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