Just Words: On Speech and Hidden Harm

We all know that speech can be harmful. But what are the harms and how exactly does the speech in question brings those harms about? Mary Kate McGowan identifies a previously overlooked mechanism by which speech constitutes, rather than merely causes, harm. She argues that speech constitutes
harm when it enacts a norm that prescribes that harm. McGowan illustrates this theory by considering many categories of speech including sexist remarks, racist hate speech, pornography, verbal triggers for stereotype threat, micro-aggressions, political dog whistles, slam poetry, and even the
hanging of posters. Just Words explores a variety of harms - such as oppression, subordination, discrimination, domination, harassment, and marginalization - and ways in which these harms can be remedied.


Author: Mary Kate McGowan
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 04/14/2019
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.60h x 5.60w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9780198829706

About the Author

Mary Kate McGowan, Margaret Clapp '30 Distinguished Alumna Professor of Philosophy, Wellesley College

Mary Kate McGowan is the Margaret Clapp '30 Distinguished Alumna Professor of Philosophy at Wellesley College. She received her PhD from Princeton in 1996. She works in metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of law, and feminism. She is the co-editor, with Ishani Maitra, of Speech and Harm: Controversies Over Free Speech (Oxford 2009).

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