Members of the Los Angeles County Commission for Women heard testimony about peoples’ encounters with porn at a hearing on April 22, 1985. This account appears in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.342-343). Testimony of Dr. Pauline Bart I’m Dr. Pauline Bart. I’m a visiting professor of sociology in women’s studies at […]
Impact of Porn
Robert Jensen: Liberate Sex from Porn (explicit language)
We have noticed that many of our opponents tend to confine their discussions to clean, safe realms of law and abstractions. Others like to talk about homeless shelters, churches or Wal-Marts, rather than concentrating on actual porn shops and other adult enterprises. Many also like to claim that if you are against porn, you are […]
Jenna Jameson’s Cautions to Would-Be Porn Stars
In 2004, Salon reviewed Jenna Jameson’s How to Make Love Like a Porn Star. Jameson’s advice to newbies caught our attention: “In a worst-case scenario, a gonzo director will take a girl to a hotel room and have their friends shoot a cheap scene in which she is humiliated in every orifice possible. She walks […]
How the People Reclaimed Oklahoma City from a Major Eruption of Adult Businesses and Crime
Publicity campaigns and pressure on city officials helped Oklahoma City recover from a proliferation of adult enterprises in the 1980s. Jon Stephen Gustin, Retired Sergeant, Oklahoma City Police Department, tells the story in QUALITY OF LIFE: A Look At Successful Abatement of Adult Oriented Business Nuisances in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (1984-1989) (PDF). Some excerpts: Traditionally […]
Pornography and Pop Culture: Boston Conference Starts Today
Pornography and Pop Culture: Reframing Theory, Re-thinking Activism, a three-day conference, opens today at Wheelock College in Boston. This conference will: feature recent feminist theory and research on pornography, prostitution and pop culture, and provide space for collaborative discussion on how we can prepare the ground for building a broad-based, energized and vibrant feminist movement […]
Connecticut Attorney General Files Amicus Brief to Support Town of Berlin; “Off-Site” Sexually Oriented Businesses are Fair Game for Zoning
On March 19 the State of Connecticut filed an amicus curiae brief (PDF) to support adult-use zoning in Berlin, CT. A chain of adult shops called VIP is trying to open a new store in Berlin, less than 250 feet from a residential area. The brief argues that it is constitutional to apply zoning regulations […]
Prosperous Minneapolis Commercial Area Blighted by Proliferation of Adult Enterprises
From the “Brief of the Neighborhood Pornography Task Force, Amicus Curiae, in Support of Appellant Hudnut v. American Booksellers Association, Inc.”, published in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.321-324): The neighborhoods bordering on East Lake Street in South Minneapolis have been fighting the encroachment of pornography into their community since Ferris Alexander […]
Lessons from the Stigma of Segregation Apply to the Stigma of Porn
Some of our opponents claim that the stigma that surrounds porn is just a result of society’s hang-ups about sex, rather than reflecting people’s aversion to the sexism, racism, exploitation, abuse, disease, crime and blight that are associated with porn and adult enterprises… I don’t support the sort of zoning ordinance you advocate. I think […]
Testimony in Indianapolis: Porn Wants You to Believe Women Secretly Love Bondage and Torture, that “No” Means “Yes”
Indianapolis city officials heard testimony about peoples’ encounters with porn at a hearing of the Indianapolis City-County Council Adminstration Committee on April 14, 1984. This account appears in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.283-285). Testimony of Deborah Daniels, Indianapolis Prosecutors’ Office I’d like to read you some of the titles of the […]
Testimony in Indianapolis: Porn Teaches, Arouses Violent Behavior in Abuse Cases
Indianapolis city officials heard testimony about peoples’ encounters with porn at a hearing of the Indianapolis City-County Council Adminstration Committee on April 14, 1984. This account appears in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.281-282). Testimony of T. V. , a counselor in Indianapolis In ten years of counseling with men and women, […]