I am writing to respond to Bruce Krajewski's comments about MacKinnon. First, let me make it clear that I do not believe that "the law and ideology are two independent realms." They are always necessarily interconnected. The point I rather inadequately sought to make deals with the specific history of pornography law and the first ammendment. The Supreme Court has consistently distinguished pornography from political speech, claiming that political speech is protected, explicitly by the first ammendment, while pornography is not. As it happens, I take a broader notion of the first ammendment than the court. But, let's accept for a minute the Supreme court's model. What MacKinnon does as define pornography by its specific political content -- i.e. pornography is representation which demeans women -- and at the same time, threatens to expand the category of pornography to include all representations -- advertisements, hate speech, etc. -- which demeans women. The effect of this then is to use the concept of pornography to go after the expression of specific political views, views which I find intollerant and objectionable but views which as defined here clearly constitute political speech. From my point of view, MacKinnon thus takes a loophole within existing first ammendment protection and stretchs it as far as possible to include many forms of political speech that need to be protected if we are going to have a meaningful political debate about sexual politics. Having done so, and having joined forces with the religious right to see these views encoded into law, we can not be suprised when the concept gets broadened even further to restrict the rights of sexual minorities -- gays and lesbians -- to represent their own experiences which fall outside the "moral majority" of the culture. The case thus points towards the dangers inherent in trying to win a debate by restricting the rights of those you disagree with to speech. Now, we turn to the concept of intervention we describe. I support efforts by academics such as Williams, popular writers such as Suzy Bright, filmmakers such as Candida Royale and Annie Sprinkles, to move the pornography debates in different directions. Rather than trying to suppress political speech which they find objectionable, they seek to rethink pornography as a genre. They are writing books, which may reach only an academic readership. They are writing magazines, such as ON OUR BACKS or running stores like GOOD VIBRATIONS in San Francisco or GRAND OPENINGS in Boston. They are producing films which exist on the shelf alongside other porn movies but which pose alternative models for the development of the genre. They are trying to educate popular taste rather than to legislate it and this seems to me a more reasonable and constructive approach to popular representations than that posed by MacKinnon. Now, as to thew issue of "aesthetic works." I class all forms of representation as potentially aesthetic. I believe that popular culture has its own aesthetic traditions which need to be respected and understood. I was NOT by any stretch of the imagination constructing a cultural hierarchy which distinguishes between HUSTLER and Duras. I was simply arguing that we should not restrict any form of representation on the basis of its political content. I'll grant you that pornography law as practiced now already makes aesthetic judgements (redeeeming value tests) as well as moral and political ones. I would reject this current law as much as I would reject MacKinnon's position and call for a more liberate attitude within American society for dealing with erotic issues. I do not share Ronald Dworkin's attempt to preserve the existing law by making aesthetic distinctions which are not meaningful in this context. Now, as to the question of whether pornography, advertising, etc. promotes reactionary ideology or encourages sexist practice, that seems to me to be a debatable proposition. I would be happy to see MacKinnon discuss it, debate it, argue for it, march in support of her views; I simply object to putting those positions into laws which restrict all of our access to materials and which effectively tries to win the debate by silencing her opposition. As a writer who draws heavily upon feminist theory, I can see plenty of grounds for criticizing contemporary popular culture on these grounds, but I think persuasive power to be preferable to legal power in confronting this issue. I hope this at least clarifies my position, if it does not fully satisfy Prof. Krajewski's concerns. Henry Jenkins p.s. I assume Krajewski's use of the professor in front of my name was intended to present my position as academic and elitist, a rather odd distortion of my own political and theoretical position, as anyone who knows me would agree. I won my doctorate honestly; I am proud to be an Associate Professor at MIT; I work hard for my money, but I don't allow my students to call me Professor as a rule and I would rather you didn't call me that in this forum.