Barbara Dority is Executive Director of the Washington Coalition Against Censorship (WCAC) and Founder/Co-Chair of the Northwest Feminists Anti-Censorship Taskforce (NW-FACT). Dority has served on the board of the Washington affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union. She is President of the Humanists of Washington and edits the Secular Humanist Press. She writes a regular column on civil liberties issues for The Humanist magazine. Dority has spoken on behalf of Feminism, freedom of expression and civil liberties in numerous forums including television, radio and major Washington newspapers. As a frequent writer and speaker on gender equality, Dority discusses the inextricable relationship between feminism and the First Amendment. She counters claims that pornography is intrinsically sexist and/or degrading to women and causes violence against women.

The Humanist: “Artistic Repression in America”

Barbara Dority’s “Artistic Repression in America” was published in The Humanist (May/June 1999). From the site: “Art in a free society is much more than a diversion. It enlightens, educates, identifies societal problems, and raises awareness. Each challenge to the freedom of artistic expression sends a terrible message, particularly to young people: the way to address "disagreeable" speech is to squelch it, demand its removal, deny its funding, or cover it up.”

Feminist Moralism, Pornography, and Censorship

The site provides brief highlights related to prostitution and the text of Barbara Dority’s presentation given at several universities and colleges. From this site: “ It is argued that women who work in the adult entertainment industry are often abused. Yes, this is too often true. We should be working to see that those who perpetrate this abuse are arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. These women receive less protection and are sometimes abused specifically because the larger community has stigmatized them, condemning them as 'bad women,' including their feminist 'sisters.' We should be working for the rights and safety of these women and promoting respect for them and their work, not further jeopardizing them by heaping scorn on their work and attempting to criminalize it.”

Halt and show your papers