In the meantime, the march reached the heart of the adult entertainment district, provoking varied responses from the bystanders there. The atmosphere became more volatile as the demonstrators approached the sex merchants. A prostitute and several male shop-owners gave the protestors the finger when they passed by their stores, stopping in front of some and shouting "Close them down!" and "Porn is violence!"

"You're a bunch of nuts," men mumbled from the street corners. A few began snapping their fingers and grinning broadly at the chants. One strolled into the throng. "Whatchu doin out here, baby?" he leered at one woman. As the neighborhood exposed its hard core, the marchers--many of whom had never been to Times Square before--drew closer together.

"It isn't doing any good, we're still here," laughed one male bystander.

The march, which by this time had accumulated representatives of the Screen Actors Guild, Gray Panthers, Hare Krishnas, prolifers, and civilian peacekeepers, wound its way out of the district and proceeded to nearby Bryant Park for a rally. Heartened by music from a women's jazz group and performers from the Broadway shows "I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road" and "Gemini," the crowd settled down to consider a question posed by poet Robin Morgan: "How come the women's movement woke up to the issue of pornography?"

"It's not a new issue," she said. "What is new is our numbers, our strength, our rage, and our refusal to cower at the accusation, prude."'

Drawing parallels between Ted Bundy--a Floridian accused of murdering 26 women and whose folk hero status is celebrated in T-shirts and songs--and Ted Kennedy, who Morgan says has not yet offered a sufficient explanation of Mary Jo Kopechne's death at Chappaquiddick, Morgan warned, "Trust not ye the right or the left on any issue in which women's lives are at stake."

The two-hour rally featured speakers such as Susan Brownmiller, author of Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape, ex-Congresswoman Bella Abzug, and Ms. magazine editor Gloria Steinem. Steinem commented further on the attitudes of major male political figures.

"Jimmy Carter thinks--probably--that pornography is all sex outside the bounds of marriage and procreation," she said. "Ted Kennedy thinks--probably--that pornography is the sexual liberation of the 1960s, a male invention to make more women available to more men. Ronald Reagan thinks--probably--that pornography is 19th century literature including sex, and those movies in which, had he acted, he would have made more money."

The dictionary definition of pornography is "writing about female slaves," she said, contrasting that with erotica, which implies love, mutuality, and consent. "There is a profound difference, as profound as the difference between life and death," Steinem said, mentioning the so-called "snuff films" in which women are actually killed during sex. "If there is not equality between men and women, then every time we come together it will be pornography."

"One thing basic to all pornography," feminist author Andrea Dworkin said, "is the idea that 'She wants it'--she 'wants' to be beaten, she 'wants' to be forced, she 'wants' to be raped...brutalized...hurt."

"Meanwhile, all across this country, women are being raped and beaten and forced and brutalized and hurt," she said. "And when a woman has the courage to come forward and ask for help, most of the police and the people around her ask, 'What did you do to provoke him?' and 'Did you like it?"'

Dworkin recited a litany of things women do to "lead men on"--go to the movies alone, smile, tell men the time of day, get married, sit on their fathers' laps, and even the way they dress, walk and talk.

"And still the question persists: 'Did you like it?"' she said. "How does everyone whose opinion counts know women want it? Pornography says so! We are here today to explain calmly, to scream, to yell, to holler, that we women do not want it...we never have wanted it, and we never will want it!"

The women who spoke on Saturday didn't persuade everyone listening though. An older woman approached demonstrators returning to the Cambridge bus, saying, "You American women are so permissive." She berated them for encouraging pornography by wearing tight pants and skirts and attracting men. "You've called my son, he knows!" the woman shrilled.

"I'm a lesbian. I don't call your son," one of the women in the group replied.

The struggle continues.