at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060731/nussbaum

While Nussbaum argues with some of MacKinnon's claims, she also calls it required reading for every undergrad and grad student. Not many reviews in academia say that.

Is MacKinnon controversial figure in feminist theory? Yes. Is feminist theory better for it? Hell yes.

And for those of you who critique MacKinnon's controversial views on rape, I ask if you're doing anything that comes close to what MacKinnon has done. Copied from Nussbaum's article:

"Because she is so well known as a feminist thinker, it is easy to forget that MacKinnon is also a lawyer, and a very shrewd one. Representing a group of women who had been raped during the Bosnian conflict, in a case called Kadic v. Karadzic, she employed a little-known American law, the Alien Tort Claims Act, which allows plaintiffs to file civil suits against foreign citizens in US courts, provided that the defendant can be served on US soil. Previous users of the statute had been isolated individuals. While rejecting a class-action approach on the grounds that it would impose plaintiff status on women who might be unwilling to join in--the process, she argues, must be "accountable, personal, and responsive"--MacKinnon brought suit against Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic on behalf of a specific group of female clients, seeking damages for injuries consisting in "genocidal sexual atrocities perpetrated as a result of [his] policy of ethnic cleansing." Damages were sought for the named individuals, as was an injunction that Karadzic order the genocide to stop. On August 10, 2000, a jury in the State of New York awarded the plaintiffs a total of $745 million in compensatory and punitive damages and a permanent injunction. For her role in this landmark prosecution, MacKinnon was honored as one of the finalists in the 2001 "trial lawyer of the year" competition by the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice.

"No, she's muddied issues and opened feminism up to the rather obvious and in her case true critique that she's trading in a patriarchal society for a matriarchal one."

How so, exactly? Your post lacks concrete claims about MacKinnon's work. I've read some MacKinnon (except this most recent) and would love to discuss specific claims and conceptualizations she makes in her work, if you would be so kind as to be specific in your critique. You know, instead of lumping her together with "Dworkin" and then immediately dismissing her.

And I don't think MacKinnon (let alone Dworkin) is the antithesis of feminism. I think identifying other people as either inside or outside of feminism isn't my role (I'll make claims for myself, thanks). But I think you might be surprised at how MacKinnon is a valuable voice in feminist legal theory.

instead of googling away to find the juiciest quotations, why not read the original source?

Sexual Harassment Of Working Women : A Case Of Sex Discrimination / Catharine A. MacKinnon ; With A Foreword By Thomas I. Emerson. 1979

Feminism Unmodified : Discourses On Life And Law / Catharine A. MacKinnon. 1987

Toward A Feminist Theory Of The State / Catharine A. MacKinnon. 1989

Only Words / Catharine A. MacKinnon. 1993

In Harm's Way : The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings / edited By Catharine A. MacKinnon And Andrea Dworkin. 1997

Sex Equality. Rape Law / Catharine A. MacKinnon. 2001

Women's Lives, Men's Laws / Catharine A. MacKinnon. 2005

Are Women Human? : And Other International Dialogues / Catharine A. MacKinnon. 2006

I would recommend Feminism Unmodified and Toward a Feminist Theory of the State.

I know, I know, why read the actual source when you can google away and have others do the thinking for you?