SOURCE: Stepp, Carl Sessions. “Fighting the First Amendment's Free Ride.” American Journalism Review 16, no. 2 (March 1994): 53.

In the following review, Stepp lists several flaws in MacKinnon's theories on pornography and hate speech in Only Words but notes that the debate the work has inspired is ultimately important and worthwhile.

With Only Words, Catharine MacKinnon has touched off a rousing argument about pornography and hate speech. She hasn't won it. But she has locked onto something important, serving notice that the First Amendment's free ride may be over.

Unfortunately, she delivers the message in intemperate terms certain to polarize.

“You grow up with your father holding you down … so another man can make a horrible searing pain between your legs,” she writes. “When you are older, your husband ties you to the bed and drips hot wax on your nipples. … Your doctor will not give you drugs he has addicted...