Kitchener, Ontario
                                               March 25, 1995

To the editor, NOW:

Susan G. Cole's review of Nadine Strossen's new book, _Defending
Pornography_, [NOW, March 23-29] was a hatchet job.

Cole calls the title obnoxious.  Funny, I thought it was a simple
description of the contents.  Cole neglects to give the book's
subtitle, "Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women's Rights".

Cole spends most of her "review" taking issue with a single sentence
of Strossen's book.  Cole doesn't even mention Strossen's revealing
expose of how Catharine MacKinnon refuses to debate
free-speech feminists, nor how pro-censorship feminists have distorted
the experience of Deep Throat actress Linda Marchiano, nor how
the books of pro-censorship feminist Andrea Dworkin were themselves
seized by Canada Customs.

Cole's review is self-serving.  She describes Strossen as a "purist"
with a "religious commitment", but Cole herself is a "thoughtful"
activist.  Yeah, right.

Jeffrey Shallit