Marcia Pally

In the following viewpoint, Marcia Pally maintains that sexually explicit material is not responsible for men’s sexual violence against women. Men rape because they want to inflict pain, she asserts, not because they were exposed to pornography. Therefore, Pally contends, rapists who claim that pornography inspired their crimes are merely trying to rationalize or justify their behavior. Pally is cofounder of Feminists for Free Expressions, a nonprofit anticensorship organization, and the author of Sense and Censorship: The Vanity of the Bonfires and Sex and Sensibility: Reflections on Forbidden Mirrors and the Will to Censor, from which this viewpoint is excerpted.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What is women’s true problem, according to the author?
2. In Pally’s opinion, why should sex offenders’ claims that pornography was responsible for their...