Podcast Summary:

New Books Network — Jessica Lake, "Special Damage: The Slander of Women and the Gendered History of Defamation Law" (Stanford UP, 2025)
Host: Dr. Miranda Melcher
Guest: Dr. Jessica Lake
Release Date: February 2, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode features Dr. Jessica Lake discussing her groundbreaking book, Special Damage: The Slander of Women and the Gendered History of Defamation Law. Dr. Lake traces the transnational evolution of defamation law focused on the unique ways it affected (and often silenced) women, with close attention to the US, Australia, and England. The conversation highlights how the law encoded and policed gender, class, and race, and how feminist perspectives have been missing from the field until recently.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins and Motivation for the Book

• Dr. Lake’s Background

  • Senior Lecturer in Law at University of Melbourne, specializing in media, defamation, and privacy law; former practicing media-entertainment lawyer.
    • “Defamation law has been... treated as a neutral doctrine that equally protects the reputations of men and women. Only recently, especially since #MeToo, has there been real critique.” (03:25)

• The Slander of Women Act: Uncovering an Obscure History

  • A footnote in an Australian textbook referencing the repealed "Slander of Women Act" piqued Dr. Lake’s interest, leading her to unearth neglected histories and reveal their global connections.
    • "It's like pulling on a thread, and then suddenly... you realize this whole area you didn't know about." (05:37)

2. Defamation Law’s Gendered History

• Why Start in New Jersey, 1788?

  • The earliest gender-conscious reform: Mary Smith’s case, where a woman accused of fornication fought to redeem her reputation. The New Jersey court, in a gender-neutral move, declared sexual slander actionable for both women and men, setting a precedent.
    • "The Chief Justice... broke quite defiantly with British law and declared all sexual slander actionable for women and men. It was a revolutionary judgment." (13:40)

• The Problem of 'Special Damage'

  • In English common law, women could only sue for sexual slander if they suffered 'special damage' (essentially, a broken engagement). Most women therefore had no legal recourse for sexual reputational harm.

3. Colonial and Transnational Spread

• Australia’s Situation (New South Wales)
  • Early colonial cases showed how class and evolving notions of women’s work/virtue shaped slander laws.
    • Case Highlight: Maria Lewin and Harriet Spencer
      • Both faced sexual slander, but only succeeded—or failed—based on differing interpretations of special damage and evolving court systems.
      • “For Spencer, ruinous allegations destroyed her employability as a governess; it wasn’t just about marriage anymore.” (18:53)

4. Legislative Developments: Slander of Women Acts

• First Act: North Carolina, 1808

  • The first explicitly named "Slander of Women Act" in the common law world, passed by a white, plantation-owning legislator, was intended to protect the unsullied purity of elite white women—but in practice, it also empowered marginalized women (poor, racially ambiguous, Native American) to fight reputational harm, at least in court.
    • "The Act's phrase 'unsullied purity' was meant to protect elite white women, but in practice, marginalized women used it to vindicate their reputations." (23:40)

• Class and Race

  • Legal reforms were deeply entwined with anxieties about female sexual purity, class, and (in the US South) race. Judges would sometimes openly declare acts did not apply to non-white or poor women—even as these groups used them in unexpected ways.
    • "Faced with an African-American plaintiff, one judge said explicitly: these were not the 'unsullied women' the Act was meant to protect." (29:00)

5. Comparative Legislative Developments & Case Law

• Georgia: Explicit Racial Coding

  • Georgia’s 1859 Act criminalized imputations about white women having sex with Black men, a reaction to anxieties about racial boundaries.
    • “Georgia cracked down heavily... the law specified any words about a white woman’s supposed connection with a black man were actionable per se.” (33:17)

• New York: The Power of Metaphor and Precedent

  • While not as explicit, slander cases relied on racialized metaphors (white as purity, slanders as ‘stains’) and delayed enacting a Slander of Women Act until 1871—later than most.

6. Global Circulation of Legal Ideas

• Transnational Legal Influence

  • Reforms moved between the US, Australia, and England via legal periodicals, case law, and networks. Australian legal journals and the Albany Law Journal (NY) cited and influenced each other’s reforms.
    • "A hotel maid’s case in South Australia could influence a New York farm woman via the system of precedent." (38:45)

• England as Follower, not Leader

  • England finally passed its Slander of Women Act in 1891, belatedly, after being shamed for its 'barbarous' treatment of women’s reputations in defamation law by its colonies.
    • “Parliamentarians described England’s law as ‘barbarous and uncivilized’—flung back by their own colonies.” (42:15)
  • Ironically, English suffrage groups objected to its gendered provisions, preferring a gender-neutral approach reminiscent of 1700s New Jersey.

7. Unexpected Findings and Gaps in Legal History

• Neglect of Women’s Legal Struggles
  • Dr. Lake was surprised these 'rich and important stories' were so under-examined, given their centrality to defamation law for a century.
    • "What surprised me most was that these stories had been ignored... I think probably... because it concerned women." (47:35)
• Global Scope
  • The book’s conclusion maps the reforms’ spread—from US states and Canadian provinces to New Zealand and Singapore (mid-20th century).

8. Contemporary Relevance

• Deep Fakes and Modern Harm
  • Dr. Lake connects historical patterns to modern issues like pornographic deepfakes and ongoing legal battles over online reputational harm.
    • “Back in the 19th century, spoken words attacked women; now, deep fake pornography is the latest way. What laws can best address these?” (51:10)

Notable Quotes

• On the transnational legal story:

  • “Networks of legal periodicals and law reports were rapidly growing in the 19th century... so a case in South Australia could influence a case in rural New York.” — Jessica Lake (38:45)

• On England's belated reform:

  • “England looked, quote, ‘barbarous’ in terms of its treatment of women and their reputations... There was a kind of galling insult for England to be told they were backwards by the colonies.” — Jessica Lake (42:15)

• On why the history was forgotten:

  • “I think probably, you know, and unfortunately, and predominantly it was because it concerned women... largely called the Slander of Women Acts, and not generally an issue for male plaintiffs.” — Jessica Lake (47:35)

• On contemporary implications:

  • “Now, there’s a whole lot of media to attack women—deep fake pornography is really the latest way to do that.” — Jessica Lake (51:10)

Key Timestamps

• 03:00 — Dr. Lake’s personal and professional background; feminist gaps in defamation history
• 06:17 — Why the book begins with New Jersey, 1788
• 14:50 — The New South Wales colonial context and sexual slander cases
• 21:59 — North Carolina’s 1808 Slander of Women Act; scope and racial/classed hierarchies
• 28:26 — Racialized dimensions (North Carolina, Georgia, New York)
• 36:43 — Circulation of legal ideas between the US and Australian colonies; influential periodicals
• 41:18 — England’s stubbornness and eventual reform; colonies as innovators
• 47:20 — What surprised Dr. Lake most in researching the book
• 50:38 — Dr. Lake’s current work on deepfakes and medical defamation

Conclusion

Special Damage excavates the forgotten, global feminist history of defamation law, revealing how slander law both mirrored and policed boundaries of gender, class, and race. Dr. Lake’s transnational research challenges the idea that English law was always progressive, showing instead how colonies led the way—and how the struggle over who could redeem their reputation continues into the digital age.

Further Reading:
Jessica Lake, Special Damage: The Slander of Women and the Gendered History of Defamation Law (Stanford University Press, 2026)