The Strip Poker Men’s Club provides a helpful guide to achieving just the right balance of fantasy, exploitation, lies and despair in “Understanding The Stripper Psyche So You Can Have Fun and Not Lose Your Wallet” [explicit link, typos in original]: …be aware, the stripper is animalistic creature; a product of evolution, they have evolved […]
Debate on the Issues
Viewing Booths and HIV: An Open Letter to Thomas Lesser of Northampton, Attorney for Capital Video
On June 20, we delivered a version of the following letter to Thomas Lesser and his associates at Lesser, Newman, Souweine & Nasser, a law firm in Northampton. Mr. Lesser represents Capital Video, which is trying to hang on to its viewing booth entertainment license in Springfield. We have not yet received any response, so […]
NoPornNorthampton’s One-Year Anniversary
Today is the one-year anniversary of the launch of NoPornNorthampton. It all began with “Gazette Reports Porn Shop to Open at 135 King Street”, posted on 6/30/06. Capital Video had intended to open a 6,000+ square foot porn shop with 20 enclosed viewing booths. Today, after dedicated efforts from many citizens and public officials, new […]
Gazette: “Porn store’s viewing booths raise stink in Springfield”
On June 18 Capital Video underwent a long-awaited violation hearing in Springfield. At issue was the viewing booth entertainment license of its Amazing.net porn shop in Apremont Triangle. This store has been controversial since its installation in 1990. The viewing booths were added in 1992. Several Springfield police officers and undercover detectives testified during the […]
Sexual Ecology: Porn, Promiscuity, and AIDS (explicit language)
Gabriel Rotello published Sexual Ecology: AIDS and the Destiny of Gay Men in 1997. The Nation described it as “The most important book about AIDS and gay men since And The Band Played On. And it is far better.” The Boston Globe wrote, “Rotello’s ambitious book is the Silent Spring of the AIDS epidemic.” NPN’s […]
NoPornNorthampton Commenting System Changed
We have turned off the standard commenting mechanism for this blog. Going forward, please email your comments to in**@no***************.org. Please indicate if your comments should be kept private. Why did we do this? Under our host’s standard blog system, the primary method of accountability is the IP address. Those who heckled, harassed, or otherwise abused […]
Survey: “Suicide attempts by teens linked with assault” (explicit language)
Some of our opponents try to deter us by claiming that porn is not important. Often they go on to suggest that we must be motivated by some hidden agenda, personal defect or boundary issues: Silkheat: “I am finding myself wondering why you focus on this issue when there are so many more important things […]
Activist Strategies: The Power of Positive Framing
Stratfor advises governments, businesses, organizations and individuals about geopolitics, business trends, and how to cope with them. One of their specialities is evaluating the impact of activists on public debates. Stratfor’s May 31 report on “Sustainable Consumption: The Push for Using Less” (may require a paid subscription) focuses on energy and the environment, but suggests […]
What Porn Is: Selections from Mainstream Porn (explicit language)
We have quoted before from Robert Jensen’s essay, “A cruel edge”, published as “Cruel to be hard: Men and pornography,” in Sexual Assault Report, January/February 2004. We’ll revisit this article in a moment to explore what today’s porn is actually like. But first, let’s review some of the comments about porn made recently at Political […]
MacKinnon: Framing Torture as Porn Magically Makes It Acceptable
Catharine MacKinnon, Elizabeth A. Long professor of law at the University of Michigan, observes that torture and abuse typically get a free pass when they’re framed as commercial entertainment. Some excerpts from “X underrated”, published in The Times Higher Education Supplement (May 20, 2005): A…magical framing move occurred in connection with the scandal surrounding Abu […]