Pornographers like Larry Flynt style themselves heroes of the First Amendment, and say that to oppose their products is to oppose sex and support censorship. Gloria Steinem disagrees, reports The Boston Globe: In an op-ed piece in Tuesday’s New York Times, Gloria Steinem equated [Larry] Flynt with a publisher of Ku Klux Klan books or […]
Month: October 2006
Boston Globe Profiled Kenneth Francis Guarino in 1983
Kenneth Guarino started Capital Video in 1979. As early as 1983, The Boston Globe published a profile of him and his operations: …Although he was only 28 years old [in 1977], Guarino had become the biggest purveyor of pornography in New England…Guarino, who entered the business as a teenager, had risen to become one of […]
Salisbury, MA: Letting One Adult Entertainment Shop Set Up in an Area Makes It Easy for Others to Follow
The struggle over adult-use zoning in Northampton shouldn’t be seen as just an effort to keep one porn shop from 135 King Street. When one adult entertainment business establishes itself in an area, it makes it easy for others to follow. The Boston Globe reports from Salisbury, MA: With two adult clubs already established and a third […]
Why Hollywood Reached for Zoning: Crime, Business Failure, Tourists Fleeing
As we noted in an earlier post, Hollywood moved to beef up its adult-use zoning in 1990 to respond to crime and economic blight. This Wall Street Journal article from 1997 underscores how hard it can be for neighborhoods to recover when adult businesses have concentrated there. Sex shops weren’t the only factor in Hollywood’s […]
Hustler Cartoons: Racism, Misogyny, Anti-Semitism, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Incest, Ridicule of Disabled People… (explicit)
If you wonder where people get callous attitudes towards other groups and those who disagree with them, a good place to start is with cartoons like those found in Hustler. We are indebted to Nikki Craft and the Hustling the Left website for bringing these to our attention. These images are explicit and should only be […]
State Land-Use Planner: “Once the ‘use’ is located in your community, it’s very difficult to get rid of them”
The Union-News takes a broad look at adult-use zoning in “Zone laws can restrict sex shops”, 12/1/95: X-rated entertainment may be protected by the First Amendment, but communities are finding other legal ways to restrict its growth. Chagrined Hadley officials awoke in October to find an X-rated book and video store at the town’s busiest […]
State Senator Stanley Rosenberg Supports Adult-Use Zoning
A 1995 Union-News article quotes State Senator Rosenberg (D-Amherst) as supporting adult-use zoning:“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.”In the matter of Hadley trying to relocate a sex shop, […]
Springfield Tightened Adult-Use Regulations in 1993 in Response to Citizen Concerns
After Capital Video established itself in Springfield in 1990, Springfield’s City Council made its adult-use regulations more stringent (“Board backs reining in adult stores: Council vote paves way for Springfield restriction”, Union-News, 6/29/93): New businesses purveying adult entertainment such as pornographic books, videos or peep shows would need special permits under a law granted initial […]
Everywoman Center Coordinator: Porn Damages Women; Porn Addiction
From “Incident triggers debate on pornography”, Sunday Republican, 2/12/89… Stacey Roth, coordinator of an educational outreach program at Everywoman Center, a women’s advocacy group at the University of Massachusetts, said that, based on accounts of area women speaking about their experiences with domestic abuse, she agrees with recent arguments that pornography damages women.“Typically, a woman […]
Northampton Shelter Coordinators: Porn a Factor in Many Cases of Domestic Abuse
The Union-News studied porn and the porn industry in 1994. One article discussed the impact of porn on women: Tina’s boyfriend would watch the same x-rated movie repeatedly and then force her to reenact the kinky things he saw. Or he’d go to strip bars.“He used to come back from these shows and I was terrified,” […]