Caught Looking

the long version

Warning: this book intentionally presents many sexually explicit images (thus the title, 'Caught Looking'). "The second edition of Caught Looking gives us the opportunity to look back over the year or more since we published this book in the fall of 1986. Caught Looking combined serious essays by feminists, explicit visuals, and an attitude both probing and playful. It bewildered some by its provocative nature but excited far more by its boldness. The only changes we have made are minor corrections in the text and design. Caught Looking began as a collection of essays, all written between 1978-86, that were compiled by the Feminist Anti-Censorship Taskforce to serve activist ends. As the project developed, so did the ambition of the artists. They began to see a larger goal for Caught Looking. Why not a book that looked at a range of pornographic material? Why not a pornographic collection that would itself have to run the gamut of potential censors? With the 1986 Supreme Court decision invalidating the Indianapolis antipornography ordinance, the momentum behind such ordinances dissipated. The effort to defeat one antipornography ordinance was over, the larger struggle to change the overwhelmingly sexist environment in which we all live continues. For us, sexual issues remain fundamental to feminist debate and sexual liberation implicit in women's liberation. We offer the second edition of Caught Looking as both a document of a heady time and a fluid dialogue about women and sex. November 1987." [inside cover text]