Letter to Gazette: “Porn does not represent real people and real love”

Today’s Gazette publishers a letter to the editor by Sarah Metcalf of Northampton: …I hear people describe porn as “sex”. But porn is not sex, if we understand sex as a relationship betwen live human beings, who usually feel for each other sparks of attraction and affection. Porn is the representation of sex in words, […]

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Gazette: “Hearing to take up porn regs on Thursday”

Monday’s Gazette notes an important public meeting is on tap this week. We encourage all concerned citizens to attend. If there hasn’t been enough public discussion yet on the issue of pornography in the city, there’s yet another opportunity this week, when the Planning Board and Ordinance Committee continue a public hearing on proposed regulations […]

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A Review of Rebecca Whisnant, “Confronting pornography: Some conceptual basics”

NPN’s Jendi Reiter reviews an essay by Rebecca Whisnant, “Confronting pornography: Some conceptual basics”. This essay is published in Christine Stark & Rebecca Whisnant, eds., Not for Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography (North Melbourne, Australia: Spinifex Press, 2004, pp.15-27).This is the first in a series of reviews of the essays in this book.In “Confronting […]

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Giuliani Understood How “Small Things” Matter

Richard Morgan writes about Rudy Giuliani’s approach to adult use regulation for City Journal in “Free to Strip?”From the drumbeat of criticism, you’d think that something Orwellian had gripped Mayor Giuliani’s New York. “His vision is…authoritarian, repressive, and antithetical to our rich tradition of tolerance for the right to protest and dissent,” thunders New York […]

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Capital Video’s Magazine Rack: Bondage, Racism and More

Porn advocates say it celebrates the beauty of the female form, that it is not violent or racist. Let us now celebrate women with a tour through Capital Video’s Wethersfield (CT) porn shop, where NPN bought a large batch of magazines in September.The pictures below are the first of a selection we present for you to […]

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Capital Video Added Viewing Booths to its Wethersfield Store Just Last Year

Some porn shop defenders have said that now that Capital Video dropped viewing booths from its Northampton plans, there’s nothing to get excited about. But plans can change.NPN visited Capital Video’s Wethersfield (CT) store in September. The clerk there said the store had been in operation for about 13 years. Only last year, however, did […]

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Residents and Officials of Berlin, Connecticut Team Up to Resist Porn Shop Planned Next to Homes

A porn chain called VIP is trying to purchase a former Huffman Koos furniture store located at 717 Berlin Turnpike in Berlin, CT. The plan is to turn the site into a adult book store and novelty shop. VIP wants to devote over 14,000 square feet to adult DVDs, books, lingerie and other sexual-related items. Homes are located […]

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A Historical Tidbit about Those Puritans

Some people sling around the word “Puritan” as a shorthand for a prude who is anti-sex. I think the Puritans themselves would find this ironic. Finding Paradise (by Allison Lockwood, published by the Daily Hampshire Gazette, p. 12-13) tells us, Many [Northampton] Puritan couples were prolific. Elder John Strong fathered 17 children; one of his […]

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Real Estate Publisher Offers to Help Goldbergs Find a More Suitable Tenant

David Russell owns a major commercial real estate magazine that serves Western Massachusetts, and another that serves Connecticut. He is sending this letter to Barry and Annette Goldberg, owners of 135 King Street, offering to help them find a more suitable tenant for their property than a large porn shop…Dear Mr. & Mrs. Goldberg:October 5, […]

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