The argument FOR adult
entertainment
Our society is rapidly changing because of the internet, yet television
evangelists still rail against internet pornography. Government
officials constantly try to tie adult entertainment to child
exploitation. Internet entrepreneurs get arrested, basically, for being
in the wrong
business. What is going on here? Is adult entertainment a lawful
business or not? The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that
times have changed, and our society has changed to the point where
society and the persons inside that society have embraced erotica and
decided it is acceptable. Just look at the facts..
No one can make a good faith effort to comply with the
obscenity law, because it is too vague! The obscenity law is very
vague, but the penalties are severe. The law has not kept pace with
technology. How can community standards
even be applied to the internet? Why are 50 year old rules being
mistakenly applied to new media? My *opinion* is that the thing I will
call the "internet community
standard" is very high, and that anything goes, except child porn and
non-consensual/ forced acts. But, that is just my opinion on how the
world should work, and nothing more.
So here are the arguments for adult entertainment:
1. It is allowed by the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution. This is
one of the strongest protections to unfettered speech.
2. Local Google searches for adult search terms prove that there is
both local and global interest in online pornography. The community
standard as evidenced by Google is that porn is accepted. All local
areas have
strong interest in adult entertainment, meaning that "community
standards" on
the internet are very permissive of pornography. Google
searches for porn have consistently risen over time.
3. Obscenity laws are obsolete and arbitrary. How can a federal law
make something
that is undefined a crime? Why isn't there one internet community
standard? How can
the legal standard of what constitutes a violation vary in every single
town and city in the country? That is sheer madness! Most government
anti-obscenity initiatives are now perfumed with the
child protection issue, even though the contents of the laws often
offer little little or no relationship. It's a scam. Section 2257 of
the US code and other laws provide ample government
regulation for
preventing child porn and exploitation. Further government regulation
is
intrusive and accomplishes nothing. Many people feel the existing laws
are burdensome, and that the government generally does not enforce its
existing laws, but seems to always want tougher statutory language, to
use selectively, to harass. 2257 is a bizarre and probably
unconstitutional law which wrongly places the burden of proof on the
defendant to prove they didn't do something.
4. We are usually just talking about adult ENTERTAINMENT. For the most
part, it is just movies, pictures, audio, and words which satisfy
emotional needs. It is erotica. It is consensual, and no one is forced
to participate. However, when the modern Puritans seek to slam it, it
is called
porn,
pornography, and obscenity.
5. The government doesn't belong in our bedrooms telling us what we can
or can't do. Most legal scholars, and even jurists, now accept a
general constitutional right to privacy, even though it is not reduced
to writing. Amendments 9 & 10 acknowledge non-enumerated and
reserved rights. The 1st Amendment to the Constitution expressly
provides broad free speech rights.
6. If religious groups don't like sex, they have the same rights to
shun sex in their personal lives, but they have no rights to tell
others what to do in theirs.
7. The adult business is very entrepreneurial, and the adult business
has given many people economic freedom and enriched their lives. This
applies to both men and women.
8. Religious groups and other critics often say adult entertainment
leads to violence, crime, and other problems --but hard proof of such
wild claims is
almost always absent from their harsh rhetoric.
9. Despite the irresponsible statements of political fringe groups, the
adult business has little connection with child exploitation. Most
adult entertainment businesses, both offline and online, condemn child
pornography and exploitation,
and there are even associations within the adult entertainment industry
to
combat it, such as ASACP.
10. Parents need to accept the fundamental responsibility for
monitoring
their children's activities on the internet. Just as you wouldn't want
your kid rummaging through your liquor cabinet, or playing in traffic,
the internet is no different. The internet is a dangerous place. It is
also global. It is not the world's responsibility to monitor your kids.
Good child protection software with parental controls is offered
by these
companies: Internet Scrubber
| NetNanny | Surf Watch | Cyber Patrol | Cybersitter | AOL . Buy it and use it! And keep
an eye on your own kids!!
11. As Kinsey and many other scientists have discovered, sex is a
healthy part of human expression and behavior. Sex is good exercize and
boosts the immune system. The consensus among
health care professionals is that sexual repression is physically and
psychologically harmful.
12. Society has changed, and sex is much more accepted today, although
our laws haven't kept pace with these technological and cultural
changes. Mass media has
lead to mass culture. The standards set for obscenity prosecution in
the landmark lawsuit Miller V.
California (1973) seem ridiculously antiquated today. In the age
of the internet, what "community standard" under Miller applies? It could be argued
persuasively that the community standard of the internet itself allows
virtually everything except child porn.
Therefore, mass culture really means that there is no longer any such
thing as obscenity, or if it does still exist, it is very
circumscribed.
It has been decades since Deep
Throat. Numerous cultural icons have blazed the trail over a near
century including Mae West in her play "Sex" (1927), Gypsy Rose Lee's
burlesque show (1937), Bettie Page as the Queen of the pinups (1950s),
Hugh Hefner/ Playboy (1953), Farrah Fawcett Majors swimsuit poster
(1976), Madonna's book "Sex" (1992), etc..etc. Television, cable TV,
VCRs, music videos, rap, Howard Stern's bawdy radio shows, porn stars
as cultural
icons, the Vagina Monologues
(1996), the Pam
Anderson sex tape (1997), "Sex in the City" (1998-2004), the Jenna
Jameson interview with Bill O'Reilly (2002), the Paris Hilton
sex tape (2003), Britney Spears sans panties (2006), the Kim
Kardashian sex tape (2007), and primarily the
internet itself --long ago broke the taboo of adult entertainment.
Today's culture has meant that the business
community is much more accepting
of adult. Yahoo and AOL host many online chatrooms and forums devoted
to adult and sexual topics. Many ostensibly mainstream companies
such as cable TV companies and hotel chains quietly profit from porn.
In the September 2005 issue, XBiz World magazine
ranked these
following companies as being the "Top 10 Mainstream Companies Profiting
from
Adult" entertainment:
Comcast
AOL Time Warner
DirecTV/ NewsCorp.
Echostar
Cox
Marriott
LodgeNet
OnCommand
Charter
Adelphia
Recognize any of those names?
Interesting Articles
Pornography
Is Good - Essay by Nate Sullivan. "We may also point to
places such
as Scandinavia and Japan,
where liberal attitudes to pornography go hand in hand with low rates
of sexual crime against women."
Living
in a porn-driven, 'look-at-me' culture --June 4, 2007. From
CNN. "Porn used to be relegated to a video hidden in the bottom drawer,
or a magazine under the mattress. Today, it's part of everyday life."
FBI:
Recruits Sought for Porn Squad --September 20, 2005. From The
Washington Post. Among friends and trusted colleagues, an experienced
national security
analyst said, "it's a running joke for us."
Porn
profits go mainstream --April 13, 2004. From MSN. The
pornography business has spread far beyond seedy side streets. Now,
companies like Time Warner and Echostar are generating revenue from
adult movies.
Pure Online --"Internet
pornography is a $10 billion US business. It has ensnared millions of
men in addictive, destructive behavior." OK, where's the proof that
internet porn is "destructive?"
XXXChurch.com --Offers "Help at Home"
program, "a joint venture with Pure Life Ministries" to "help to
men and women who are struggling or dealing with some type of sexual
sin." Charges $1000 for individuals and $2000 for couples. Do the
anti-pornographers also like their porn money? ;)
