J. Wesley Boyd manages to pack nearly every bad argument in defense of the King Street porn shop into his 10/4 Gazette guest column, “The sexism of porn critics”. He declines to engage with the evidence of secondary effects presented at NoPornNorthampton. He absurdly equates a porn shop with a supermarket. He ignores the actual […]
Continue reading A Response to J. Wesley Boyd, “The sexism of porn critics”
Mopornnorthampton, offline for weeks, returned to service in late September. This site, a creation of Jeff Hobbs, Jennifer Ruggieri, and perhaps others, tries to make the King Street porn shop issue a matter of “free speech” and “free trade” with arguments that we address in our FAQ (see on the left).Recently moporn decided to indulge […]
Continue reading Mopornnorthampton Returns, Mocks King Street as “Unspoilt Jewel of the Northeast”
Today’s Republican reports on progress in regulating adult businesses in Northampton: In what some called a first step in the fight to restrict pornography in Northampton, the Planning Board and the Ordinance Committee last night both approved bans against adult viewing booths in most sections of the city…The viewing-booth measure now goes to the City […]
At Talk Back Northampton, Peter Brooks said he believes that the founders of NoPornNorthampton are “victims of the hysteria and fear that history shows can grip a community that is regarded as relatively educated.”We reply that if you want to see hysteria and fear, take a look at how porn films and magazines view women. […]
Continue reading A Middle Way Between the Puritans and the Libertines
The September 28 Valley Advocate writes about how “Northampton’s understanding of its special local culture is headed for a test…” Northampton has a mix that includes not only mainstream adult consumers of porn, but students–young people discovering their sexuality and experimenting with materials to help them enhance it. It has gays and lesbians, who have […]
Continue reading Valley Advocate: “Erotica: Eden’s Dark Side”
Today’s Gazette publishes a letter to the editor from James J. Palermo of Florence. He writes,“Constitutionally protected rights are frequently regulated lawfully. For example, we have the right to bear arms, but we do not permit people to carry loaded guns within city limits, or to carry a handgun without a permit. While we have […]
Continue reading Letter to Gazette: “Restrictions can be placed on our constitutional rights”
The lead editorial in today’s Daily Hampshire Gazette throws its support behind recent efforts to regulate adult businesses in Northampton: Northampton is on the right track in using its zoning authority to discourage a proposed pornography shop from opening on King Street, but more work has to be done to ensure the city’s actions can […]
Today’s Boston Globe prominently features an article about the porn shop debate in Northampton. Jendi Reiter and Adam Cohen have been called busybodies, Bible-pushers, and Communists since they started fighting to stop an adult video store from opening near their home on the edge of Northampton’s cafe-studded downtown.The couple laughs off most of the name-calling, […]
Continue reading Boston Globe: “Adult video store plan divides Northampton”
Today’s Gazette reports on the launch of Talk Back Northampton, a site that claims that zoning adult businesses is “actual and real censorship”. Here are some of our responses to this claim:We are not advocating censorship, but mindfulness about porn and a few modest zoning and health regulations to address local residents’ legimate, well-documented concerns. These […]
A new blog called Talk Back Northampton has joined the debate. It raises concerns about censorship. The lead post of 9/21 is an open letter from “AC”, and is similar to the comment presented and discussed in our post, “A Response to First Amendment Concerns”.We observe that Talk Back Northampton presents a petition online. This […]
Continue reading Welcoming Talk Back Northampton to the Debate