Some people deny that Capital Video’s porn shop in Springfield (Amazing.net) is bringing prostitution to the Apremont Triangle neighborhood and retarding economic development there. Others cite a handful of studies to suggest that it is debatable whether adult enterprises impose a risk of secondary effects on their surroundings (e.g. crime, blight), ignoring the clear preponderance […]
Women Underrepresented in Media, Undernoticed
While we don’t believe you absolutely have to be a woman to care about women’s interests, it is inescapably true that women are underrepresented and undernoticed in American media. Concerns arise, for example, when large white men such as Bill Dwight, radio commentator for WHMP, poo-poo the notion that adult enterprises could subject neighbors to […]
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The Lies of Mainstream ‘Lesbian’ Porn (explicit language)
Some porn defenders suggest that lesbian porn is an example of porn that is harmless, something that women freely and positively choose to do, and that sends no bad messages about women. While this may be true for a handful of films, it is not true for your typical commercial production. Biting Beaver explains in […]
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I Was a ‘Self-Esteem Vampire’: A Woman’s Journey Out of Watching Porn (explicit language)
For blogger Biting Beaver, the special ‘juice’ of porn lay not in the sex but in the domination, the degradation of others for her viewing pleasure. She describes her journey into–and out of–watching porn: Women and Pornography: My Story …It’s almost as if the phrase, “But BB, women look at porn too” is intended to […]
Testimony from Northampton Shelter for Battered Women: Half of Abusers Use Pornography as a Part of the Abuse (explicit)
Massachusetts legislators heard testimony about peoples’ encounters with porn at a hearing on March 16, 1992. This account appears in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.423-425). Submission of Gail Kielson, Boston, Massachusetts My name is Gail Kielson and I work at Necessities/Necesidades, an organization in Northampton, Massachusetts that provides services to battered […]
New York Times: “The Girls Next Door”; Worldwide Sex Trafficking; Role of Porn
Our opponents like to focus on the handful of women who have become relatively rich selling sex, women who have achieved a measure of choice and control in their lives (example). The reality for vast numbers of other participants in the sex trade is far less appealing, as The New York Times makes clear in […]
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D.A. Clarke: Women Adopting Men’s Bad Habits Is Not the Answer
Recently “Sarah Coeur d’Or” criticized us for not publishing some of her comments. If we claim we care about the participation of women in public debates, she argues, then we are obliged to publish the comments from all people claiming to be women, regardless of the merits of these comments. We disagree. That an opinion […]
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Gloria Steinem at Smith: Cooperation, Not Domination
Gloria Steinem gave the commencement address today at Smith College. Steinem’s efforts to call attention to the exploitation of women in America began soon after graduation… Steinem’s lifelong career as a writer and journalist began when she graduated from Smith in 1956. Her early freelance articles include an investigative piece for Show magazine on the […]
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Schwyzer: A Defense of “Moralistic Sermons”
Hugo Schwyzer reclaims the concept of “moralistic sermons” for what they are at their best, compassion guided by wisdom… I’m a big, big proponent of fighting most social vices by reducing demand first… Smoking has been greatly reduced in this country. Yes, higher prices for cigarettes and greater restrictions on where one can smoke have […]
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The Latest Film to Glorify Larry Flynt (explicit language)
We would like to call your attention to a new documentary about the publisher of Hustler: “Larry Flynt: The Right To Be Left Alone”. Here is how Full Frame, a Durham, NC festival that premiered this film, describes it: This film celebrates and examines an unabashed vulgarian first known for Hustler magazine’s lack of restraint. […]
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