Dorchen Leidholdt is an anti-pornography feminist writer and lawyer who was leader of Women Against Pornography from 1980 to the groups demise later in that decade, and since 1988 has been Co-Executive Director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. She is also the Director of the Center for Battered Women's Legal Services at Sanctuary for Families in New York City and a lecturer at Columbia University School of Law. The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Women Against Pornography (WAP) was a radical feminist activist group based out of New York City and an influential force in the anti-pornography movement of the late 1970s and 1980s. ... Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) was founded 1988 as the outcome of an conference on Trafficking in Women organised by several American feminist groups including Women Against Pornography and WHISPER. CATW was the first international non-governmental organisation (NGO) working against trafficking and gained consultative status with ECOSOC (UN... Columbia University is a private university in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City and a member of the Ivy League. ...

Career

Dorchen Leidholdt is best known for her campaigns against pornography and for her suit against Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt after Flynt published an attack on her in Hustler's "Asshole of the Month" column (July 1985). Pornographic movies Pornography (from Greek πορνη prostitute and γραφία written material) (also informally referred to as porn or porno) is the representation of the human body or sexual activity with the goal of sexual arousal. ... Hustler (April, 2004) Hustler (June, 1978), perhaps the most controversial issue due to the perceived misogyny of the cover image Larry Flynts Hustler, a monthly pornographic magazine published in the United States, was first issued in 1974. ... This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. ... Hustler (April, 2004) Hustler (June, 1978), perhaps the most controversial issue due to the perceived misogyny of the cover image Larry Flynts Hustler, a monthly pornographic magazine published in the United States, was first issued in 1974. ...

On December 19, 1985, Dorchen Leidholdt led a street demonstration in Washington DC against the US Attorney General's Commission on Pornography (aka, The Meese Commission), conversely, before appearing before that same commission as a friendly witness at the commission's invitation.[1] Leidholdt claimed, "Pornography perpetuates the devaluation of women. It sexualizes bigotry, promotes rape and threatens women's self esteem." The final report of the Attorney Generals Commission on Pornography (sometimes called The Meese Report for Attorney General Edwin Meese) is the result of a comprehensive investigation into pornography ordered by President Ronald Reagan. ...

Leidholdt appeared as part of an ad-hoc group, Victims of Pornography. This included victims of child molestation and rape, who blamed pornography for motivating their attackers. It also included Linda Borman, the former porn star better known as Linda Lovelace, whom Leidholdt had befriended and had taken her to Washington, DC to testify before the commission. Lovelace testified that she had been forced to commit perform in movies like Deep Throat. Lovelave stated, "When you see the movie Deep Throat, you are watching me being raped. A pornographic actor or a porn star is somebody who appears in pornographic movies, live sex shows or peep shows. ... Linda Susan Boreman, better known by her stage name Linda Lovelace (January 10, 1949 - April 22, 2002), was a pornographic actress in the 1972 film Deep Throat, who went on to leave the pornography industry and became a spokeswoman for the anti-pornography movement. ... Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United... The term Deep Throat has several meanings: Deep Throat is a 1972 pornographic movie. ...

Dorchen Leidholdt is an opponent of "sex-positive feminism". Her main argument is that promoting all kinds of sexual practices indiscriminately merely contributes to female oppression, as certain sexual practices (eg. prostitution) have historically benefited men, not women. Sex-positive feminism, sometimes known as pro-sex feminism, sex-radical feminism, or sexually liberal feminism, is a movement that was formed in the early 1980s. ... Sexual behavior is a form of physical intimacy that may be directed to reproduction (one possible goal of sexual intercourse) and/or to the enjoyment of activity involving sexual gratification. ... Prostitution is the sale of sexual services. ...

Quotes

In "When Women Defend Pornography", Dorchen Leidholdt wrote:

"The problem with the ideas of the pro-sex people is that they beg important political questions - like how, why, and in whose interest. They fail both to look at sexuality as a political system and to examine women's position in that system. They make sense in the abstract, but are revealed as critically flawed when measured against women's actual condition in society. They are not feminist but "sexual liberationist." And I put "sexual liberationist" in quotes because it has never included the liberation, sexual or otherwise, of women."

"As for the hierarchy of sexual privilege, it too sounds convincing, until you examine the position of women in this hierarchy. Heterosexuality, procreation, and marriage may mean privilege for men, but they mean something very different for the married woman. Her "good fortune" is a one out of three chance of being a battered wife, one out of seven chance of being raped by her own husband, and a statistically undetermined probability that she will be her husbands domestic servant and that her identity will be subsumed in his. The so-called good fortune of lesbian feminists is either public denigration or invisibility and often loss of jobs and family."

Books

Co-Editor with Jill Laurie Goodman, Esq., Lawyer’s Manual on Domestic Violence: Representing the Victim, 4th Edition, Appellate Division, First Department, Supreme Court of the State of New York, 2005. “From Sex Trafficking to FGM: Emerging Issues Confronting Advocates for Battered Immigrant Women” in this volume.

"Prostitution and Trafficking” in Melissa Farley, Ph.D., et al., Prostitution and Traumatic Stress, Journal of Trauma Practice, 2004.

Interviewing Battered Women, in Ronald E. Cohen and James C. Neely, eds., Lawyer's Manual on Domestic Violence: Representing the Victim, First, Second, Third, and Fourth Editions, Appellate Division, First Department, Supreme Court of the State of New York, 1998.

Trafficking in Women in Europe, chapter in Amy Elman, ed., Sexual Politics and the European Union, Berghahn, Oxford, England, 1995.

Pornography in the Workplace: Sexual Harassment Litigation Under Title VII, chapter in Laura Lederer and Richard Delgado, eds., The Price We Pay: The Case Against Racist Speech, Hate Propaganda, and Pornography, Hill and Wang (U.S.) and Harper Collins (Canada), 1995.

Pimping and Prostitution as Sexual Harassment: Amicus Brief on behalf of the New York State Women's Bar Association and the National Coalition Against Sexual Assault in Dilorenzo v. Guccione, Journal of Gender and Law, University of Michigan Law School, Jan. 1994.

Prostitution: A Violation of Women's Human Rights, Cardozo Women's Law Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1993.

Co-Editor, with Dr. Janice Raymond, The Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism, Pergamon Press, 1991. ISBN 0080374573

Notable Court Cases

Dorchen Leidholdt vs. Larry Flynt, 860 F.2d 890 (9th Cir. 1988) This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. ...

Dorchen Leidholdt vs. Hustler Magazine, 647 F. Supp. 1283 (D. Wyo. 1986) Hustler (April, 2004) Hustler (June, 1978), perhaps the most controversial issue due to the perceived misogyny of the cover image Larry Flynts Hustler, a monthly pornographic magazine published in the United States, was first issued in 1974. ...

External links

• Biography of Dorchen Leidholdt, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women.
• Coalition Against Trafficking in Women - official site.
• "Demand and the Debate" by Dorchen A. Liedholdt, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, 2004.
• "When Women Defend Pornography" by Dorchen Leidholdt. From: The Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism.
• "Prosecuting The Batterer Without The Victim's Approval" by Emily Jane Goodman, Gotham Gazette, June 2003.