The film debuted in 1996, and chronicled the colorful life of pornographer and first amendment champion Larry Flint. The film explores the first amendment and how its protections relate to expressions of art in the film industry, and more specifically, the porn industry.
In the film, and in real life, the anti-porn feminist movement would like the American public to agree that the 1st Amendment does not apply to such "expressions" that blatantly degrade women. But how do you define behavior that could be objectively viewed to degrade women? Such a definition would at best be subjective, and would depend on the person that was defining the act or acts that could be viewed as demeaning. Such a blanket definition couldn't possibly take in to account each individual's personal threshold for sexual expression. Research has shown that communities that have a higher circulation level of soft-core porn magazines actually have a higher level of gender equality. (Baron, 378). This statistic would imply that not all people view pornography as demeaning towards women, but perhaps as empowering, viewing women not as powerless sex objects, but rather as powerful sexual women who are equal partners to their male counterparts.
