Bound and Gagged

by Laura Kipnis

Bound and Gagged will completely change the terms of the pornography debate. Laura Kipnis challenges the position that porn perpetuates misogyny and hate crimes, arguing that porn isn't just about gender and that fantasy doesn't necessarily constitute intent. She opens with the chilling case of Daniel DePew, a men convicted - in the first nationwide computer bulletin board entrapment case - of conspiring to make a snuff film and sentenced to thirty-three years in prison for merely trading kinky sexual fantasies with two undercover cops. Using this textbook example of social hysteria as a springboard, Kipnis argues that criminalizing fantasy - even perverse and unacceptable fantasy - has dire social consequences. She explores the entire spectrum of pornography, arguing that its themes and messages are as richly complex and nuanced as the most "respectable" forms of culture. She reveals Larry Flynt's Hustler to be one of the most politically outspoken and class-antagonistic magazines in