SOURCE: Young, Cathy. “Rancorous Liaisons.” Reason 25, no. 9 (February 1994): 57-8.

In the following review, Young asserts that, despite the “hypnotic power” of MacKinnon's prose, the central arguments in Only Words are exaggerated, “spurious,” and poorly constructed.

A fascinating chapter in The Morning After focuses on legal theorist Catharine MacKinnon (dubbed “the anti-porn star”) as the leading exponent of the new “victim” feminism that sees sexual violation as central to the female experience. Those interested in learning more about the woman who gave us our current sexual harassment laws can turn to MacKinnon's own latest opus, the mercifully short Only Words.

A blurb from Columbia University's Patricia Williams, hailing MacKinnon as “one of the most visible and effective advocates behind this nation's attention to crimes against women,” laments that “because her brilliant writing is largely unread, she has become an ideological easy mark.” I'm afraid she's got it wrong: It's...