Pornography
Obscenity legal definition
1. appeal to the prurient interest 2. offend contemporary community standards 3. lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific vision
Porn sales
3,000 per second new video every 39 seconds
Percent of people who visit online porn each month
36% 12 mins 8 times per month 68% lost interest in partner Partners and children negative effects
Presidential commissions
46 as of 2005 examining issues such as bioethics, chemical warefare and terrorist attacks
Catherine MacKinnon
Against porn Male dominance Women as second class Power 14th amendment: discrimination
Andrea Dworkin
Central aspect of male power Elevate men's positions Women are the penetrated, men are the penetrators
Feminist Anticensorship Taskforce
FACT censorship will lead to censorship of feminist writings and gay erotica
Royalle
Femme productions soft-core porn for women and couples
Rape and pornography
J. edgar hoover rapists have a higher amount of sexual magazines L Baron More equality in states that permit porn
1970 commission on obscenity and pornography
Lyndon Jackson impact of pornography on american society 4 main areas: 1.effects 2. traffic and distribution 3. legal issues 4. positive approaches to cope with Not a significant threat to society US Senate not happy
Religious conservative opposition
Porn reinforces tendency to sin and undermines the family, traditional authority, and moral fabric
1986 Attourney General's commission on pornography (the Messe Commission)
Ronald Regan Edwin Messe find "more effective ways in which the spread of porn could be contained" Experts and lay people 4 categories: 1. violent 2. degrading 3. nonviolent/nondegrading 4. nudity Opposite findings of prior commission -law enforcement should be increased -convicted should forfeit profits and confiscated material and repeat offenses=felonies -Picketing peddlers of offensive material -Congress ban obscene cable TV, sex lines, and child porn
Online porn
The fastest growing area of the porn industry worth $3 billion in 2006
antiporn feminists
antiporn laws made to reflect a male preoccupation with purity of thought and insult to moral sensibilities, and to ignore the true harms of porn (exploitation of women)
Lahey
focus on how porn harms women, not on men's reactions
First amendment
government can't infringe on freedom of speech, or of the press