rather than legal remedies may be more effective as a means of discouraging violence against women.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Waltman|first=Max|date=March 2010|title=Rethinking Democracy: Legal Challenges to Pornography and Sex Inequality in Canada and the United States|journal=Political Research Quarterly|volume=63|pages=218–237|doi=10.1177/1065912909349627|s2cid=154054641}}</ref>

===Transgender sex equality===
{{Further|Feminist views on transgender topics}}

In a 2015 interview, MacKinnon cited [[Simone de Beauvoir]]'s famous quotation about "[[:q:Simone de Beauvoir#The Second Sex (1949)|becom[ing] a woman]]" to say that {{nowrap|"[a]nybody}} who identifies as a woman, wants to be a woman, is going around being a woman, as far as I'm concerned, is a woman."<ref name="transadvocate_2015">{{cite web |last=Williams |first=Cristan |date=7 April 2015 |title=Sex, Gender, and Sexuality: The TransAdvocate interviews Catharine A. MacKinnon |url=http://www.transadvocate.com/sex-gender-and-sexuality-the-transadvocate-interviews-catharine-a-mackinnon_n_15037.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181224025556/http://www.transadvocate.com/sex-gender-and-sexuality-the-transadvocate-interviews-catharine-a-mackinnon_n_15037.htm |archive-date=24 December 2018 |access-date=22 December 2018 |publisher=The TransAdvocate}}</ref> 

Furthermore, during a lecture at Oxford University in 2022, MacKinnon continued to express her support for [[transfeminism]] and transgender sex equality, and criticized the [[postmodernism]], [[liberalist]] anti-stereotyping approach, and [[TERF|anti-trans feminism]].<ref name="signsjournal">{{Cite web |author= Catharine A. MacKinnon|date=November 28, 2022 |title=Exploring Transgender Law and Politics|url=https://signsjournal.org/exploring-transgender-law-and-politics/#_ftnref36 |access-date=2023-07-18 |website=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society |language=en-US}}</ref> Her lecture, called "A Feminist Defense of Transgender Sex Equality Rights" was subsequently edited and published in the [[Yale Journal of Law & Feminism]] in 2023.<ref name="yalejournaloflaw">{{cite journal |author-last1=MacKinnon |author-first1=Catharine |title=A Feminist Defense of Transgender Sex Equality Rights |journal=Yale Journal of Law & Feminism |date=2023  |hdl=20.500.13051/18252 |url=http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13051/18252 |access-date=18 July 2023}}</ref> In this lecture, she addresses concerns from anti-trans feminists about the idea that the recognition of trans identities leads to sexism against women.

Additionally, MacKinnon presents three [[legal theory|legal theoretical approaches]] to transgender sex equality: first, the Textual and Literal Approach, which aligns with [[libertarianism]] and views discrimination against trans people as sex discrimination, but often doubles rather than eliminates it; second, the Anti-Stereotyping Approach, a [[liberalism|liberal perspective]] that focuses on how trans people are stereotyped, benefiting those who don’t conform to stereotypes yet still meet dominant standards, while offering no help to those who face discrimination based on subordinated stereotypes; and third, the Substantive Approach, a [[feminist legal theory|feminist-informed approach]] that views anti-trans treatment as sex discriminatory by focusing on hierarchical social structures driven by [[sexualized]] [[misogyny]]. Under male dominance, trans women lose status during their [[Gender transition|transition]], while trans men may gain it, though they may still be seen as "lesser men." Trans women face [[intersectional]] discrimination as both women and trans individuals, particularly if they are of color. Trans men, although gaining status as men, may still face violence if they are perceived as feminine. MacKinnon argues that the Substantive Approach highlights sexualized misogyny and asserts that understanding gender [[hierarchy]] benefits all women.<ref name="signsjournal" /><ref name="yalejournaloflaw" />

===International work===
In February 1992, the [[Supreme Court of Canada]] largely accepted MacKinnon's theories of equality, hate propaganda, and pornography, citing extensively from a brief she co-authored in [[R. v. Butler|a ruling against]] [[Manitoba]] pornography distributor Donald Butler. The ''Butler'' decision was controversial to some; it is sometimes implied that shipments of Dworkin's book ''[[Pornography: Men Possessing Women]]'' were seized by Canadian customs agents under this ruling, as well as books by [[Marguerite Duras]] and [[David Leavitt]].<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Margulis|first=Zachary|url=http://www.efc.ca/pages/wired-3.03.html|title=Canada's Thought Police|date=1995|magazine=Wired|publisher=Electronic Frontier Canada|access-date=2005-11-02|archive-date=2009-02-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090203192542/http://efc.ca/pages/wired-3.03.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/OrdinanceCanada.html|title=Canadian Customs and Legal Approaches to Pornography|access-date=2007-07-27}}</ref> In fact, MacKinnon's brief argued that seizure of materials for which no harm was shown was unconstitutional.

Successful ''Butler'' prosecutions have been undertaken against the [[lesbian]] [[sadomasochistic]] magazine ''Bad Attitude'', as well as the owners of a gay and lesbian bookstore for selling it. Canadian authorities raided an art gallery and confiscated controversial paintings depicting [[child abuse]]. Many free speech and gay rights activists have alleged that the law is selectively enforced, targeting the [[LGBT community]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Benedet |first=Janine |date=2015 |title=THE PAPER TIGRESS: CANADIAN OBSCENITY LAW 20 YEARS AFTER R V BUTLER |url=https://cbr.cba.org/index.php/cbr/article/download/4336/4329/4336 |journal=[[The Canadian Bar Review]] |volume=91 |issue=1 |pages=2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Abstract Principle v. Contextual Conceptions of Harm: A Comment on R. v. Butler |url=https://lawjournal.mcgill.ca/article/abstract-principle-v-contextual-conceptions-of-harm-a-comment-on-r-v-butler/ |access-date=2023-11-20 |website=McGill Law Journal |language=en-US}}</ref>

MacKinnon represented Bosnian and Croatian women against Serbs accused of genocide since 1992, creating the legal claim for rape as an act of genocide in that conflict. She was co-counsel, representing named plaintiff S. Kadic, in ''Kadic v. [[Radovan Karadžić|Karadzic]]'' and won a jury verdict of $745 million in New York City on August 10, 2000. The lawsuit (under the United States' [[Alien Tort Statute]]) established forced prostitution and forced impregnation when based on ethnicity or religion in a genocidal context as legally actionable acts of genocide.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Davies|first1=Cristyn |last2=Knox|first2=Sara L.|title=Cultural Studies of Law|date=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-69727-5|pages=118, 126–128|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4pG9CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA126 |language=en}}</ref> In 2001, MacKinnon was named co-director of the Lawyers Alliance for Women (LAW) Project, an initiative of Equality Now, an international [[non-governmental organization]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Steven Harmon|title=The U.S. Justice System: Law and constitution in early America|date=2012|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-304-0|pages=605–606 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Snia9Kt7rokC&pg=PA605|language=en}}</ref>

MacKinnon and Dworkin proposed the law against prostitution in Sweden in 1990, which Sweden passed in 1998.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Waltman|first1=Max|title=Prohibiting Sex Purchasing and Ending Trafficking: The Swedish Prostitution Law|journal=Michigan Journal of International Law|date=1 October 2011|volume=33|issue=1|pages=137–138|url=https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1041&context=mjil|issn=1052-2867}}</ref> What became termed the [[Nordic model approach to prostitution|Swedish Model]], also known as the Nordic Model, the "Equality Model," or the "Restrictive Model", penalises buyers of sexual services as well as sellers, where sellers are characterised as pimps or sex traffickers, while putatively decriminalizing all those who are "bought and sold in prostitution."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nordic Model |url=https://www.catwa.org.au/the-nordic-model/ |access-date=2023-11-20 |website=Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia |language=en-AU}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Science |first=London School of Economics and Political |date=2022-12-09 |title=Policy-makers must not look to the "Nordic model" for sex trade legislation |url=https://www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-news-from-LSE/2022/l-December-22/policy-makers-must-not-look-to-nordic-model-for-sex-trade-legislation.aspx |access-date=2023-11-20 |website=London School of Economics and Political Science |language=en-GB}}</ref> The fundamental concept is that the requirement to exchange sexual services for survival is a product of sex inequality and a form of violence against women. This model has been accepted in Norway, Iceland, Canada, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Israel and France,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Admin |date=2019-04-21 |title=The Nordic Model of Prostitution Legislation: Health, Violence and Spillover Effects • FREE NETWORK |url=https://freepolicybriefs.org/2019/04/21/the-nordic-model-of-prostitution-legislation-health-violence-and-spillover-effects/ |access-date=2023-11-20 |website=FREE NETWORK |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-09-20 |title=Nordic Model in Northern Ireland a total failure: no decrease in sex work, but increases in violence and stigma |url=https://www.swarmcollective.org/blog/2019/9/20/nordic-model-in-northern-ireland-a-total-failure-no-decrease-in-sex-work-but-increases-in-violence-and-stigma |access-date=2023-11-20 |website=SWARM Collective |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-11-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231113193514/https://www.swarmcollective.org/blog/2019/9/20/nordic-model-in-northern-ireland-a-total-failure-no-decrease-in-sex-work-but-increases-in-violence-and-stigma |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=admin |title=Analysis |url=https://brothelkeepers.org/analysis/ |access-date=2023-11-20 |website=Brothel Keepers |language=en-US}}</ref> but was rejected in New Zealand.<ref>[https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/47DBSCH_SCR2281_1/bda2c0743e85fcfd5f6188e72f123430075a6921 Prostitution Reform Bill 2002 (66-2) (select committee report)] (N.Z.).</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Prostitution Reform Bill — Second Reading |url= https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/47HansD_20030219_00001132/prostitution-reform-bill-second-reading|website=New Zealand Parliament Pāremata Aotearoa|publisher=New Zealand Parliament|access-date=December 6, 2018}}</ref>

Some organisations and individuals, such as the Global Network of Sex Work Projects, International,<ref>{{cite web|title=Q&A: Policy to protect the human rights of sex workers|url= https://www.amnesty.org/en/qa-policy-to-protect-the-human-rights-of-sex-workers/|website=Amnesty International |date= 31 May 2016|access-date=December 6, 2018}}</ref> and the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women<ref>{{cite web|title=The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women|url=http://www.gaatw.org/component/content/article?id=754:gaatw-is-statement-on-attack-on-un-research-calling-for-the-decriminalisation-of-sex-work|website=gaatw.org|date=16 December 2013|access-date=December 6, 2018|archive-date=15 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170915042632/http://www.gaatw.org/component/content/article?id=754:gaatw-is-statement-on-attack-on-un-research-calling-for-the-decriminalisation-of-sex-work|url-status=dead}}</ref> say that this legal model makes it harder for sex workers to find housing, make money to survive, screen clients to avoid violence, prevent their boyfriends from being arrested as "pimps", and avoid the interactions with police which account for the plurality of sexual violence against sex workers.

MacKinnon works actively with the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) and [[Apne Aap Women Worldwide|Apne Aap]] in India.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

==Political theory==
MacKinnon argues that the inequality between women and men in most societies forms a hierarchy that institutionalizes male dominance, subordinating women, in an arrangement rationalised and often perceived as natural. She writes about the interrelations between theory and practice, recognizing that women's experiences have, for the most part, been ignored in both arenas. Furthermore, she uses [[Marxism]] to critique certain points in [[liberal feminism]] in [[feminist theory]] and uses [[radical feminism]] to criticize Marxist theory.{{sfn|MacKinnon|1987|pp=15–16, 60, 118–120, 136–137}} MacKinnon notes Marx's criticism of theory that treated [[class division]] as a spontaneous event that occurred naturally. She understands epistemology as theories of knowing,{{sfn|MacKinnon|1987|p=163}} and politics as theories of power: "Having power means, among other things, that when someone says, 'this is how it is,' it is taken as being that way.&nbsp;...Powerlessness means that when you say 'this is how it is,' it is not taken as being that way. This makes articulating silence, perceiving the presence of absence, believing those who have been socially stripped of credibility, critically contextualizing what passes for simple fact, necessary to the epistemology of a politics of the powerless."{{sfn|MacKinnon|1987|pp=163–164}}

In 1996, [[Fred R. Shapiro]] calculated that "Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State: Toward Feminist Jurisprudence", 8 Signs 635 (1983), was the 96th most cited article in law reviews even though it was published in a non-legal journal.<ref>Fred R. Shapiro, "The Most-Cited Law Review Articles Revisited," 71 ''Chi.-Kent L. Rev.'' 751 (1996)</ref>

==Criticism==
During the "[[Feminist Sex Wars]]" in the 1980s, feminists opposing anti-pornography stances, such as Carole Vance and [[Ellen Willis]], began referring to themselves as "pro-sex" or "[[sex-positive feminists]]". Sex-positive feminists and anti-pornography feminists have debated over the implicit and explicit meanings of these labels. Sex-positive feminists note that anti-pornography ordinances drafted by MacKinnon and Dworkin called for the removal, censorship, or control over sexually explicit material.<ref>Carole Vance. "More Pleasure, More Danger: A Decade after the Barnard Sexuality Conference", ''Pleasure and Danger: Towards a Politics of Sexuality'' (Carole Vance, ed., 1984).<!--ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>

In ''States of Injury'' (1995), [[Wendy Brown (political theorist)|Wendy Brown]] contends that MacKinnon's attempt to ban prostitution and pornography does not primarily protect but re-inscribes the category of "woman" as an essentialized identity premised on injury.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://press.princeton.edu/titles/5715.html|title=States of Injury book description|date=23 July 1995|isbn=9780691029894|access-date=June 6, 2017 |last1=Brown |first1=Wendy |publisher=Princeton University Press }}</ref> In ''[[The Nation]]'', Brown also characterized MacKinnon's ''Toward a Feminist Theory of the State'' (1989) as a "profoundly static world view and undemocratic, perhaps even anti-democratic, political sensibility" as well as "flatly dated" and "developed at 'the dawn of feminism's second wave... framed by a political-intellectual context that no longer exists — a male Marxist monopoly on radical social discourse'".{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}}

[[Judith Butler|Judith Butler's]] 1994 article "Against Proper Objects," in a section titled "Against the anti-pornography paradigm," criticizes MacKinnon as having "totalizing" and "deterministic" positions on sexuality, specifically heterosexuality, as follows:

{{Blockquote|text=Feminist positions such as Catharine MacKinnon’s offer an analysis of sexual relations as structured by relations of coerced subordination, and argue that acts of sexual domination constitute the social meaning of being a “man,” as the condition of coerced subordination constitutes the social meaning of being a “woman.” Such a rigid determinism assimilates any account of sexuality to rigid and determining positions of domination and subordination, and assimilates those positions to the social gender of man and woman. But that deterministic account has come under continuous criticism from feminists not only for an untenable account of female sexuality as coerced subordination, but for the totalizing view of heterosexuality as well—one in which all power relations are reduced to relations of domination—and for the failure to distinguish the presence of coerced domination in sexuality from pleasurable and wanted dynamics of power.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Butler |first=Judith |date=1994-07-01 |title=Against Proper Objects |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/differences/article/6/2-3/1/301153/Against-Proper-Objects |journal=Differences |language=en |volume=6 |issue=2–3 |pages=1–26 |doi=10.1215/10407391-6-2-3-1 |s2cid=248689533 |issn=1040-7391|url-access=subscription }}</ref>}}

==Personal life==
In the early 1990s, MacKinnon had a relationship with author and animal-rights activist [[Jeffrey Masson]], and they were engaged to be married. Earlier, she had been married and divorced. MacKinnon has long been highly protective of details about her private life.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Smith|first1=Dinitia|title=Love is Strange|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=61MAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA36|work=New York Magazine|date=March 22, 1993|pages=36–43}}</ref>

==Honors==
* Smith Medal, Smith College (1991){{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}
* Doctor of Laws ([[LL.D.]], hon.), [[Haverford College]] (1991){{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}
* Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal, Yale Graduate School Alumni Association (1995){{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}
* Symposium, [[Yale Law School]], honoring the 20th anniversary of the publication of ''Sexual Harassment of Working Women'' (1998)
* Fellow, [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] (AAAS) (elected) (2005){{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}
* Outstanding Scholar Award, Research Fellows of the [[American Bar Foundation]] (2007){{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}
* Pioneer of Justice Award, [[Pace Law School]] (New York) (2008){{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}
* Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award, [[American Association of Law Schools]] (AALS), Women's Section (2014){{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}
* Alice Paul Award, National Organization of Men Against Sexism (NOMAS) for "Lifetime Dedication and Outstanding Achievement in Confronting Men's Violence Against Women" (2017){{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}
* Award of Merit, [[Yale Law School]] Association, to "an esteemed graduate of Yale Law School ... recognized for having made a substantial contribution to public service or to the legal profession" (2022)<ref>{{cite web |title=Award of Merit |url=https://law.yale.edu/info/alumni/alumni-glance/award-merit |website=Alumni Weekend |publisher=Yale Law School |access-date=20 November 2022}}</ref>

==Selected works==
{{refbegin}}
* (1979). {{cite book |title=Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case of Sex Discrimination |url=https://archive.org/details/sexualharassment00cath |url-access=registration |location=New Haven, CT |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0-300-02299-9 |oclc=3912752 |year=1979}}
* (1988) with [[Andrea Dworkin]]. {{cite book |title=Pornography and Civil Rights: A New Day for Women's Equality |location=Minneapolis, MN |publisher=Organizing Against Pornography |year=1988 |isbn=0-9621849-0-X}}
* (1989). {{cite book |title=Toward a Feminist Theory of the State |year=1989 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA |isbn=0-674-89645-9}}
* (1993). {{cite book |title=Only Words |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA |isbn=0-674-63933-2 |oclc=28067216 |title-link=Only Words (book) |year=1993}}
* (1997) with Andrea Dworkin (eds.). {{cite book |title=In Harm's Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA |isbn=0-674-44579-1 |oclc=37418262 |year=1997}}
* (2001). ''Sex Equality''. University Casebook Series. New York: Foundation Press.
* (2004) with [[Reva Siegel]] (eds.). ''Directions in Sexual Harassment Law''. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
* (2005). {{cite book |title=Women's Lives, Men's Laws |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA |isbn=0-674-01540-1 |oclc=55494875 |year=2005}}
* (2005). ''Legal Feminism in Theory and Practice''. Resling.
* (2006). {{cite book |title=[[Are Women Human?: And Other International Dialogues]] |date=2006 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA |isbn=0-674-02187-8 |oclc=62085505}}
* (2007). ''Sex Equality'' (2nd edition). University Casebook Series. New York: Foundation Press.
* (2014). ''Traite, Prostitution, Inégalité''. Mount Royal, Que: Editions M.
* (2015). ''Sex Equality Controversies: The Formosa Lectures''. Taipei: National Taiwan University Press.
* (2016). ''Sex Equality'' (3rd edition). University Casebook Series. St. Paul, MN: Foundation Press.
* (2017). ''Butterfly Politics''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 
* (2018). ''Gender in Constitutional Law''. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
* (2022). ''Women's Lives in Men's Courts: Briefs for Change''. Northport, NY: Twelve Tables Press (forthcoming).
{{refend}}

==References==
{{reflist|26em}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book|last=MacKinnon|first=Catherine|year=1979|title="Sexual Harassment of Working Women"|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|publisher=Harvard University Press}}
* {{cite book|last=MacKinnon|first=Catherine A.|year=1987|url=https://archive.org/details/feminismunmodifi00mack|url-access=registration|title="Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law"|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|publisher=Harvard University Press|accessdate=4 September 2021|via=Internet Archive}}
* {{cite book|last=MacKinnon|first=Catherine|year=1989|title="Towards a Feminist Theory of the State"|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|publisher=Harvard University Press}}
* {{cite book|last=MacKinnon|first=Catherine|year=1993|title="Only Words"|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|publisher=Harvard University Press}}
* {{cite book|last=MacKinnon|first=Catherine|year=2017|title="ButterflyPolitics"|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|publisher=Harvard University Press}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite web|url=https://www.law.uchicago.edu/recordings/catharine-mackinnon-trafficking-prostitution-and-inequality|title=Catharine MacKinnon, 'Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality'|publisher=University of Chicago Law School|date=14 November 2011|accessdate=4 September 2021}}
* {{cite journal|last=Waltman|first=Max|date=28 June 2017|title=Appraising the Impact of Toward a Feminist Theory of the State: Consciousness-Raising, Hierarchy Theory, and Substantive Equality Laws|journal=Law and Inequality: A Journal of Theory and Practice|publisher=Social Science Research Network|volume=35|issue=2|ssrn=2992921}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10540/MacKinnon Catharine A. MacKinnon]. Harvard Law School. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
* [http://www.law.umich.edu/library/home/pubsfaculty/facultypages/Pages/macKinnon_catharine.aspx Catharine A. MacKinnon]. University of Michigan. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
* [http://www.cddc.vt.edu/feminism/MacKinnon.html Catharine MacKinnon] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991105013357/http://www.cddc.vt.edu/Feminism/MacKinnon.html |date=1999-11-05 }}. Collaboratory for Digital Discourse and Culture at Virginia Tech. Retrieved September 4, 2020. It includes a bibliography of MacKinnon's works.
* [http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/99153697849003941/catalog "Collection concerning Catharine A. MacKinnon v. Society for Comparative Philosophy, 1985–1986"]. Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. 
* [[Philip Galanes|Galanes, Philip]] (March 17, 2018). [https://nyti.ms/2GFI0Gl "Catharine MacKinnon and Gretchen Carlson Have a Few Things to Say"]. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
*  [[Amy Goodman|Goodman, Amy]] (January 26, 1998). [https://www.democracynow.org/1998/1/26/clinton_scandal_a_feminist_issue "Clinton Scandal: A Feminist Issue?"] ''[[Democracy Now!]]'' 
* [https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/8/resources/8283 "Papers of Catharine A. MacKinnon, 1946–2008 (inclusive), 1975–2005 (bulk): A Finding Aid"]. Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. Retrieved September 4, 2020. It includes MacKinnon's works.
* [[Ben Wattenberg|Wattenberg, Ben]] (July 7, 1995). [https://www.pbs.org/thinktank/transcript215.html "A Conversation With Catherine MacKinnon"]. ''[[Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg]]''.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackinnon, Catharine}}
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[[Category:Anti-pornography feminists]]
[[Category:Anti-prostitution feminists]]
[[Category:Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences fellows]]
[[Category:American critics of postmodernism]]
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