Hate Speech and the Status of Prisoners
Logan Richard Baseley · IRL - University of Missouri, St. Louis (University of Missouri–St. Louis) · 2015
Drawing from feminist and critical race theorists’ analyses of pornography and racist speech, I advance an argument in favor of speech regulations vis-à-vis prison rape films. I call ‘prison rape films’ (PRFs) those films that depict prison rape humorously, as narrative springboards, or as unnecessary tangents. I explore why such films ought to be regulated by pointing out the harms these films have on prisoners. In doing so, I examine what it is to be a ‘historically oppressed group’ and what makes such groups particularly vulnerable to hate speech. Prisoners are a historically oppressed group that is harmed by prison rape films and, on this basis, deserve protection from such harm by way of regulation.