Anti-porn activists have typically had to defend themselves against charges that they are carving out partisan exceptions to a constitutional principle whose effectiveness, maybe even sacredness, derives from its neutrality. Justice, it seems, is never more blind than when she is reading Hustler. However, one might argue that the application of the First Amendment to […]
Debate on the Issues
Testimony in Minneapolis: Researcher sets out to prove angry fantasies are cathartic, finds the opposite
Minneapolis city officials heard testimony about peoples’ encounters with porn, those who consume porn and those who produce it at a hearing of the Minneapolis Government Operations Committee on December 13, 1983. This account appears in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.168-170). Testimony of Nancy Steele For twelve years, I have worked […]
On-screen Violence and Porn: Critical Priorities
Gender studies professor Hugo Schwyzer revisits the porn issue on his blog this week with a response to critics who wonder why Christian activists are more concerned about porn than graphic violence in movies: “Porn is just about sex”, folks say; “violence is so much worse.” Surely it’s misplaced puritanism to get so worked up […]
Gazette Publishes Three Letters about Child Pornography and Ned Selavka
Today’s Gazette publishes three letters regarding the Ned Selavka situation. Selavka, a local teacher of young children, has been charged with possession of child pornography.Donna and Kathy Wilkins-Carmody of Northampton write, “One of the things my family and I love so dearly about the Pioneer Valley is the progressive thinking and open-mindedness. However, when these […]
Free Book Download: Diana Russell’s Against Pornography: The Evidence of Harm (explicit)
Diana Russell, a longtime activist against pornography, has kindly permitted us to make Against Pornography available for downloading at no charge. Please use the links below.Dr. Russell is Professor Emerita of Sociology at Mills College, Oakland, California. She has been active in the women’s liberation movement since 1969, and is author or editor of 17 […]
Andrea Dworkin: Time for Progressives to Stand with the Victims, Not the Users (explicit language)
There are other values besides free speech and a free market, says Andrea Dworkin in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.34-35). Those on the Left usually acknowledge this, except when it comes to sexual exploitation… He has a constitutional right to express himself, and if his art requires that she be the […]
Catharine MacKinnon: Mass Media Reflexively, Subtly Protect Pornographers
Mass media often confuse their interests with those of pornographers, says Catharine MacKinnon in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.3-24). This is unnecessary and unfortunate, and has the effect of impoverishing the debate about porn and discrediting those opposed to porn. Until the publication of [In Harm’s Way], the public discussion of […]
Hugo Schwyzer: ‘Suicide Girls’, Empowering to Women?
On his blog today, gender studies professor Hugo Schwyzer critiques the feminist credentials of the alt-porn website Suicide Girls and wonders whether porn can ever empower women. Hugo writes: The Suicide Girls site (I won’t link to it, but you can figure it out yourself–it is not “work safe”) is the pioneer “alt-porn” center on the […]
Tommy Devine: “people like me, who in the past have taken an indifferent approach to pornography in the name of free speech, need to do more to educate ourselves and others about porn’s destructive properties”
Tommy Devine has been observing the Valley’s political culture for some years as the man behind The Baystate Objectivist [see interview]. In “Freedom and Decency”, posted on 1/13/07, he shares his reactions to one of NoPornNorthampton’s recent publications… Like most people who work in any field involving self-expression, I’m an absolutist where freedom of speech […]
Hartford Courant: Judge Backs Sex-Business Ordinance
A federal judge has upheld the rights of Berlin, CT residents to protect themselves from the secondary effects of a topless bar near homes. Today’s Hartford Courant tells the story… BERLIN — In a key decision that upholds the town’s sexually oriented business ordinance, a federal judge has rejected a lawsuit from Gold Diggers LLC, […]