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NoPornNorthampton aims to increase awareness about the impact of porn on people and communities. We support the reasonable regulation of sexually oriented businesses in Northampton, Massachusetts and elsewhere. We ask businesspeople to balance profits with compassion. We do not advocate increasing government censorship of porn.

This site contains documentation that some people may find unpleasant. It is reproduced for the sole purpose of supporting NoPornNorthampton's arguments.

Welcome parents: Please see How to Talk about Porn with Your 11-Year-Old Son.

Porn is an important subject because the abuse of women and children is common in America, porn is a factor in this abuse, and porn is pervasive in our culture.

There are 500+ articles on this website--over half a million words of content--organized into categories (see our Category Archives below). Our critique of porn includes specific legal strategies that you can employ to reduce the risk of secondary effects (crime, blight, harassment) that can surround adult enterprises. Ultimately we hope to reduce the demand for porn by educating people about the impact it has on themselves and their relationships.

In Northampton, we are particularly concerned about Capital Video Corporation's porn shop at 135 King Street. This location is surrounded by homes, counseling centers and houses of worship. Capital Video calls itself "the largest adult retail chain in the nation." It sells violent, woman-hating pornography. It does business as Amazing.net, Amazing Express, Amazing Superstore, Amazing Video and Video Expo.

Current and prospective Capital Video/Amazing.net employees: Please see this overview of the issues.

Read about the adult-use zoning and signage (PDF) ordinances enacted in late 2006 by Northampton and our proposed viewing booth health regulations.


View 100 top anti-pornography videos and more as compiled by Anti-Pornography Activist Blog.


View Professor Gail Dines' March 2007 lecture on "Pornography and Pop Culture", which describes the increasingly harsh misuse of women in modern pornography, and how the people, money and values of porn have entwined with mainstream media and corporations. This 62-minute Google video (see our overview) is an excellent starting point for any discussion of feminism, media and porn. Our Frequently Asked Questions section (see below) addresses concerns that can arise, such as First Amendment issues.


To understand how narrow, violent, unloving and distorted porn's vision of sex generally is today, we encourage you to review this content analysis of 50 top selling porn films and these cartoons from Hustler, Playboy and Penthouse. Professor Diana Russell has also kindly permitted us to make her book, Against Pornography, available as a free PDF download. Dr. Russell presents the science and the raw material about porn so you can draw your own conclusions.


On this blog, we use the terms "adult business" and "sexually oriented business" interchangeably.

• Anti-Pornographers Bookshelf (102)
• Business Ethics (50)
• Capital Video Atty Michael Pill (14)
• Capital Video Corporation (114)
• Child Molestation (64)
• Child Porn (26)
• Debate on the Issues (202)
• Feminist Action Mobilization (7)
• Feminist Perspective (230)
• First Amendment (71)
• Green Sexuality (8)
• Impact of Porn (277)
• Legal Ethics (13)
• Legal Strategies (49)
• Love and Beauty (14)
• Marriage (51)
• Media Ethics (78)
• Northampton Maps (3)
• Northampton News (92)
• Northampton Worth Fighting For (21)
• NPN in the News (64)
• Ordinances and Regulations (162)
• Organized Crime (14)
• Porn Addiction (50)
• Porn Examples--Judge for Yourself (37)
• Porn Industry (88)
• Prostitution (71)
• Real Estate Ethics (13)
• Secondary Effects (90)
• Sexual Education (24)
• StopPornCulture (5)
• Strip Clubs (27)
• The Berlin CT Experience (6)
• The Kittery Experience (5)
• The Property Owner (15)
• The Raynham Experience (2)
• Viewing Booths (36)
• What You Can Do (99)

HiStats counts date from 5/12/07. The NoPornNorthampton website was launched in 2006.

Northampton and environs

Ask the Valley Advocate's Editor and Publisher to Drop the Sex Ads

Ask The Elevens to Stop Hosting Amazing.net-sponsored Parties

As appropriate, register complaints about Capital Video's porn shop with the building inspector, police, board of health, the mayor or the city council

If the Capital Video store hurts the interests of its neighbors (e.g. secondary effects, unsafe traffic flows, overflowing parking, disruptive patrons or offensive signage), a nuisance claim may be appropriate

Tell Capital Video attorney Michael Pill of Shutesbury (contact information) how you feel about his efforts to help a convicted criminal with mafia ties set up a hard-core porn shop next to homes, churches, counseling centers, a school of dance and a prospective bike trail (see PDF) in Northampton

Protest The Republican's association with "free speech" freelancers who don't fight fair (explicit language)

Contact the property owners of 135 King Street, Barry G. and Annette E. Goldberg

Contact the leasing agent for 135 King Street, R.J. Greeley Co.

Contact your Northampton City Councilor

Write a letter to the Daily Hampshire Gazette

Write a letter to The Republican

All regions

Help Us Spread the Word Online (quick and easy)

Ask Monster to reject Capital Video's job ads

Ask Blue Razor to decline Capital Video's website registration business (explicit language)

Ask directNIC to decline Capital Video's website registration business

Report degrading billboards to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America

Patronize hotels that do not offer in-room adult movies

Divest from the media companies, telecoms, hotels and other corporations that profit from porn

Ask Calvert (a socially responsible mutual fund firm) to divest from porn distributors

Counter the bad education of porn with better sex education in the schools

"Conversations key to children's safety"

Challenge the liquor licenses of adult enterprises that hurt the surrounding community

Advocate for intelligent prostitution laws that are easy on women, tough on johns

All employers must comply with OSHA regulations on working with/cleaning up certain bodily fluids. Report non-compliant adult enterprises to OSHA.

How the People Reclaimed Oklahoma City from a Major Eruption of Adult Businesses and Crime

More actions to come...

Email info@nopornnorthampton.org, write to NoPornNorthampton, 351 Pleasant Street, PMB 101, Northampton, MA 01060-3961, or call 413-320-2027. Please indicate if your comments should be kept private.

Please email your comments to info@nopornnorthampton.org. Please indicate if your comments should be kept private.

NoPornNorthampton is composed of local volunteers. Please help fund our efforts in publicity, education and research. Send a check payable to No Porn Northampton, 351 Pleasant Street, PMB 101, Northampton, MA 01060, or make a secure donation online at Click & Pledge.
You may also send contributions via PayPal to info@nopornnorthampton.org.

NoPornNorthampton has received a Certificate for Solicitation from the Massachusetts Attorney General's Division of Public Charities, meaning we are permitted to raise funds from the public. We have no intention or expectation of making a profit from our activism. Since some funds may support political activities, donations are not tax-deductible.

Some links for books go to Amazon, where we have an affiliate relationship. Any monies generated from these book sales will be contributed to NoPornNorthampton. The cost of your purchase is not affected.

11/25/07: NoPornNorthampton Offers 500,000+ Words of Innovative Porn-Fighting Power

5/1/07: NoPornNorthampton Reaches Out to Springfield Neighborhood with Advice on Adult Enterprises

1/11/07: Northampton Citizens Appeal Adult Store Approval in Land Court

11/6/06: Northampton, Massachusetts Passes Zoning to Safeguard Homes from Large Adult Businesses

8/17/06: NoPornNorthampton Issues an Open Letter to Barry G. and Annette E. Goldberg of Longmeadow, MA

7/6/06: NoPornNorthampton Fights Porn King's Plans for Northampton, Massachusetts

NO V.I.P. in Berlin, CT

Keep Johns Creek Safe (Georgia)

Capital Video calls itself "the largest adult retail chain in the nation." It does business as or is affiliated with Met-Cap Management, Amazing.net, and Metro Interactive. Headquartered in Cranston, Rhode Island, Capital Video reported $25,000,000 in sales in 2006. The company was incorporated in 1979 by Kenneth Guarino. Dennis Nichols is the current President-CEO.

Capital Video has over 20 "branches" in the US, primarily in New England. These stores typically appear under the Amazing.net name and sell adult movies, magazines and sexual paraphernalia. Many also have porn viewing booths. Stores close to Northampton include Springfield, MA, Wethersfield, CT and Meriden, CT.

Capital Video recently lost a battle with Kittery, Maine to keep its viewing booths private even in the face of strong evidence that people were having unsafe sex in them. The Springfield store recently had its viewing booths shut down for "repeated and persistent evidence of illegal activity and complicity and reckless disregard of Capital Video's management over a long period of time."

Kenneth Guarino has been convicted of conspiracy to evade taxes. Court documents also describe how he paid at least $1.7 million in cash to Natale Richichi, a capo in the Gambino family, "to fend off extortion attempts and to assist Guarino with other business matters where Richichi's influence as a capo might benefit Guarino."

A July 2006 Dun & Bradstreet report says that Guarino owns 100% of the capital stock. However, a June 2007 Dun & Bradstreet report says that Nichols owns 100% of the capital stock. While it's possible that Guarino sold the company to Nichols, we have no information that confirms this. We have asked D&B to investigate the discrepancy. We are waiting for their reply.

Read this account of working conditions at Capital Video headquarters.

Now Showing at Amazing.net: The War on Relationships (explicit)

Herbert, Brooks and Osayande on Misogyny, Money and Power; Amazing.net's War on Women and Blacks (explicit)

Now Showing at Amazing.net: The War on Privacy and Consent (explicit)

Amazing.net: Making Nazis Sexy (explicit)

Now on Sale at Amazing.net: The Swirlies (explicit)

Childhood Spanking Linked to Coerced Sex and Risky Sex in Adulthood; Amazing.net Milks Pain for Profit (explicit)

Now on Sale at Capital Video: Watch Women Eat Their Own Poop (explicit)

Gag Factor #20 (explicit)

Violent, misogynistic movies

Movies that promote infidelity, despair, call women "sluts" and "whores"

Movies that feature "Bubble Gum Virgins"

Capital Video's Magazine Rack: Bondage, Racism and More

Capital Video: Purveyors of Shame Feature a New "Celebrity Sex Tape Scandal" (explicit language)

Abusive Relationships and Porn: The Similarities (explicit language)

Some of these pages have explicit language.

The Valley Advocate is the major alternative weekly newspaper that serves Western Massachusetts. We call on them to fulfill their progressive mission--to look out for women and the vulnerable--and drop ads for escort services and other commercial sex enterprises.

Valley Advocate Website Announces 2008's "Best" Adult Entertainment Club; Holsopple's Inside Report on Stripping (explicit language)

Diane Sawyer Special Examines Prostitution in America; Challenge the Valley Advocate "Rat King"

Escort Prostitution: A Response to Tom Vannah, Editor of the Valley Advocate

Cincinnati: Coalition asks CityBeat to stop allowing promotion of prostitution through advertising

Orlando Weekly Drops Adult-Services Ads in Wake of Police Sting; "Operation Weekly Shame"

MSNBC Investigates Human Trafficking and Prostitution in the US; Valley Advocate Advertises "Foreign Fantasies" Where "Everything Goes"

Ask the Valley Advocate's New Owner to Drop the Sex Ads

Prostitution Research & Education: How Prostitution Works

Prostitution: Factsheet on Human Rights Violations

S.M. Berg: "Hey, progressives! Cathouse got your tongue?"

"New York Press No Longer Marketing Arm for Prostitution/Trafficking"

Another Victory for NOW-NYC: New York Magazine Drops Sex Ads

New Competitor to Craigslist Rejects Ads for "prostitution services and other questionable listings"

Belltown Messenger: "Greed, Lust and Ink"

Andrea Dworkin: Time for Progressives to Stand with the Victims, Not the Users (explicit language)

"Trade - A Film Brings Sex Trafficking Home"

Strip Clubs And Wall Street
...These clubs are like wrecking balls to marriages and communities. The dancers work under abusive conditions. Drugs, disease and prostitution are prevalent, and the realities of sex trafficking from Eastern Europe are not to be taken lightly.

Here are posts on our blog that give particular attention to the "secondary effects" of sexually oriented businesses. These effects include an increased risk of crime, disease, failure of surrounding businesses, reduced property values, hazardous trash and harassment of passersby. These risks are the ones that motivate cities to enact zoning and health regulations on sexually oriented businesses, and the reasons why courts uphold these regulations. Adult businesses aren't just about speech. They're about physical impacts on people and neighborhoods. That makes them a public issue.

The Evidence of Relationships Between Adult-Oriented Businesses and Community Crime and Disorder

The Case for Secondary Effects

Secondary Effects Across America: 1977-1999

Crime, Nuisances Motivate Cities to Regulate the Location of Adult Entertainment Uses

How the Supreme Court Reconciles Adult-Use Zoning with the First Amendment

US Fifth Circuit Appeals Court Affirms that Evidence of Secondary Effects of "Off-Site Consumption" Adult Enterprises Is Sufficient To Justify Zoning

Viewing Booths and HIV

Full Text of Springfield's Decision to Deny Capital Video's 2008 Viewing Booth Entertainment License

Springfield Republican: "Ryan shuts adult shop booths"

Full Text of Springfield's Decision to Revoke Capital Video's [2007] Viewing Booth Entertainment License

Gazette: "Porn store's viewing booths raise stink in Springfield"

Springfield Police Commissioner: "...it is fair to say that 'Amazing' constitutes an attractive nuisance that contributes to blighted conditions there"

Capital Video's Springfield Porn Shop Repels Sought-After Businesses

Capital Video Springfield: Secondary Effects Extend to Prostitution; Actions the City Can Take

Springfield, MA: License Commission to Review Alleged Capital Video Violations for Drug Sales and Lewd Activity On or Near the Premises

Prosperous Minneapolis Commercial Area Blighted by Proliferation of Adult Enterprises

Testimony in Minneapolis: Secondary Effects Around Adult Theaters; Police Suggest that Concerned Citizens Move Away

Detroit Police Testimony: What I Saw at the Melody Theater

Journal of Planning Literature: Adult Bookstores Often Increase Fear of Crime, Discourage Walking

New York City Planners Document Secondary Effects of Adult Uses, Support Zoning

Giuliani Understood How "Small Things" Matter

New York City Porn Shops Depress Demand for Neighboring Properties

San Francisco: Loss of Porn Shop Brings Hope to Tenderloin District

Even Hollywood Moved to Crack Down on Its Adult Businesses

California Supreme Court Ruling Helps Communities Preserve Quality of Life While Leaving Room for Free Expression

Local Businesses Say Porn Shop Hurts Downtown Ypsilanti

Impact of Porn Shops on a Community

Des Moines, WA: Adult Uses Cause Business Failures, Scare People Away

Law Article: "Preventing the Secondary Effects of Adult Entertainment Establishments: Is Zoning the Solution?"

Carolyn McKenzie: Undercover with the Viewing Booths (explicit language)

US Court of Appeals Upholds Minneapolis Regulation of Porn Viewing Booths

Secondary Effects: Town of Islip

The Kittery Experience

The Blaine Experience

The Raynham Experience

See Northampton's new signage (PDF) and adult-use ordinances

Quickly search the municipal codes of many North American cities and towns for adult enterprise regulation at General Code's E-Code Library

US Appeals Court Upholds Daytona Zoning and Public Nudity Ordinances; No Grandfathering for Lollipop's Gentlemen's Club; Rebutting Daniel Linz

See Local Regulation of Adult Businesses by Jules B. Gerard and Scott D. Bergthold

A Comprehensive Overview of Regulating Sexually Oriented Businesses

Massachusetts Towns Use Zoning to Regulate Adult Businesses

Struggle Over "Love Shack" in Georgia; New City Adopts State-of-the-Art Adult-Use Ordinance

Townsend, MA: A Robust Adult-Use Zoning Bylaw

Springfield Tightened Adult-Use Regulations in 1993 in Response to Citizen Concerns

Chicopee Noted Springfield, Holyoke Problems with Adult Businesses, Passed Zoning Regulations in 1993 and 1994

Massachusetts Land-Use Planner: "If communities take time now to look at their zoning regulations, you can really lessen the impact dramatically so (an adult-entertainment business) doesn't pop up next to a high school, church or day-care center"

Kittery, Maine Regulates Viewing Booths to Curb Disease, Hazardous Trash

Blaine, Washington Uses Zoning to Keep Adult Businesses from Halting Revitalization Efforts

Citizens, Officials Use Zoning to Protect Quality of Life in Berlin, Connecticut

Hooksett, NH, 1999: Citizens Convince Property Owner to Withdraw Application for Capital Video Porn Shop

Law Professors Provide Comprehensive Sample Adult-Use Ordinance for City Planners

US Supreme Court Sets Reasonable Guidelines for Adult-Use Zoning in City of Los Angeles v. Alameda Books (2002)

Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA): Zoning Balances First Amendment with Community Concerns

State Senator Stanley Rosenberg (D-Amherst): "I recognize the courts have upheld the Constitutional Rights of people to buy and sell these materials. The courts have also said governments have the right to regulate where such materials are sold."

A Review of Pornified: How Pornography Is Damaging Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families

Porn Use Correlates with Infidelity, Prostitution, Aggression, Rape-Supportive Beliefs

The Impact of Internet Pornography on Marriage and the Family: A Review of the Research

Influence of Porn on Sex Practices: Dispatches from the Field (explicit language)

Evidence Assessment: The Role of Pornography in the Physical Abuse of Women

Effects of Prolonged Consumption of Pornography on Family Values; Women's Desire to Have Daughters Plummets

Sexual Ecology: Porn, Promiscuity, and AIDS (explicit language)

Testimony from Northampton Shelter for Battered Women: Half of Abusers Use Pornography as a Part of the Abuse (explicit)

I Was a 'Self-Esteem Vampire': A Woman's Journey Out of Watching Porn (explicit language)

Salon: Porn Isolates its Users, Erodes Civility and Love

Signs of Porn Addiction; Support Groups

Time to Explore the Links Between Porn, Testosterone, Sexual Behavior and Violence

Young New Yorkers Talk about Porn's Effect on their Relationships (explicit language)

The Psychology of Porn for Men

Porn Confuses Young Men about How to Behave

Porn and a Hostile Learning Environment at M.I.T.

Testimony in Massachusetts: Porn and a Hostile Living Environment at M.I.T.

Porn and a Hostile Work Environment

Testimony in Massachusetts: Porn and a Hostile Work Environment in Carpentry

Pornography's Effects on Adults and Children

Testimony in Massachusetts: The Lasting Impact of Growing Up in a Porn-Filled Home

Porn Promotes Harmful Fallacies about Incest

"Links between porn, pedophilia explained"

Link of Media to Violence Accepted, But Porn Has No Effect?

The Creation of a Pornography Addiction

The Science Behind Pornography Addiction

Porn Addiction Not Fun; Porn's Repressive Vision

Porn addiction grows

Knowledge: The Antidote to Porn Addiction

Myth: Porn as Safety Valve

A Further Rebuttal to the 'Porn as Safety Valve' Myth

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: "All are deeply destructive images that erode male respect for women"

Pornography and Male Sexuality

"Porn...invariably left me feeling ashamed, alienated, and sad."

Intimacy and Porn: A Contradiction in Terms

"Spousal Use of Pornography and Its Clinical Significance for Asian-American Women"

Robert Jensen: Listen to the Stories of the Victims (explicit language)

Sexual Freedom and Sexual Justice

Testimony in Minneapolis: Role of Porn in Child Sexual Abuse; Pornographers Perpetuate, Profit from Dysfunction

Testimony in Los Angeles: Psychologists Underestimate the Role of Porn in Sex Offenses

Psychiatrist Rapes Patient as 'Therapy' for Her Inhibitions

Testimony in Minneapolis: With Growth of Porn, Rapists Show Less Remorse

Testimony in Minneapolis: "Prevalency of pornography amongst our offenders"

Porn and Sex Crimes in Other Countries: The Historical Experience

Exposure to pornography as a cause of child sexual victimization

Testimony in Minneapolis: Offenders Use Porn to Convince Children that Child Sex is Normal and Pleasurable

Some porn hard to distinguish from training for pedophiles (explicit language)

Testimony in Minneapolis: Pornographic materials often found in homes with child sexual abuse

Testimony in Minneapolis: Ice cream man uses porn magazine to interest children in sex

Porn contributes to divorce; used by pedophiles and rapists

Porn a factor in many sex offenses

Robert Jensen: Influence of Pornography on Sex Offenders (explicit language)

Role of porn in sex crimes

Porn: One rapist's story (explicit language)

We distinguish porn, which is generally harmful, from erotica, which can be harmless or even beneficial. The distinction is not absolute, but we suggest that erotica is that which supports love (examples), and porn is that which destroys love (examples).

Jill Manning writes, "While erotica has also been defined as literature or art intended to arouse sexual desire, it is distinguished from pornography in that it is void of violence, illegal portrayals (e.g., children), sexism, racism, and homophobia, and is respectful of the human beings involved."

An article in The Guardian suggests that porn is much more about power and domination than erotica is. An article in Writer's Digest suggests that porn is about masturbation, while erotica is about "sexual journeys ripe with character development". Hugo Schwyzer argues that porn is about having shallow experiences with lots of people, while eros is about having deep experiences with the same person.

Here are some characteristics we associate with porn:
mechanical
mindless
uncaring
exploitative
imbalance of power
lack of consent
taking without permission
selfish
careless
heedless
simplistic
shallow
objectifying
deceptive
cheating
violating
rough
harsh
inflicting pain
degrading
humiliating
unloving
actors not proud of product
actors disdain audience

Here are some characteristics we associate with erotica:
humane
mindful
caring
respectful
communicative
listening
consensual
balance of power
mutual pleasure
integrity
wholeness
sharing
thoughtful
deep feelings
loving
actors proud of product
actors respect audience

A complex work of art may have characteristics from both groups. It might be hard to apply a simple label to it. However, most porn is not that complex. You will not find much Henry Miller or Anais Nin in your typical porn shop.

While erotica may empower women, porn disempowers them. This is easy to see in the workplace, where porn has been used to harass and intimidate female coworkers.

Ultimately, the biggest difference between porn and erotica has to do with the long-term effect on the viewer, as well as the conditions under which the entertainment was made. By educating people as to the potential harms of adult materials, we hope they can look inside themselves to judge the healthiness of their media diet.

The following might be signs of unhealthy consumption of porn:

You feel guilty, ashamed, alienated, sad, confused, unsatisfied, or angry after viewing porn.

You generally feel bad about yourself.

You're afraid other people might discover what you're watching.

You experience negative consequences at work from your consumption of porn, or you fear possible consequences.

You start looking at pretty people purely as sex objects that you'd like to possess.

You treat people the way you see people in pornography treated.

You become more hostile or aggressive toward other people in your life.

You find that you are becoming increasingly critical of other people's physical imperfections.

You find it stimulating when porn performers appear to be experiencing pain, or are crying.

You notice your relationships, particularly your intimate ones, becoming unstable, coarse and conflict-ridden.

You become dissatisfied with how your partner expresses himself or herself sexually.

You need to remember images or scenes from pornography in order to have sex with someone.

When you are having sex with someone, images or scenes you've seen in pornography "get in the way"--they come into your mind and won't go away, even if you want them to.

You find that you prefer spending time alone with porn, rather than engaging with a companion or attempting to find one.

You sense that you are not growing emotionally as time passes, that you are stuck in habits that are not very satisfying.

You find that you have to consume more and more porn, or more explicit and violent porn, to become stimulated.

[Some of the above appears in Men Confront Pornography, p.294]

--------
Clinician M. Douglas Reed offers further warning signs of porn addiction here.

--------
Robert Jensen offers these definitions of pornography in Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality (p.3):
"Pornography is the material sold in pornography shops for the purpose of producing sexual arousal for mostly male customers... Second, from a critical feminist analysis, pornography is a specific kind of sexual material that mediates and helps maintain the sexual subordination of women."

--------
The films sold by Capital Video appear to us to be firmly on the porn side of the spectrum. They are violent, misogynistic, and promote despair and infidelity.

Porn is education--bad education.

Green sexuality is sustainable sexuality. It is characterized by long-term, mutually respectful relationships that enhance the lives of the lovers and the wider world. Green relationships look more like erotica and less like porn, as defined above. Green sexuality is a union between two equals, embracing both heterosexual and homosexual bonds but excluding polygamy, adult-child sexual relations and bestiality.

Green relationships are mindful of the impact of sexual choices on physical and mental health. They value integrity, wholeness and communication and avoid exploitation, abuse, promiscuity, infidelity and prostitution.

Green sexuality is consistent with the principles of the larger green movement, emphasizing long-term thinking, respect for other people, and an awareness of the consequences of personal choices. The green lover avoids mindless excess. By giving up superficial, fleeting, unsatisfying experiences, green relationships cultivate a finer, deeper, richer, and more robust way of living.

These articles illustrate aspects of green sexuality, or demonstrate the hazards when its attitudes are not present...

Category: Love and Beauty

David Bornstein: "Pursuing Happiness"

Sexual Ecology: Porn, Promiscuity, and AIDS (explicit language)

D.A. Clarke: Women Adopting Men's Bad Habits Is Not the Answer

The Impact of Internet Pornography on Marriage and the Family: A Review of the Research

Effects of Prolonged Consumption of Pornography on Family Values; Women's Desire to Have Daughters Plummets

Schwyzer on Porn: "The pursuit of everlasting novelty is the enemy of actual relationship"

Healthy Sexual Behavior
Mutual consent (free will)
Behavior is a want or desire
Fulfilling, enhancing, mood stabilizing
Personal interchange of emotion
Rare negative consequences
Enhanced self-worth
Sexual behavior is fulfilling, satiating
Balanced sexual behavior

Addictive Sexual Behavior
Coercion, victimization, and force
Behavior is a compulsion for instant gratification
Associated with severe mood shifts
Impersonal and emotional detachment
Negative consequences
Negative self-worth, shame, guilt
Lack of satiation, tolerance
Erratic sexual behaviors (excessive vs. anorexic)
__________
Coleman-Kennedy, C. & Pendley, A. (2002). Assessment and diagnosis of sexual addiction. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 8(5), 143–151.

Martin Amis: "A rough trade"

Porn: A Deadly Occupation

Workplace Regulations for Porn Performers: A Dialogue with Renegade Evolution

Penn State Law Professors Trot Out 'Female Porn Leaders' to Whitewash Realities of Adult Industry (explicit language)

Jenna Jameson's Tragic Backstory; Seeking Virgins with Paris Hilton

Why Jersey Jaxin Left Porn

Types of Porn and Their Occupational Safety Risks (explicit)

Porn Actresses: Most Careers Are Short, Few Are Lucrative (explicit language)

Condom Use Below 20% in American Porn Movies

Los Angeles Times: "In California's Unregulated Porn Film Industry, an Alarming Number of Performers Are Infected With HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Diseases. And Nobody Seems to Care."

Porn Worker Conditions: "Who failed Lara Roxx?" (explicit language)

Behind the Scenes of Deep Throat with Linda Lovelace

Linda Lovelace: When people see the movie Deep Throat, "they're watching me being raped" (explicit language)

Feminists Confront Feminists Over Pornography

Academic Defenders of Porn Need to Engage with Reality (explicit language)

Carol Queen: Time for the Porn Film Industry to Stop Being a Poster Child of Heterosexual HIV Transmission

2004: Cal/OSHA issues citations to adult film companies for failing to protect employees from health hazards

U.S. News & World Report (2/10/97): "There is a constant demand for new talent, and few actresses last more than a year or two... Checks sometimes bounce. The borderline legal status of the industry makes performers reluctant to seek redress in court..."

Testimony in Los Angeles: Pornographers Place Recruitment Ads for "Models" in Newspapers

Prostitution Research & Education: How Prostitution Works

Prostitution: Factsheet on Human Rights Violations

Sweden's Prostitution Solution: Why Hasn't Anyone Tried This Before?

A Closer Look at Sweden's Success with Reducing Prostitution; Skeptics Rebutted

Press Release: Action Network to use RNC and Minnesota State Fair to Bring Attention to Problem of Sex Trafficking

The New Yorker: "The Countertraffickers"

News Roundup: Age of Entry into Prostitution Declining

Dorchen Leidholdt, "Demand and the Debate"

Puncturing Alan Dershowitz's Delusions about Prostitution

Prostitution: "It is high time to expose and challenge the liberal consensus"

New Book - Prostitution and Trafficking in Nevada: Making the Connections

"Trade - A Film Brings Sex Trafficking Home"

Why Do Johns Buy Sex?

How to Deter Johns from Buying Sex

Newsweek: "A School for Johns"

Realities of Teen Prostitution Mock Notions of 'Sex Work', 'Sex-Positive', 'Freedom' and 'Empowerment'; Media Glamorizes Pimps

A Thought Experiment for Those Who Want to Legalize Prostitution

New Competitor to Craigslist Rejects Ads for "prostitution services and other questionable listings"

"Facing the Wall", a Poem by Janet Aalfs

A Review of Stripped: Inside the Lives of Exotic Dancers

Profitable Exploits: Lap Dancing in the UK

The Truth About Lap Dancing: A Performer Speaks Out

Why Investors Should Shun Strip Club Profits

Strip Clubs: Dancers Pay to Work There
...the girls who work there, the dancers...pay $150 to $200 a shift for the privilege of working... I asked one guy in the business, "What's the biggest risk to your business model?" He said if the government stops immigration from Eastern Europe.

"Waitressing, I cleaned the floors and I own a box of men's wedding rings that I found on the floor."

A Review of Sherry Lee Short, "Making hay while the sun shines: The dynamics of rural strip clubs in the American Upper Midwest, and the community response"

The Truth About Lap Dancing: A Performer Speaks Out

Carolyn McKenzie: Disease, Intoxicants Prevalent Among Strip Dancers (explicit language)

Former Stripper Tells Easthampton Hearing about the Life: It Stinks

Springfield Republican Reports on Strip Clubs and the Mafia

Strip Club Tips: How to Savor an Exquisite Blend of Fantasies, Lies, Exploitation and Despair (explicit language)

Strip Poker Men's Club: Women's Lib to Blame for Men's Going to Strip Clubs

Activist Strategies: Indiana Feminists Block "Girls Gone Wild"; Berlin Resident Fights Strip Club Liquor License with Remonstrance Petition

Porn Past Haunts Women Long After Pictures Taken

Porn Stars Melissa-Ashley and Jenna Jameson Confront Rude Fans, Actors... (explicit language)

Raffaëla Anderson and the French Porno Industry (explicit language)

Porn Director: The Idea that Porn Actresses Are Not Prostitutes Is Silly (explicit language)

Jenna Jameson's Cautions to Would-Be Porn Stars

Interview with Ex-Porn Star Traci Lords: Abused as a Child; High on the Set; Power, Not Arousal; Bad Pay

Ex-Porn Star Shelley Lubben Talks about Days on the Set: Tedious, Intoxicated, Painful, Risky

Kink.com: Bondage Porn Gone Chillingly, Cheerfully Corporate (explicit language)

New York Times: "The Girls Next Door"; Worldwide Sex Trafficking; Role of Porn

Pornoland's unwritten law: "if we tell the truth about what's really going on here, the fan will get turned off"

Kara Nox, adult film star, on "What don't you like about porn?"
A: ...Mostly, it's the attitude among many men that I'm subhuman. The degradation of women is getting worse. Conditions for women on set are becoming more and more dangerous. As porn grows, more men with Neanderthalean views of women are getting power as talent, and producers. The results are increased acceptance of violence onset. Women face enough danger outside of porn. It seems as though many of the men we fear are now doing porn, and they legitimize their misogyny by saying it's for entertainment value. That scares the shit out of me, because it means there are even more troglodytes watching this, and getting off on women being hurt.

Child Porn Mogul: A View from the Inside (explicit language)

Although the industry is dependent on fans for survival, many of the respondents reported a fairly negative image of the imagined viewer... Ironically, then, actresses and actors are motivated in part to receive recognition from a group they know little about and often disparage... (explicit language)

Lizzy Borden: We don't shoot "all the lovey-dovey stuff that there's not a big market for" (explicit language)

Porn Merchant Implies: Host Community Put at Risk So Outsiders Might Enjoy Themselves

Notorious Pornographer: Giant Porno Stores Not Appropriate for Residential Neighborhoods (explicit language)

Testimony in Massachusetts: Johns who like porn are the "most dangerous and potentially violent" (explicit language)

Testimony in Minneapolis: Prostitutes and Porn (explicit language)

Realities of Teen Prostitution Mock Notions of 'Sex Work', 'Sex-Positive', 'Freedom' and 'Empowerment'; Media Glamorizes Pimps

The profits from porn movies and phone sex flow through several "blue-chip" American corporations. These include Holiday Inn, Marriott, AOL Time Warner, Comcast, EchoStar Communications, DirecTV, Adelphia, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Cablevision Systems and AT&T. If you own shares in these companies, you might consider discussing the matter with their shareholder relations departments, or simply selling their shares.

See more at Major Corporations Profit from Porn, Gail Dines Presents: Pornography and Pop Culture (explicit), Strip Clubs Are the Next Hot Thing on Wall Street, and A Hostile Work Environment: The Porn Sections of Movie Gallery Video Stores.

View and search Northampton's current municipal code online here.

On November 2, 2006, the Northampton City Council approved ordinances that regulate signage with adult content (PDF) and require that establishments with porn viewing booths must be located in Northampton's Highway Business District and be at least 500 feet from homes, schools and houses of worship. In addition, a business with over 1,000 square feet of adult material on display must also be located in the Highway Business District and be at least 500 feet away from homes, schools and houses of worship. See more about the ordinances regarding size and location of adult businesses. See the Daily Hampshire Gazette's support for this legislation.

NoPornNorthampton also advocates the adoption of health regulations to ensure the safety and cleanliness of porn viewing booths, should any be established in Northampton. The city has not taken formal action on this as of yet.

See how your city officials are voting on adult-use zoning and matters relating to Capital Video:

Northampton Planning Board Approves Capital Video's Site Plan (December 14, 2006)

Northampton City Council on Adult Signage, Location of Adult Enterprises (November 2006)

Northampton Planning Board on Adult Signage, Location of Adult Enterprises (September & October 2006)

Building Inspector Complaint Form (PDF)

Zoning Board of Appeals Appeal Application (PDF)

Use this Custom Search Engine to search the City of Northampton website, courtesy of Northamptonist.

NPN Asks Northampton Building Inspector to Revoke Capital Video's Building Permit; He Declines on 2/26/07 (PDF). Supplemental material: Example of Victoria's Secret display.

Building Permit Issued to Capital Video, 2/8/07 (PDF)

Capital Video Submits Final Components of Application for Building Permit, 1/18/07 (PDF)

Northampton Planning Board Narrowly Approves Capital Video's Site Plan in 4-3 Vote, Recorded on 12/21/06 (PDF)

Capital Video claims traffic for their "specialty retail" store will be light, but a video rental classification is more appropriate (PDF, 12/13/06)

Capital Video Plays Hardball, Proposes Bondage Display for Store, Attorney Disses Community Opposition Ahead of 12/14/06 Public Hearing (shows revised plans for retail floor space)

Capital Video Capitulates to New Zoning, Revises Plans for 135 King Street (12/3/06 letter from attorney Michael Pill)

Capital Video tries to trigger zoning freeze to evade new Northampton ordinances, fails (PDF, early December 2006)

Northampton's adult-use zoning ordinances as approved by the City Council on 11/2/06

Northampton City Council minutes of 11/2/06 showing new ordinance to regulate the adult content of signage (PDF)

Northampton Department of Public Works memo to Planning Board re: Capital Video's plans (PDF, 10/26/06)

Update to Capital Video's Plans for 135 King Street through late September 2006

Capital Video's latest plans for 135 King Street
(September 2006: 6,222 square feet, no viewing booths)

The Goldbergs' large mortgage on 135 King Street

Northampton zoning map shows central location of 135 King Street

Neighbors of porn shop to include homes, School of Dance, counseling centers and churches--A Brief Photo Tour

Satellite photo shows schools, churches near 135 King Street

Satellite photo shows homes surrounding 135 King Street

On the satellite photos, observe the railroad tracks that run right behind 135 King Street. A bike trail is also planned to run beside the tracks (see PDF map). Presumably the bike trail will be used by many children. Many residents have expressed concern that a porn shop may attract prostitutes, drug dealers, and sexual predators to this area. The thick vegetation bordering the tracks provides many potential hiding places.

A quick check of Mapquest reveals that 135 King Street is less than a mile and a half from Exit 20 on I-91. People have expressed concern that porn consumers from around the region will converge on the King Street porn shop to avail themselves of the hardcore material to be sold there.

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California Division of Occupational Safety and Health: Vital information for workers and employers in the adult film industry: Health hazards in the adult film industry; Bloodborne pathogens; Even workers who are paid as independent contractors may be considered employees under the law; How to file complaints and get help

Where can I find statistics about Internet porn?

TechCrunch and DeerBeards cite the following statistics from Good Magazine:

* There are an estimated 372 million porn web pages
* 12% of all websites are pornographic
* 266 new porn sites go online daily
* 25% of all search engine requests are porn related
* Sex is the most searched word on the Internet
* 35% of all Internet downloads are pornographic in nature
* 89% of porn is created in the US
* $2.84 billion in revenue was generated from US porn sites in 2006
* 72% of porn viewers are men

Are you advocating censorship? Why not let people choose the media they want to consume?

We are not advocating censorship. We don't want to establish any board of censors, nor do we want to see people arrested for consuming currently legal forms of porn. What we are trying to do is to educate people, and demonstrate why they should exercise judgment and restraint on their own. We hope this will reduce the demand for porn, and induce businesspeople to think twice about making money from suffering.

If people are going to make a choice, we want it to be an informed choice.

We do support modest zoning and health regulations for certain adult businesses to mitigate their well-known risks to the surrounding community (see About "Secondary Effects" above). These regulations are no more strict than those found elsewhere in America. Capital Video, and the porn industry as a whole, have left a highly visible trail of tears in their wake. Must we repeat the miserable experience of other people and other towns with regulations that are too lax?

Some people argue that the reasonable regulation of an activity is tantamount to banning it. This is absurd. The government regulates many activities, including many kinds of speech. The government regulates the gasoline you can put in your car. Does that mean it really wants to ban gasoline or the act of driving? It regulates the disposal of toxic waste. Does that mean it wants to ban toxic waste or all the activities that produce it? It regulates the time, place and manner in which businesses may serve alcohol. Does that mean it wants to ban drinking?

Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union, has been at the forefront of those who equate anti-pornography with censorship. Diana Russell rebuts Strossen's arguments here.

You just want to roll society back to the way things were in the 1950s, or maybe the 1650s, don't you?

No. The sexual revolution and other developments since the 1950s have brought important gains, such as more opportunities for women and more rights and respect for the GLBT community. At the same time, today's society has problems. Rates of divorce are persistently high, with troubling impacts on children. Rates of sexually transmitted disease are "a major public health challenge". About one-half of all pregnancies are unintended. Rates of domestic violence and child sexual abuse are high. Domestic violence and sex crimes go unreported on a large scale.

We don't want to roll back the clock and give up the changes that were good. We want to preserve these gains while moving forward to address the current problems. Porn is part of what's holding our society back. It portrays sexuality in a way that generally ignores the problems and risks or even makes fun of them. The messages of porn can and should be countered with more complete and accurate information about sexuality and relationships.

We appreciate that there is a long-standing romantic vision that if we can only dispense with all 'unnatural' social restraints, a sexual utopia will envelop the world. Unfortunately, the reality is when you dispense with all restraints, the strong come to oppress the weak. This is exactly what we're witnessing between porn producers and performers, between porn shops and communities, and between porn viewers and victims.

The wisdom lies in deciding which social restraints to loosen, which to leave alone, and which to strengthen, not in abandoning them altogether.

By the way, Northampton's Puritans had a lot more sex than you might think.

Some women watch or make porn. Doesn't that mean that porn is harmless to women, or even liberating?

Being stimulated by or profiting from the subjection of others is a common human failing, and some women are seduced by it. "Madams", for example, have been around for a long time. Other women believe that a callous attitude shows that they are as tough as men, that they can compete in a man's world. This phenomenon is explored in Female Chauvinist Pigs.

That said, the substantial majority of today's porn viewers are men. 36.9 percent of the respondents to a Ball State University survey (2004-2005) acknowledged visiting a porn site within the last month or more frequently. The percentages were 49 percent among men, and only 17 percent among women. Internet Filter Review finds that of the 10% of adults who admit to Internet sexual addiction, only 28% of these are women. A 2005 article from MediaPost elaborates on the size and composition of the online audience for porn.

While we agree it is possible to make egalitarian erotica, today's porn is overwhelmingly about domination and abuse, even when the director is female. The target of this abuse is usually a woman. Read about one woman's journey out of watching porn, as she realized it was a cheap way of making herself feel good at the expense of others.

The First Amendment has only three exceptions: obscenity, libel, and speech that causes immediate harm. Any other restriction on speech, no matter how slight, is impermissible censorship, is it not?

The First Amendment is worthy of high respect, but the courts recognize many more exceptions than is commonly realized. For example, many regulations cover commercial speech, there are rules governing where you can "electioneer" on Election Day, and it is illegal to possess child porn. In the latter case, the Supreme Court holds that the value of child porn is so small, and the benefits of suppressing it are so great, that it is acceptable to censor it. Even the ACLU supports this position, at least when actual children are involved. We encourage you to read the court's detailed reasoning.

What do you have to say to claims that porn is cathartic, that it actually reduces the incidence of rape?

The balance of the evidence (scientific studies, personal testimony) suggests to us that porn in fact stimulates rape and confuses people about what's acceptable behavior (such as whether to take no for an answer during sex). We explore these issues in greater detail here.

The harms of porn are illusory. Wouldn't it be more accurate to say the harm stems from the stigma and shame surrounding porn?

Sometimes shame and stigma are unwarranted and toxic, but sometimes they are valuable signals that something is wrong. The stigma surrounding porn reflects people's understandable aversion to the sexism, racism, exploitation, abuse, disease, crime and blight that are associated with porn and adult enterprises. The key is assigning shame and stigma to where they belong--the oppressor, not the victim.

In 1983, Robin Morgan reported that "[T]he work of Dr. Natalie Shainess (psychiatrist of New York) and Dr. Frank Osanka [sic] (psychologist and child-abuse specialist, Chicago) show that convicted rapists who, even five to seven years ago, expressed remorse about their acts of violence, recently show no such remorse and often cite as a reason for their guiltlessness that 'everyone knows women want to be raped; all the porn stuff proves that.'"

When shame and stigma restrain someone from harming another, that strikes us as healthy and appropriate. It is dangerous for porn to erode the sense of shame felt by abusers and sexual predators. Examples of this at work are the cartoons of Hustler, which frame abuse as entertainment, something not to be taken seriously.

You say porn harms, but are you really just saying porn offends you?

The harm is real whether or not a particular person finds porn offensive. Rebecca Whisnant clarifies the distinction between offensiveness and harm in "Confronting pornography: Some conceptual basics" (p.22, see our review of this article):

Offense, we have repeatedly stressed, is a way of feeling bad, which can usually be avoided or ended by avoiding the stimulus that triggers the bad feeling... Harm is different. It is an objective condition, not a way of feeling; to be harmed is to have one's interests set back, to be made worse off... Whether a person is harmed or not does not depend on how she feels. In fact, she can be harmed without even knowing about it--say, by having vicious lies about her spread behind her back, thus damaging her reputation and diminishing her opportunities. In contrast, no one can be offended without knowing about it, because offense is something that happens in one's head.

Feminists have claimed that the mass production and consumption of pornography harms women in general--by contributing to violence and discrimination against women, and by conditioning its users to respond sexually to women as inferiorized, fetishized objects who crave humiliation and degradation. We have also claimed that the pornography industry harms many, if not all, of the women who participate in it. Coercion and abuse [are] rampant in this industry--from the literal enslavement often associated with international sex trafficking, to women and girls who get filmed without their knowledge...

Being stimulated by porn comes naturally to many people, so why fight it?

It's true that humans are naturally endowed with plenty of 'animal' instincts. Of course, in the animal world, some species eat their young. In others, the dominant male drives off other males so he can monopolize multiple females. Humans are not animals. They can choose other values.

David Mura writes, "Except when the term enters debates among Marxists, 'natural' is invariably used to preclude any investigation of whether or not people in other societies or in other times may have behaved differently. In addition, it discourages any examination of whether or not certain behavior is learned. In such instances 'natural' is not a step-by-step reasoned argument, it is an ideology. It is used to justify whatever is customary in a given society, to blind critical discourse.

"In this particular case, the argument that pornography is 'natural' ignores the fact that there are men who have given up their obsession with pornography and who have not died."

Much of your evidence against porn and adult enterprises is based on correlation. How does that prove that they cause the ills you describe?

Wikipedia discusses the relation of correlation and causation at some length. It is true that some correlations are illogical and false. Example: My failure to take an umbrella to work on cloudy days always causes rain. However, our opposition generally raises this issue as a rhetorical dodge to avoid engaging with the logical connections and evidence we present. Edward Tufte, an expert in statistics and information design, puts it this way, "Correlation is not causation but it sure is a hint."

There is substantial evidence that TV and movie violence and violent video games stimulate anti-social behavior, especially in children (see, for example, "Teaching Kids to Kill" and "Marketing Violence: The Special Toll on Young Children of Color"). However, our opposition simply refuses to accept that that movies like "Use Em' Abuse Em' and Love Em' #9" might lead to sexual callousness, despite numerous scientific studies that show this is exactly what happens for a significant number of viewers. The connection is logical, the experiments repeatable, but our opposition keeps insisting that porn is just harmless fantasy.

At this point, the onus is on our opposition to suggest alternate explanations for the impact of porn and the secondary effects of adult enterprises, and to back this up with evidence and not armchair speculation. It would give them credibility to acknowledge that neighborhood blight and abusive behavior are serious problems and, even if they are not ready to concede that porn is a cause of abusive behaviors, that porn is supportive of them. All too often we simply sense despair from the other side that things can be made better.

Not everyone who smokes will get lung cancer, but today most people accept that smoking is a cause of lung cancer, despite decades of denials by cigarette manufacturers. In this light, consider the words of researcher Edward Donnerstein: "The relationship between particularly sexually violent images in the media and subsequent aggression...is much stronger statistically than the relationship between smoking and lung cancer."

A mark of being human is having some free will and unpredictability, so theories about human behavior will never be as tightly provable as propositions in geometry. There will always be outliers and exceptions. However, this does not mean we should abandon the