Found an interesting “roundtable” article in an old issue of Tikkun magazine in which Catharine MacKinnon defends Clarence Thomas during the early phase of his confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court (before Anita Hill’s story became public).
“Conservatives talk about the real injury that, say, pornography causes; liberalism trivializes that injury and defends it as the ‘free speech’ of pornographers. It makes more sense in terms of women’s life experiences to hear someone talk a right-wing ‘law-and-order’ line that at least acknowledges the reality of sexual violence against women. What I’m saying is that I’m not at all alarmed, as someone who, among other things, practices law, about the prospect of litigating before Judge Thomas. I feel I can talk to this man…I’m really opposed to the way that some women’s groups have been first off the starting block to condemn Thomas, based on scanty evidence about his views on abortion.”
— Catharine MacKinnon, in “Roundtable: Doubting Thomas.” Tikkun, 6(5):23-30.