Today’s Gazette publishes a letter to the editor from Diana Jo Davies of Northampton:
“Recently, I went to the Web site of Capital Video because a branch of this large enterprise is planning to locate close to downtown Northampton. Capital Video is a big pornography company. While looking over this site, my most prominent impression was of an intentional degradation of a particular, even precise, category of people–very young women. The portrayals of the young women, distorted as they were, overrode any impression of consensual sexuality….
“The prospect of the big, centrally located porn business is an issue that needs more press because of two juxtaposed facts: an overwhelming majority of people feel deeply opposed to this upon hearing about it, and there are relatively small numbers of people actively opposing it. Perhaps if we were aware in larger numbers that the city may not be able to prevent the opening of Capital Video, the necessity for using the tools of citizen activism would be more apparent…”