Things That Bang

Art frequently tears us away from our comfort zones screaming and screeching. Sometimes we are willing to tolerate what we consider offensive but then there are times when we decide enough is enough and give in to the beast and form lynch mobs. Being educated does not mean one is wise; wisdom itself is a subjective element that visits us once in a while.

People generally expect intellectuals to be wise, its given but many a times they are the ones, in their drive and idealism, who refuse to see the forest when burning the trees, mixed up my metaphors but you get what I mean.

In the 1980s, conservatives and feminists joined to fight a common nemesis: the spread of pornography. Unlike past campaigns to stamp out smut, this one was based not only on morality but also public safety. They argued that hard-core erotica was intolerable because it promoted sexual violence against women.

"Pornography is the theory; rape is the practice," wrote feminist author Robin Morgan. In 1986, a federal commission concurred. Some kinds of pornography, it concluded, are bound to lead to "increased sexual violence." Indianapolis passed a law allowing women to sue producers for sexual assaults caused by material depicting women in "positions of servility or submission or display."

The campaign fizzled when the courts said the ordinance was an unconstitutional form of "thought control."

The article in Reason Magazine goes on to talk that despite the increase of porn on the net the amount of sexual violence against women has been on a steady decline. For some this may be a matter semantics and it is a valid point. But some times one has to play the devil's advocate for the sake of ensuring freedom of speech.