Lets talk about pornography again
The latest headline about pornography jumped off the page in the style section of the Washington Post, Publicly a Whole New Lewdness — an article about watching porn in public. Now this was a compelling story in an otherwise boring news day. The pornography industry today is a far cry from when people lined up around the block to watch Deep Throat in a movie theater and when my father was federally indicted for distributing that film in the 1970s. It has transformed over time; from VCRs bringing adult material into people’s homes to porn content made available in the palm of our hands. iPhones, laptops and Internet on planes makes it possible for everyone to have immediate access to porn. So the same conversation about what is decent and appropriate happens again 30 years later. With all this new technology, didn’t we know this day would come? Even the people who publicly protest it have dabbled in the obscene.
Several states have passed legislation on what they are calling “drive-by porn”. Could the obscenity trials in the 1970s happen again? Community standard laws that give local communities the right to determine what is obscene is still on the books but enforced haphazardly. If you’re on a plane going from DC to Alabama, what locality determines what we watch at 27,000 feet? Could this issue fall under indecent exposure laws? Or should viewing porn in public be left to decorum? These are vexing questions.
It is unacceptable for a child to be subjected to this material. My father, who has been in the pornography business for 30 years never exposed me to adult material when I was a child. It was even hard to find it around the house. Trust me I looked. I would also be uncomfortable if the guy or girl next to me on a plane started up the latest Jenna Jameson DVD. She’s a beautiful woman…just not my thing. I would watch something in the John Hughes genre. Pretty in Pink and Sixteen Candles is more my speed.
The retail pornography business has declined from 12 billion dollar in the US in 2007 to 6 billion dollars in 2009.[1] But this doesn’t mean that the interest in pornography is decreasing just accessed differently. Based on the Experian Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet visitors porn is one of the most popular categories of online content.[2]
So as these questions danced around in my head. I needed an expert opinion…my dad.
He said, “those people [who play porn in public] are indiscreet. It’s wrong, they shouldn’t do things like that.”
I wasn’t surprise with his take on this. He’s a reserved guy. But I was surprised at his following remarks.
“I would be a lot happier if they outlawed playing porn in public. It would help the retail business. If porn was less accessible my business would be better. Now that you can get free porn anywhere it is not as big of a deal to go into a store. When I was one of the few guys that sold pornography, business was good. I knew the Internet was the information superhighway but this is ridiculous.”
Could I be hearing this right? From the man that fought the early legal battles for the first amendment rights. I was a little taken a back and questioned his stance. It’s because of him and others that fought those battles that there is even ready access to pornography today.
As I reflected on our conversation, his reaction made more sense. My father understands, and so should everyone else, pornography is a business and he is an entrepreneur. He always viewed it in this way. When law enforcement authorities tried to shut down his business he did what he had to do to protect his livelihood.
So where ever the pornography industry might go next we can only speculate but one thing is certain it will be sure to make headlines.
[1] www.xbiz.com
[2] http://www.oprah.com/article/relationships/sex/20091117-orig-bill-tancer-online-porn