SOURCE: Pasewark, Kyle A. “Who May Speak?: Amending the First Amendment.” Christian Century 110, no. 33 (17 November 1993): 1164-67.

In the following review, Pasewark considers how MacKinnon's arguments will affect the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and asserts that Only Words “has the appearance, both in form and content, of a hastily constructed affair born more of anger, invective and deadlines than careful thought.”

Only Words is a disturbing book—for better and for worse. For better, MacKinnon aims at the heart of an important and heated debate: what may or may not be said in the classroom, in the pulpit or on the street corner as well as what may or may not be shown on screen, written in books or depicted in the arts. In the end, however, MacKinnon contributes only more heat to this debate. In place of argument, she offers hyperbole; instead of coming to...