Patently Offensive: Porn Under Siege

<v Bystanders>Pornography would be anything that is deviant in nature and corrupt. <v Bystanders>It's pure filth. <v Bystander>For me taste is the issue when you look at pornography. <v Bystander>Because I-I would never associate myself with any type of bondage or-I <v Bystander>see those things as being sexually deviant and I think that's where you have to really <v Bystander>separate it from, you know, from mainstream. <v Bystander>I think a lot of very sort of average quote, normal people watch pornography. <v Bystander>It's amazing how many straight, you know, middle class people watch pornography. <v Bystander>It's society, in fact, and decadence in society, which has really made <v Bystander>pornography become probably more popular. <v Bystander>It's just hard to understand why intelligent people would want to even <v Bystander>look at these. <v Bystander>For me it's fine. I don't push it on anyone else um friends enjoy <v Bystander>it. It's something we all seem to have in common and we look at these <v Bystander>things. <v Bystander>Everyone's curious about what the other person's doing. <v Bystander>And also everyone wants to relate that's how they do it. <v Bystander>I can personally.

<v Bystander>It's an industry of greed and uh taking <v Bystander>abuse to its fullest form of commercial exploitation. <v Bystander>And of course, I'm aware there are significant First Amendment issues about pornography <v Bystander>in our country rests on freedom of speech. <v Bystander>I'd never want to be known as an opponent of the First Amendment or freedom of speech. <v Bystander>But I cannot be a mother and I cannot be a concerned feminist as I am, <v Bystander>and not be aware that so much of pornography today centers on the abuse of women, <v Bystander>the abuse of children, violence toward women and children. <v Narrator>Pornography. The word defies consensus definition. <v Narrator>The topic engages issues of individual rights, relationships, government <v Narrator>intervention in our private lives, the First Amendment and family values. <v Narrator>Social, political and technological developments have created a multi-billion <v Narrator>dollar sex industry. <v Narrator>What happens when society becomes a mass consumer of X-rated entertainment? <v Narrator>Competing human needs and values shape our attitudes about pornography's influence.

<v Narrator>In the battle for the cultural establishment, the intimate realm of human sexuality <v Narrator>has become a major public policy issue. <v Narrator>The porn wars reveal the irreconcilable tension between private conduct <v Narrator>and public consequence. <v Laird Sutton>Since man first began to record his environment and record <v Laird Sutton>himself, he has recorded human sexual functioning. <v Laird Sutton>Probably because it's one of the most powerful forces in his life <v Laird Sutton>and he has always depicted those forces that are powerful. <v Laird Sutton>He started by picking up pieces of charcoal off the <v Laird Sutton>ground in the caves when we lived in caves. <v Laird Sutton>We progressed to stone ceramic painting,

<v Laird Sutton>whatever medium was available to us as humans at all <v Laird Sutton>times in history. We've used that medium to represent <v Laird Sutton>human sexual functioning, to show ourselves and to show other people <v Laird Sutton>who we are sexually. Usually when we look back upon the <v Laird Sutton>representations of human sexual functioning, we tend to call <v Laird Sutton>it erotic art or erotica. <v Laird Sutton>Often it's just the period of time that separates the <v Laird Sutton>work and the judgment of the work <v Laird Sutton>that differentiates between erotic art and pornography. <v Laird Sutton>As movies begin to first make their appearance in Western society. <v Laird Sutton>Of course, one of the very first themes that was dealt with was human <v Laird Sutton>sexual functioning. So the movies that we have today of those early <v Laird Sutton>times come in the 1920s.

<v Laird Sutton>These loops were depictions of sexual events <v Laird Sutton>of sexual happenings. <v Laird Sutton>They grew out of the Depression era, they have a lot of humor <v Laird Sutton>in them. The audience that saw them were usually fraternal groups. <v Laird Sutton>One man would have a projector. <v Laird Sutton>He would take the projector and a number of loops and go to these organizations. <v Laird Sutton>These films constituted the only visual sex education <v Laird Sutton>material available to men at the time. <v Narrator>The 1950s were a time of traditional social mores, but <v Narrator>the restraints and innuendoes that characterized the entertainment of that decade <v Narrator>were replaced by ever more explicit themes and images. <v Narrator>[Music plays] <v Narrator>By the late 1960s, cultural changes of enormous magnitude fueled <v Narrator>production, sale and distribution of X-rated materials. <v Narrator>In 1970, a presidential commission examined research and porn samples

<v Narrator>of the era. It found pornography had no anti-social effects <v Narrator>and called for the repeal of most obscenity laws. <v Narrator>President Nixon denounced the report and called it morally bankrupt. <v Narrator>The report simultaneously demoralized law enforcement efforts to stem <v Narrator>a rising tide of porn and proved to be a Magna Carta for pornographers. <v Harry Reems>Nothing turns you off to sex. <v Linda Marciano>Doctor please, I'm not turned off to sex. I enjoy it. <v Linda Marciano>In fact I could spend the rest of my life getting laid. <v Laird Sutton>In 1972 when the film Deep Throat <v Laird Sutton>finally made it through the court. <v Laird Sutton>It literally opened the gates and made <v Laird Sutton>the erotic film making legitimate in the eyes, not only of the <v Laird Sutton>law, but in the eyes of the public. <v Harry Reems> Well there it is! You little bugger, there it is! <v Linda Marciano>What?

<v Harry Reems>Well, your clitoris. It's deep down in the bottom of your throat. <v Ralph Ginzburg>I try to give this country its first really high quality periodical <v Ralph Ginzburg>devoted to sex. It was back in 1962 at the beginning <v Ralph Ginzburg>or toward the middle of what we look back on as the sexual revolution. <v Ralph Ginzburg>America had always relegate the subject of sex to its grimiest newsstand <v Ralph Ginzburg>periodicals, and I tried to put out a hardcover mag-a book with contributions <v Ralph Ginzburg>by almost distinguished artists and writers, and in fact, I think I did succeed <v Ralph Ginzburg>artistically. <v Al Goldstein>To those wishing to return to a porn free world, I say it will never happen. <v Al Goldstein>The cat is already out of the bag. <v Al Goldstein>The horse is out and it won't help close the barn door. <v Al Goldstein>For my long association with adult entertainment, I can testify that its use <v Al Goldstein>cuts across demographic boundaries. <v Al Goldstein>School teachers buy adult entertainment, Senators do, and so do members of the clergy. <v Al Goldstein>And although to pretend otherwise may be comforting for some people, their pretense

<v Al Goldstein>has no place in the creation of public policy. <v Narrator>By the late 1970s, the entertainment landscape included close to 20,000 <v Narrator>adult bookstores and sex emporiums, more than 400 sexually <v Narrator>oriented magazines, close to 1,000 adult movie theaters. <v Narrator>Mainstream, soft and hardcore magazines were now available everywhere <v Narrator>and pornography was keeping pace with new technology. <v William Margold>Because of the incredible boom of videotape and the videotape <v William Margold>phenomena, mainstream society has rediscovered <v William Margold>us. We were, of course, in 1972 discovered with a film called Deep Throat, <v William Margold>but that you had to go to the theater to see. <v John Weston>We never get the opportunity to focus on what constitutes <v John Weston>overwhelmingly the preponderance of mainstream sexually <v John Weston>oriented material that is produced and distributed above the counter in the <v John Weston>United States. And this becomes particularly germane because technologically

<v John Weston>today, unquestionably the most significant factor in terms <v John Weston>of the medium of communication and the means of delivery of that medium of communication <v John Weston>is the video cassette industry. <v Frederick Schauer>Much of computer technology, cable technology, videotape <v Frederick Schauer>technology, telephones and so on. <v Frederick Schauer>Although they may not look like the traditional methods of distribution of pornographic <v Frederick Schauer>materials; nevertheless, deal with the instrumentalities <v Frederick Schauer>of interstate commerce. Many of them are regulated by the Federal Communications <v Frederick Schauer>Commission. The whole area is right now in flux, just reflecting the <v Frederick Schauer>simple fact that the law inevitably lags behind technology. <v Narrator>Not everyone embrace the new morality represented by porn's soaring profits. <v Narrator>Civic, religious and parent organizations pressed for enforcement of existing <v Narrator>zoning and obscenity laws. <v Narrator>Radical feminists charge that pornography contributed to the rise in violent

<v Narrator>crimes against women and children. <v Henry Hudson>This commission was formed by the attorney general of the United States at the <v Henry Hudson>recommendation of the President of the United States Ronald Reagan. <v Narrator>In response to a groundswell of public concern, a new commission on pornography <v Narrator>was formed in 1985, sometimes called the Meese Commission. <v Narrator>It sought and heard testimony about pornography at hearings around the country. <v Narrator>With the explosive popularity of the video cassette recorder. <v Narrator>Porn had entered homes across the nation. <v Narrator>Thousands of X-rated titles flooded a willing market, telephones, <v Narrator>computers, satellite and cable television, every instrument of <v Narrator>mass communication were now mediums for an avalanche of pornography. <v Narrator>The commission's mandate was to determine pornography's effects on society from <v Narrator>diverse perspectives. <v Captain James Docherty>Pornography is a major contributing factor in the sexual abuse of our children. <v Captain James Docherty>Hundreds of children ages 4 to 13 years have been victims of pedophiles

<v Captain James Docherty>and have been interviewed by investigators of the Los Angeles Police Department. <v Captain James Docherty>In more than 90 percent of the cases, pornography was utilized by the pedophile <v Captain James Docherty>to break down the inhibitions of the children. <v Lorilee Howard>At age 10, he began showing me or encouraging <v Lorilee Howard>me to look at pictures of nude women and <v Lorilee Howard>Playboy centerfolds, calenders, <v Lorilee Howard>pinups and that sort of thing. <v Lorilee Howard>Between the time I was 10 and 13, he gradually <v Lorilee Howard>kept reinforcing my going into the garage where he had a lot of his <v Lorilee Howard>nude pictures hanging up on the wall and where there were a lot of magazine-stripper <v Lorilee Howard>magazines as well as Playboy and Esquire and those kinds of magazines. <v Lorilee Howard>He had decks of playing cards with nude women on them. <v Lorilee Howard>There was a lot of sexual materials and <v Lorilee Howard>innuendo from him, jokes.

<v Lorilee Howard>He thought he was being cute, that he would tell me dirty jokes, and <v Lorilee Howard>I was supposed to be lucky because most adults and parents wouldn't say <v Lorilee Howard>those things to their kids. <v Lorilee Howard>He made a direct sexual overture to me when I was 13. <v Lorilee Howard>I feel it's direct because he wanted me to pose naked for him. <v Lorilee Howard>That's when he said, now I was ready to learn how <v Lorilee Howard>to be sexy-sexy and to pose and to take my clothes off in <v Lorilee Howard>front of adult men. The sexual abuse that he committed against me, which <v Lorilee Howard>started with exposing me to photographs <v Lorilee Howard>and ended with actual sexual intercourse. <v Lorilee Howard>I think he felt since women are by and large <v Lorilee Howard>to be used as sexual objects, and here is dozens of examples <v Lorilee Howard>of women being sexual objects. <v Lorilee Howard>That was the way in which he could say to himself it was OK for him to molest <v Lorilee Howard>me. My step father knew what he was doing was wrong,

<v Lorilee Howard>and what hurts me most of all is that knowing he was wrong, he did it anyway, <v Lorilee Howard>because he wanted to satisfy some need that was more important to him <v Lorilee Howard>than my being cared for as a child. <v Lorilee Howard>And that is a sin and a crime and bad and all those words <v Lorilee Howard>that are not psychiatric. <v Lorilee Howard>And it hurts. <v Captain James Docherty>The pornography trade is inherently attractive because of the high profits <v Captain James Docherty>and the very few legal risks. <v Captain James Docherty>Organized crime's annual gross profit from this industry is conservatively <v Captain James Docherty>estimated to exceed 4 billion dollars. <v Captain James Docherty>The influence of East Coast organized crime is now prevalent in all facets <v Captain James Docherty>of the California pornography industry. <v William P. Kelly>There are approximately 40,000, quote, legitimate videotape stores <v William P. Kelly>in the United States, approximately 80 percent of those sell or rent <v William P. Kelly>sexually explicit hardcore videotapes.

<v William P. Kelly>Do the owners know that they're dealing with organized crime? <v William P. Kelly>Some do, some don't. Those that know, many of them don't care. <v Narrator>Sexually violent themes in pornography magazines and even <v Narrator>R-rated films have fueled debates about their contribution to deviant behavior. <v Narrator>Even serial murders. <v Narrator>Are scenarios of sex paired with violence harmless, even cathartic? <v Narrator>Or are they instruments of perversion? <v Narrator>These questions defy simplistic answers. <v Park Elliott Dietz>There's a lot of controversy about the possible ways in which <v Park Elliott Dietz>media images could influence sexual deviations or could influence <v Park Elliott Dietz>sexual behavior. <v Park Elliott Dietz>There's a fair amount of support for a theory that sexual deviations are learned <v Park Elliott Dietz>and learned through a conditioning process. <v Park Elliott Dietz>In that respect, I would think that the kind of film that one <v Park Elliott Dietz>would want to worry most about if that theory is correct, would be those films that <v Park Elliott Dietz>show erotic scenes that would arouse the normal teenage boy

<v Park Elliott Dietz>and then show something terrible happened to the woman and scene, because that kind <v Park Elliott Dietz>of portrayal has the risk of making that young man become <v Park Elliott Dietz>aroused to the violence and to begin to respond <v Park Elliott Dietz>to violence as if that were sexy. <v Park Elliott Dietz>If a mad scientist wanted to find a way to raise <v Park Elliott Dietz>a generation of sexual sadists in America. <v Park Elliott Dietz>He could hardly do better at our present state of knowledge than to try <v Park Elliott Dietz>to expose a generation of teenage boys to films showing women <v Park Elliott Dietz>mutilated in the midst of a sexy scene. <v A. Nicholas Groth>When one works with sexual offenders and asks about the role <v A. Nicholas Groth>or the interest in pornography. <v A. Nicholas Groth>Sometimes you'll find, well, 60% of rapists or 80% <v A. Nicholas Groth>of rapists, or 50% to 60% of child molesters will acknowledge <v A. Nicholas Groth>an interest in pornography. What always strikes me about that is that seems awfully low. <v A. Nicholas Groth>Because I would think if we asked men in general what percentage of the male population

<v A. Nicholas Groth>has some interest in pornography, we'd expect it to be much higher than that. <v Andrea Dworkin>I'm suggesting not that all men are rapists <v Andrea Dworkin>in a biological sense or are biologically predetermined <v Andrea Dworkin>rapists, I don't believe that that's true. <v Andrea Dworkin>On the contrary, it's that pornography socializes men to rape. <v Andrea Dworkin>It's that pornography is such a strong socialize of gender. <v A. Nicholas Groth>Clearly, any type of sexual assault involves both sexuality and aggression. <v A. Nicholas Groth>But I think people tend to think of it is primarily the sexual <v A. Nicholas Groth>arousal and the aggression in service of meeting that sexual need, and <v A. Nicholas Groth>I'm not so sure. From 20 years work now with men who sexually <v A. Nicholas Groth>assault that that's a correct understanding about the nature or dynamics of sexual <v A. Nicholas Groth>assault. I think it's much more of the arousal of aggression and sexuality which is <v A. Nicholas Groth>experienced, it's something devalued or sexuality <v A. Nicholas Groth>which is degraded then becomes an expression of the aggression.

<v Captain James Docherty>A recent serial murder in a remote area of Northern California involved two <v Captain James Docherty>men who are suspected of murdering 20 people in a sex <v Captain James Docherty>torture fantasy. <v Captain James Docherty>The case involved a suspect's viewing sadomasochistic videotapes, torturing <v Captain James Docherty>their victims and photographing the murders. <v Captain James Docherty>When the murderers were apprehended, there was an abundance of pornographic material <v Captain James Docherty>of a nature in which they carried out their fantasies. <v Philip Nobile>I am aware that there is an FBI study of 36 serial killers <v Philip Nobile>that appears to make a connection between their reading habits, <v Philip Nobile>even suggesting that these serial killers may be porn addicts. <v Philip Nobile>And therefore, we ought to take a look, a closer look at pornography. <v Philip Nobile>Have not having read the study, but knowing how the FBI works, <v Philip Nobile>I simply don't trust their research. <v Philip Nobile>You can't win any sexual game with the FBI, and the reason I distrust this research <v Philip Nobile>is because they probably didn't look in the refrigerators of these serial killers

<v Philip Nobile>to see if they were eating a certain brand of yogurt or were they all subscribers to The <v Philip Nobile>New York Times. Merely because they found pornographic material says <v Philip Nobile>nothing about the cause of the murder. <v Philip Nobile>I argue that their interest in pornography is an effect of their sexual <v Philip Nobile>obsessions, not a cause. <v Park Elliott Dietz>One kind of magazine that hasn't usually been thought of as pornographic <v Park Elliott Dietz>and is widely available is a group of magazines known as the detective <v Park Elliott Dietz>magazines. The crimes that they report are selected <v Park Elliott Dietz>as being particularly sensational crimes. <v Park Elliott Dietz>We found that these magazines greatly overrepresent <v Park Elliott Dietz>sexual violence, they also show erotic images. <v Park Elliott Dietz>Often the woman who is bound has her skirt up or has <v Park Elliott Dietz>lace showing from a slip or a brasier or her blouse is torn, <v Park Elliott Dietz>and so these magazines show images that can be

<v Park Elliott Dietz>regarded as sexually arousing and indeed are to-to many males <v Park Elliott Dietz>and at the same time show women being abused. <v Park Elliott Dietz>There is no effort to control or limit the circulation of detective magazines <v Park Elliott Dietz>among the young. They're available at convenience stores, newsstands, <v Park Elliott Dietz>many other places, right along with the Hot Rod magazines, True Confession and so <v Park Elliott Dietz>on. <v A. Nicholas Groth>What I'm saying really is I can't tell offhand who are the people who <v A. Nicholas Groth>are adversely influenced by such stimulation, who find, for example, <v A. Nicholas Groth>crime detective magazines arousing and stimulating. <v A. Nicholas Groth>And then, if you will, incorporate what they read into their next crime. <v A. Nicholas Groth>I know there are such people, they have disclosed that to me in my work with them. <v A. Nicholas Groth>But I can-I would say if I were working with such a client, I would not encourage looking <v A. Nicholas Groth>at that material. I would say just as if you were diabetic, you should not contemplate <v A. Nicholas Groth>eating sweets, that's not good for your health.

<v A. Nicholas Groth>I would say, given the nature of your problems, you should not be exposing yourself to <v A. Nicholas Groth>this type of material that is not good for you. <v Narrator>Detective magazines, along with many soft and hardcore sexual materials, <v Narrator>are of concern to Women Against Pornography, a support group that believes <v Narrator>porn targets women for sexual abuse. <v Evalina Kane>One of the largest groups of women that we hear from are married women, for example, or <v Evalina Kane>women who live with men. <v Evalina Kane>These men collect pornography and by virtue of it being in the home, it's forced <v Evalina Kane>upon the women, and inevitably what happens is that the women <v Evalina Kane>are at first persuaded, and if that doesn't work coerced and eventually forced <v Evalina Kane>to enact the material and the pornography. <v Evalina Kane>One woman in particular, the husband was an avid collector <v Evalina Kane>of bondage pornography. The relationship ended finally when him and <v Evalina Kane>a neighbor assisted a dog in raping the wife. <v Dorchen Leidholdt>We consider this actual torture and it's part of an international trafficking

<v Dorchen Leidholdt>women that we're finding more and more in pornography. <v Dorchen Leidholdt>When we walk down to the Times Square pornography district, we'll see many, many <v Dorchen Leidholdt>photographs that show Asian women in similar poses. <v Dorchen Leidholdt>Some magazines are devoted exclusively to Asian women in bondage, and it's the most <v Dorchen Leidholdt>brutal pornography that we've seen. <v Andrea Dworkin>My name is Andrea Dworkin. <v Andrea Dworkin>I am a citizen of the United States. <v Andrea Dworkin>And in this country where I live every year, millions and millions of pictures <v Andrea Dworkin>are made of women with our legs spread. <v Andrea Dworkin>We're called beaver, we're called pussy, our genitals are tied up, they're <v Andrea Dworkin>pasted. Makeup is put on them to make them pop out of a page <v Andrea Dworkin>at a male viewer. <v Carole Vance>Pornography I think is a very bad term because we will use it in the belief we agree, and <v Carole Vance>no one has to ask the question, what does it mean? <v Carole Vance>So in my mental bubble, you know, I insert one thing in your mental bubble there's <v Carole Vance>another. And we all agree to condemn what kind of sexual explicit representation <v Carole Vance>we don't like. We think we agree and we probably don't.

<v Dorchen Leidholdt>We make a distinction between pornography and erotica. <v Dorchen Leidholdt>We define erotica as any kind of sexually explicit material <v Dorchen Leidholdt>premised on equality, mutuality, reciprocity. <v Dorchen Leidholdt>One of the unfortunate problems is the pornographers have a habit of calling a lot of the <v Dorchen Leidholdt>material they produce, that is very demeaning to women <v Dorchen Leidholdt>that subordinates women erotica. <v Dorchen Leidholdt>So there's a little bit of a problem with language there. <v Andrea Dworkin>I live in a country where if you film any act of humiliation <v Andrea Dworkin>or torture and if the victim is a woman, the film is both <v Andrea Dworkin>entertainment and it is protected speech. <v Andrea Dworkin>Now, that tells me something about what it means to be a woman citizen in this country <v Andrea Dworkin>and the meaning of being second class. <v Andrea Dworkin>When your rape is entertainment, your worthlessness is absolute. <v Dorchen Leidholdt>The problem with pornography is not the sexual-the fact that it's sexually explicit. <v Dorchen Leidholdt>The problem with pornography is it brings sex and inequality,

<v Dorchen Leidholdt>and very often inequality is shown in the form of sexual violence together. <v Dorchen Leidholdt>It sexualizes inequality, it sexualizes violence, and it has a <v Dorchen Leidholdt>powerful, powerful impact on people's perceptions <v Dorchen Leidholdt>of women as a result. <v Demonstraters>Halt! I was only thinking about sex. <v Demonstraters>You better not think about sex. You better not talk about it either. <v Demonstraters>The Meese Commission wants to censor you for thinking, speaking, knowing, reading, <v Demonstraters>looking at sex! <v Narrator>When the Commission on Pornography held hearings in New York City, pro porn <v Narrator>and anti-censorship groups demonstrated outside federal buildings. <v Demonstrater>I say to anybody who wants to uh keep on sending laws on <v Demonstrater>the statutes of this country is a psychopath, they have a serious problem in <v Demonstrater>trying to deal with the facts of life. <v Demonstrater>They are not well, and in my opinion, they don't represent the majority of the people in <v Demonstrater>this country.

<v Commission member>How do you know about the details of-? <v Narrator>In chambers, the commission heard testimony from Deep Throat star Linda Marciano, <v Narrator>once known as Linda Lovelace. <v Linda Marciano>I think it's very important for people to know that I was not a willing participant. <v Linda Marciano>There were guns, there were-there were knives, there was beatings. <v Linda Marciano>There was threats on the lives of my family constantly. <v Linda Marciano>You know, so many people that produce these types of films will say, well, we check <v Linda Marciano>out, make sure that these people are doing these women are doing it willingly. <v Linda Marciano>But I-you know, I always ask them, have-had Mr. Traynor come with Linda Lovelace <v Linda Marciano>10 years ago, would you have known that she was an unwilling participant? <v Gloria Leonard>I don't think that we-that we degrade women. <v Gloria Leonard>I think we glorify women, we exalt women. <v Gloria Leonard>We certainly don't exploit them. We do not to the contrary, drug <v Gloria Leonard>them and drag them in off the street. I mean, there are times when we have to practically <v Gloria Leonard>beat them off with a stick. I mean that just in you know, in the-in the literal sense, <v Gloria Leonard>we have women who send us in the mail, their own pictures, their own Polaroids <v Gloria Leonard>that their-their husbands have taken, submitting themselves as potential

<v Gloria Leonard>centerfold material. And many of them believe me already. <v Andrea Dworkin>Well, I agree that not everyone is coerced. <v Andrea Dworkin>I think that women are socialized to get all sense of self-worth <v Andrea Dworkin>and gratification from male sexual approval. <v Andrea Dworkin>And that, in fact, what's remarkable isn't <v Andrea Dworkin>that some women volunteer, but there's so many women have to be forced <v Andrea Dworkin>because pornography, in fact, represents what it is that we're supposed to <v Andrea Dworkin>want to become. <v Veronica Vera>I think that-that was how I counted my worth sometimes, you know, <v Veronica Vera>by how good I was sexually with men. <v Veronica Vera>So in a way, I'm still doing that. <v Veronica Vera>OK, that's me on my first communion day as a bride <v Veronica Vera>of Christ with my little sister in front of our church <v Veronica Vera>and I'm wearing a crown because my mother sold more raffle tickets <v Veronica Vera>than anybody else.

<v Veronica Vera>All of us with our crowns on, had our mothers hustling raffle tickets for the Catholic <v Veronica Vera>Church. <v Narrator>The pornography industry attracts performers from all segments of society. <v Narrator>It's a chance to be in show business. <v Narrator>But other factors influence decisions to become a porn star. <v Veronica Vera>It was also a way to <v Veronica Vera>take this little girl who didn't know anything about sex and who <v Veronica Vera>was feeling guilty about her feelings that she didn't understand. <v Veronica Vera>And in porn, I could-I could be-I <v Veronica Vera>could go to the furthest extreme, and yet I was still me, <v Veronica Vera>I still knew I was me. So in a way, I was justifying this little girl <v Veronica Vera>in the big-who didn't understand all these things, who and who got the feeling, <v Veronica Vera>you know, when I was just didn't understand what it was all about, that-that <v Veronica Vera>these sexual feelings were somehow turning me into a monster. <v Veronica Vera>And when I played them that through porn, it was like

<v Veronica Vera>proving that I wasn't a monster because I was still me. <v Veronica Vera>When I'm having sex in front of a camera, that's a potential audience of thousands, <v Veronica Vera>maybe millions, maybe from now until the film, whereas out on and on, you know, forever. <v Veronica Vera>I mean, that's great. <v Veronica Vera>That's I mean, that turns me into a goddess. <v Woman>OK. Take 237 to Calaveras Boulevard and you're going to take <v Woman>[overlapping conversations] <v Man>With the mind being the largest sex organ in the body, it allows an awful lot of fantasy <v Man>involved in visualization. <v Nina Hartley>We're here to work, bring those autographs! <v Bystander>That's some nice looking stuff. It's like the <v Bystander>great American dream, I guess, some nice looking stuff. <v Bystander>Probably Nina Hartley or Shanna McCullough wouldn't matter. <v Bystander>Both of them would be nice, but if I can only get one that'd be ok.

<v Bystander>[Indistinct small conversation] <v Manager>What I'd like to do, I'd actually like to form two lines. <v Manager>One line if you want to be videotaped with a star, you purchased a movie either today <v Manager>or before, the other line if you just want to walk up, get an autograph and take <v Manager>their picture and then go on. <v Bystander>It's mostly like for an outlet for fantasy. <v Bystander>It's like you see these women engaged in sexual acts with <v Bystander>multiple partners. Somehow you just get jealous and what it would be like if <v Bystander>you were to engage in such promiscuous activities. <v Bystander>I love these girls, love their work. <v Nina Hartley>He loves to hold us. <v Nina Hartley, Shanna McCullough, Bystander>Yeah, well it's people like Kent that make us do what we do. <v Nina Hartley, Shanna McCullough, Bystander>Us appreciative, friendly folks, you know, good old normal American <v Nina Hartley, Shanna McCullough, Bystander>male, like you said, he's the horniest guy. <v Nina Hartley, Shanna McCullough, Bystander>And you'll go, right? Go Gilroy! ?inaudible conversation? <v Nina Hartley, Shanna McCullough, Bystander>Yeah. I love garlic, man, not each day though. <v Manager>It's very hectic, as you can tell, but it looks like <v Manager>it's gonna be a great promotion. Fellows, if you want to take pictures, you have to stand

<v Manager>in-. <v Nina Hartley, Shanna McCullough, Bystander>[Indistinct conversation] Age doesn't mean anything. <v Bystander>No, just because there's a ?inaudible? <v Bystander>Something doesn't mean the fire's out. <v Bystanders>Pornography uh....[Other bystander says, "involves sex"] Yeah. <v Bystanders>Pornography? That's children's movies. [Bystanders laugh] Isn't this the children's section? I thought this <v Bystanders>was the Disney section. Yeah. <v Bystanders>Yeah, that's that's probably what it is, is probably a Disneyland for adults. <v Narrator>At this suburban video store. <v Narrator>The opportunity to meet and be photographed with porn stars has drawn hundreds <v Narrator>of customers. This store calls 35% of its profits <v Narrator>from X rated sales and rentals. <v Narrator>Adult industry spokespersons claim that in the United States alone, 400 <v Narrator>million adult videos were rented last year. <v Narrator>There are now more than 10,000 adult video titles in circulation. <v William Margold>We have the visual sex, we are the sex that likes the lights on. <v William Margold>We are the ones who insist on seeing the object of our excitement, <v William Margold>women less so. And when men can have free access

<v William Margold>to this material as we can in America, there's a market for it. <v William Margold>The male dominant factor in our industry is what the male dominated audience <v William Margold>needs to see because men are essentially insecure in their plays with women. <v William Margold>Men are in a position throughout their entire life, even Casanova <v William Margold>and Don Long at one time or another were said no to by somebody they wanted to go to bed <v William Margold>with. So once that happens, the male wants to do something to the <v William Margold>female but doesn't have the courage to do it. <v William Margold>So our films are that vivacious magic carpet ride to their sexual <v William Margold>satisfaction. I believe that our films are totally and nothing else but a catharsis. <v Narrator>Although the video cassette market is a goldmine for pornographers, soft and hard <v Narrator>core magazines continue to sell briskly. <v Narrator>Some of the more popular men's magazines have been successful in building a mass <v Narrator>audience. Their contents derive legitimacy from articles <v Narrator>by respected authors.

<v Narrator>Interviews with political figures, clever cartoons, <v Narrator>sophisticated ads along with the usual array of fantasy sex <v Narrator>objects. Their stature is enhanced by centerfolds and pictorials, which <v Narrator>feature the provocatively posed girl next door. <v Narrator>College women, professional women all presented with a respectability <v Narrator>conferred by upscale packaging. <v Narrator>Advertising has appropriated themes and images once found only in pornography. <v Narrator>A barrage of its messages are targeted to women, in particular, reminding <v Narrator>them that sexual desirability is central to success and happiness. <v Actress>Would it be asking too much for you to come over? You know, without your shirt <v Actress>and buff my bumpers? <v Narrator>Network television shows, sitcoms, and soap operas exploit the sex <v Narrator>charged atmosphere. Scenarios which formerly would have been denied an R rating

<v Narrator>are common fare. Titillating shows attract huge audiences, <v Narrator>higher ratings and ultimately greater advertising revenues. <v Narrator>As pornography established a legitimate presence in popular culture, Hollywood <v Narrator>has responded to the competition for an audience with frankly sexual themes. <v Narrator>Many films have challenged the boundaries of the existing rating system. <v Narrator>R-rated films have become increasingly more provocative and explicit. <v Jack Valenti>The rating system does not use the word pornography, it does <v Jack Valenti>not use the word obscenity for these are legal terms. <v Jack Valenti>And we do not pretend to be lawyers. <v Jack Valenti>We do not pretend to be shepherds of the Constitution. <v Jack Valenti>All we're doing is giving information to parents. <v Jack Valenti>I think it's fair to say that we do not allow

<v Jack Valenti>the kind of explicit sex that you associate with what you even call <v Jack Valenti>soft porn and certainly not hardcore porn. <v Jack Valenti>Not in a legal definition, but in the street definition of it that's not appearing <v Jack Valenti>in any R movies. We try to draw the line on violence, particularly <v Jack Valenti>when it slips over to this murky underworld of sadomasochism <v Jack Valenti>or all the other hyphenated aberrations. <v Actress>I want to hold you. <v Narrator>In 1990, the ratings board introduced a new category, NC-17, <v Narrator>no children under 17 admitted. <v Narrator>For filmmakers, the new rating allows for greater distribution opportunities and <v Narrator>increased freedom to explore themes which formerly guaranteed an X rating. <v Jack Valenti>The ratings change as a society changes. <v Jack Valenti>People ask me, why don't you make movies like you used to?

<v Jack Valenti>My answer, a plaintive one is why isn't the society the way <v Jack Valenti>it used to be? [Music video briefly plays]. <v Narrator>In 1981, Music Television, or MTV first appeared <v Narrator>nationally on cable. <v Narrator>Targeted to teenage record consumers. <v Narrator>Music videos combine sophisticated advertising techniques with popular music <v Narrator>to sell their products to an eager audience. <v Narrator>Many of the videos are fun and innovative, but as the profits of MTV <v Narrator>and the record industry have grown, so has concern about some of the values <v Narrator>that MTV transmits to youth. <v Sut Jhally>Our understandings of the world, the assumptions that guide our behavior in the world <v Sut Jhally>are not simply created in our heads, our understanding of reality <v Sut Jhally>is a social process. <v Sut Jhally>The images that surround us are a part of that process. <v Sut Jhally>If we accept that the dream world of rock video is an important part,

<v Sut Jhally>certainly not the only one of the process whereby young people construct <v Sut Jhally>understandings of the world. <v Sut Jhally>What might some of its possible effects be? <v Narrator>In his homemade videotape using MTV samples, university professor <v Narrator>Sut Jhally was critical of how women are portrayed in some music videos. <v Narrator>When MTV learned of this videotapes distribution, it threatened suit, <v Narrator>accusing Professor Jhally of infringing its copyrights and trademarks. <v Narrator>Issues of artistic expression collided with obscenity statutes in recent <v Narrator>cases involving two photographers in Cincinnati. <v Narrator>Controversy over photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe ignited a national debate <v Narrator>about government support of the arts, censorship and artistic freedom. <v Narrator>And in San Francisco, Jock Sturges attracted notice of local police <v Narrator>and FBI.

<v Jock Sturges>I opened the door to a porch full of law enforcement types with guns and badges, <v Jock Sturges>no smiles and very aggressive questioning. <v Jock Sturges>And I was thunderstruck. I mean, I was just I couldn't believe it. <v Jock Sturges>It was like having a nightmare happening and knowing that you weren't going to wake up <v Jock Sturges>from it because these people were really there. <v Narrator>Sturges is known for his candid photographs of nude girls and their families, <v Narrator>mostly photographed in naturist colonies in southern France. <v Narrator>Acting on state and federal guidelines provided by law enforcement officials about <v Narrator>child pornography an employee of Newell color labs in San Francisco <v Narrator>called the FBI regarding negatives ultimately traced to Jack Sturges, <v Narrator>an examination of the images in question brought law enforcement personnel to Sturges' <v Narrator>home. Within hours, an exhaustive search of the premises was underway. <v Jock Sturges>The negatives were made from colored transparencies that were spontaneous <v Jock Sturges>photographs taken of people on beaches. <v Jock Sturges>There were nudes, there were fathers and daughters.

<v Jock Sturges>They were pictures of people taken in the natural course of their lives and <v Jock Sturges>were no more salacious than any other work that I do. <v Narrator>But according to an FBI declaration, the contact sheet provided by Newell <v Narrator>color lab contained different subject matter. <v Narrator>Approximately 51 photographs were depicted on the contact sheets, 34 <v Narrator>of the photographs depicted, obviously prepubescent nude girls. <v Narrator>29 of those photographs showed the young girls with their genitals exposed. <v Jock Sturges>This is-it had a lot of effects in my life, not the least of which is it's made me far <v Jock Sturges>more apt to censor myself in the course of working and I'm frankly not comfortable with <v Jock Sturges>that. Were artists to limit themselves to never create any <v Jock Sturges>depiction that might conceivably be considered stimulating <v Jock Sturges>to some individual there would be no art made at all. <v Jock Sturges>My art is not intentionally sexually stimulating. <v Jock Sturges>I am sure that some of it might be on occasion, but that is not its majority intent <v Jock Sturges>or even a conscious intent in its creation.

<v Narrator>A federal grand jury declined to indict Jock Sturges on child pornography <v Narrator>charges. <v Narrator>The battle for control of the cultural environment has reached political dimensions, <v Narrator>and the battleground is the First Amendment. <v Singer>[Lyrics from 2 Live Crew's album's 2 Live Is What We Are]. <v Ralph Ginzburg>You're dealing with something which is so highly subjective that it doesn't lend itself, <v Ralph Ginzburg>A, to scientific and B, certainly not to legal definition. <v Ralph Ginzburg>It cannot be done. And beside that, much more important than that, the Constitution <v Ralph Ginzburg>doesn't permit that kind of discrimination or fine point <v Ralph Ginzburg>or nit picking. It says Congress shall make no law abridging freedom <v Ralph Ginzburg>of speech or press, period. <v Frederick Schauer>I think it's clear that although the First Amendment says <v Frederick Schauer>Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech or of the press,

<v Frederick Schauer>that cannot plausibly, by any conceivable stretch of the imagination, <v Frederick Schauer>include every possible writing or every possible <v Frederick Schauer>form of speech. We talk all the time, we commit fraud by speech, we perjure <v Frederick Schauer>ourselves by speech, we make contracts by speech. <v Frederick Schauer>It's inevitable that what the First Amendment protects is something less <v Frederick Schauer>than the sum total of every possible written or spoken act. <v Barry Lynn>Well, according to the Supreme Court, obscenity has no First Amendment protection. <v Barry Lynn>And I think that's the fundamental flaw with what the Supreme Court has done. <v Barry Lynn>It has already sanctioned a broad kind of censorship of sexually oriented <v Barry Lynn>materials in our country. <v Barry Lynn>The Supreme Court said pornography contains no ideas therefore, it's not protected <v Barry Lynn>by the First Amendment. I find that argument simply in-incorrect. <v Barry Lynn>Of course, there are ideas in pornography. <v Barry Lynn>Pornography preaches a message that it's good to have sex with

<v Barry Lynn>lots of people in lots of positions in lots of places. <v Barry Lynn>Now, many of us have great moral and aesthetic objections to that idea. <v Barry Lynn>But certainly pornography ought to have a right in our country to make <v Barry Lynn>that point and to make it very graphically. <v Brad Curl>The First Amendment was given to us by our founding fathers as a means that the public <v Brad Curl>could have the little guy could have to hold those who abused power accountable. <v Brad Curl>And so we have a right and a duty to speak out, to organize, to rally, <v Brad Curl>to have public assemblies. That's one of our constitutional rights to say, hey, you guys <v Brad Curl>are making too much money, distributing too much filth in our neighborhoods and we don't <v Brad Curl>like it, and that's the reason the First Amendment was given, and <v Brad Curl>there's no censorship. That's not prior restraint that's coming after an issue once <v Brad Curl>the crime has been committed if we can prove it. <v Demonstrater>I think the committee has a right to-we believe that under the constitution, we have a <v Demonstrater>right to establish community standards and that depends on the citizenry

<v Demonstrater>and we're part of the citizenry. We think we have a right to express our views as well. <v Narrator>Although the sale of most pornography is legal, community standards have been invoked <v Narrator>in efforts to reconcile conflicts about its display and accessibility. <v Narrator>Zoning laws and ordinances have done little to stem the flow of pornography <v Narrator>into every corner of American life. <v Narrator>In a small town, a local citizen action group protests its sale at a neighborhood <v Narrator>convenience store. <v Protester>Obscenity is a crime, and it is not protected by the First Amendment any more <v Protester>than libel and slander or yelling fire in <v Protester>a crowded theater. <v Protester>It is definitely not protected by the First Amendment. <v Protester>It is not a question of freedom of speech. <v Protester>It is a crime. The Supreme Court has said so. <v Bystander>You know, the body is the body. <v Bystander>God made it. And if, you know, these people are ashamed of it then that's their problem, <v Bystander>that's their fault. I just think it's ridiculous, they're wasting their time.

<v Protester>I don't certainly have a right to do whatever they want in their own homes, their own <v Protester>communities, that's true. But the problem has been that so much of this material <v Protester>has gotten out into the hands of young people that children, small children as <v Protester>well as teenagers. <v Bystander>I mean, some of this stuff that these signs are saying, not even. <v Bystander>These books and stuff don't have anything to do with that. <v Bystander>Child abuse and stuff that's a sickness. <v Protester>Pornography has a tremendously bad effect on us, that leads us <v Protester>to degeneration of a human being and uh particularly <v Protester>females, I think, and children. <v Protester>And it's leading our society into deviations because it never stops <v Protester>with sex. It always goes deeper and it leads him into <v Protester>eventually the bottom line is-is Satanism. <v Barry Lynn>Boycotts are certainly protected forms of expression <v Barry Lynn>in the United States. But I think it does a great disservice to the idea of free

<v Barry Lynn>expression for organized groups to apply pressure, <v Barry Lynn>which leads to the diminution of the availability <v Barry Lynn>of a wide range of material, including material about human sexuality. <v Barry Lynn>So although it's not a violation of the Constitution for people <v Barry Lynn>to boycott, I think people should consider whether in fact it <v Barry Lynn>is consistent with the general impression of free expression in our <v Barry Lynn>country. <v Frederick Schauer>Citizen boycotts have been talked about as a way <v Frederick Schauer>of dealing with the problem of pornography. <v Frederick Schauer>People have argued that it is censorship, that it's prior restraint or something of that <v Frederick Schauer>sort. But those are words. <v Frederick Schauer>And by just using those general terms like censorship, we fail <v Frederick Schauer>to capture the way in which restriction by government is fundamentally <v Frederick Schauer>different from private people exercising the kinds of choices that they are <v Frederick Schauer>constitutionally entitled to exercise and personally obliged to exercise.

<v Frederick Schauer>The Supreme Court made that very clear a few years ago when it protected <v Frederick Schauer>under the First Amendment the NAACP right to engage in a boycott. <v Brad Curl>Well, I think we have to enter into this arena of public <v Brad Curl>opinion. We have to go out there and fight for our views. <v Brad Curl>That's what the-that's what freedom is all about and uh there are many small groups who <v Brad Curl>made big noises through public demonstrations. <v Brad Curl>And we have said sat back and said, well, I'm not going to embarrass myself. <v Brad Curl>I'm not gonna picket. It's kind of humbling to-to submit yourself to the <v Brad Curl>public fire of those who disagree with you. <v Brad Curl>But it's part of the price of freedom and it's part of the price of maintaining our <v Brad Curl>dignity as a people. <v Narrator>One organization that has been in the forefront of the controversy about pornography <v Narrator>is the American Civil Liberties Union. <v Narrator>It has been the leading proponent of the adult entertainment industry, raising charges <v Narrator>of complicity from foes.

<v Barry Lynn>The ACLU certainly has been criticized because it seems to be on the side of <v Barry Lynn>pornographers. In fact, it's on the side of the First Amendment, which in some cases <v Barry Lynn>happens to protect the work of pornographers. <v Barry Lynn>We defend people, whether they're powerful or powerless, whether they have lots of money <v Barry Lynn>or no money. If we think that they have a right to speak and we do think <v Barry Lynn>the pornographers have a right to speak. <v Evalina Kane>Well the groups that are protecting them, and primarily it has been the ACLU <v Evalina Kane>have a clear vested interest in protecting them and that's economic um, <v Evalina Kane>and I think that really needs to be said. <v Evalina Kane>Many-very prosperous ACLU attorneys do, <v Evalina Kane>in fact, represent pornographers. <v Andrea Dworkin>Playboy has been very effective in spreading its money around in a way to get <v Andrea Dworkin>great political influence, not just with the American Civil Liberties Union, but even <v Andrea Dworkin>inside the feminist movement. <v Andrea Dworkin>They've given money to all kinds of reproductive rights projects that <v Andrea Dworkin>have made feminists feel very, very beholden to them.

<v Twiss Butler>Well, by becoming the gatekeeper to women's reproductive rights, the ACLU <v Twiss Butler>also has become the gatekeeper to women's right, to a legal <v Twiss Butler>remedy against pornography. <v Twiss Butler>The harder they defend women's right to an abortion on <v Twiss Butler>the basis of privacy, the more they are defending <v Twiss Butler>that right of privacy and under it, anything that they choose to call sex, however <v Twiss Butler>harmful it may be to women. <v Andrea Dworkin>The American Civil Liberties Union doesn't just have a financial <v Andrea Dworkin>relationship with Playboy. <v Andrea Dworkin>It has a relationship with local pornographers in municipalities <v Andrea Dworkin>all over the country. <v Andrea Dworkin>And as a result, the ACLU is essentially bought by the pornographers. <v Andrea Dworkin>They do their business for them. <v Andrea Dworkin>And, you know, of all the people in the country who need help in defending <v Andrea Dworkin>their speech rights, the pornographers are the only ones who can actually afford <v Andrea Dworkin>to pay their lawyers.

<v Barry Lynn>There's no question that the ACLU, which pre-dated the bunny empire by <v Barry Lynn>about 30 years, was not, is not, and never will be bought <v Barry Lynn>off by a couple of coins from the Hefner family or from anybody else. <v Barry Lynn>And I think it's a cheap shot that's made to frankly, distort this <v Barry Lynn>debate so that we don't get down to the question of what is right about free <v Barry Lynn>expression in our country. This is just a diversion and it's an unfortunate <v Barry Lynn>and unpleasant one. <v Narrator>Sexually explicit materials exist for every appetite and sexual proclivity. <v Narrator>Gay pornography is big business, with thousands of videotape and magazine titles <v Narrator>in circulation. For gay consumers pornography serves complex <v Narrator>social functions. <v Nan Hunter>If you want to just kind of think about gay male pornography and <v Nan Hunter>the content of those images, I think that for many people those <v Nan Hunter>images are very shocking, they're very unusual, they're very upsetting

<v Nan Hunter>to people in the heterosexual majority. <v Nan Hunter>I think that-that you first look at those images and they seem very unsettling <v Nan Hunter>in a kind of way, but I don't think that that's sufficient grounds to ban <v Nan Hunter>those images, and I don't think those images do any harm. <v Nan Hunter>And I think, in fact, when if you-if you think about it within the terms of a <v Nan Hunter>homosexual male subculture, those images can be <v Nan Hunter>affirming for a gay man, for example, in a small town <v Nan Hunter>in the United States. The only indication that he might <v Nan Hunter>have or the first indication he might have as he grows up, that there exists <v Nan Hunter>sort of other gay men in other-in other places, may-may be <v Nan Hunter>these kinds of images. <v Demonstraters>The First Amendment is here to stay! Meese commission go away! <v Edwin Meese III>Current federal laws are being violated. <v Edwin Meese III>And thus, I am committed to redoubling the federal effort to ensure that those criminal <v Edwin Meese III>elements who are trafficking in obscenity are pursued with a vengeance

<v Edwin Meese III>and prosecuted to the hilt. <v Carole Vance>If we look back over the past hundred years of European and American history, we see <v Carole Vance>that cyclically there appears something that historians have come to call sex panics or <v Carole Vance>moral panic. Usually a sex panic alleges that one particular <v Carole Vance>kind of sexual behavior or another is a profound threat to the family, to women, <v Carole Vance>often to children, very vulnerable groups and extremely serious <v Carole Vance>and repressive government measures are called for in order to protect these groups. <v Carole Vance>Now, the interesting thing about sex panics is that they always utilize <v Carole Vance>material and themes and images that have to do with sexual pollution. <v Carole Vance>That is, they point the finger at groups on the lower rungs of the sexual <v Carole Vance>hierarchy and they sort of drag them out into the full light of day in a very despised <v Carole Vance>way. <v William Roberts>Part of an S&M film when they start torturing the victim <v William Roberts>and tying them and whipping them and putting cigarets out on their body <v William Roberts>is the showing of pain.

<v William Roberts>This is what sexually excite some people. <v Narrator>Perhaps the most controversial genre of pornography is that group of representations <v Narrator>known as Sadomasochistic. <v Narrator>Complex in its implications, S&M imagery was once found only <v Narrator>under limited circumstances. <v Narrator>Today it is openly available in adult bookstores and video cassette tape <v Narrator>outlets. <v Carole Vance>In thinking about this, we have to first begin by realizing that S&M is a sexual <v Carole Vance>minority, it's a subculture that's very poorly understood. <v Carole Vance>The fantasy of dominating someone is very unconnected <v Carole Vance>with the actuality of dominating someone. <v Carole Vance>So it's a fantasy of domination that hinges on everyone agreeing to do it through mutual <v Carole Vance>consent, and I think people who aren't familiar with this when they see S&M pornography <v Carole Vance>read it as literally true, read it as literal aggression or violence or the wish <v Carole Vance>to overpower someone. And I think that is in fact, very different from this kind of <v Carole Vance>pro-rape porn. <v Loretta Haroian>Sex and violence will always be linked together because testosterone is the <v Loretta Haroian>hormone of sex and violence.

<v Loretta Haroian>And the sexual area of the brain and the violent area of the brain <v Loretta Haroian>are adjacent to each other, and so they will always be linked <v Loretta Haroian>in some sort or another. In a civilized society where we have lots of controls <v Loretta Haroian>on violence we tend to ritualized violence. <v Loretta Haroian>And that's why you see the more civilized society becomes, the more prevalence <v Loretta Haroian>there is of S&M in the sexual behavior. <v Narrator>The symbols of S&M pornography have found their way into mainstream entertainment <v Narrator>media, photo and fashion magazines have easily integrated these images <v Narrator>into their pages. Millions of readers are no longer surprised by this <v Narrator>imagery. And while the extremity of the messages is toned down, even <v Narrator>the most popular women's magazines incorporate messages which reveal <v Narrator>that for women, the areas of self-esteem and sexuality remain complexly <v Narrator>determined.

<v Andrea Dworkin>Women's magazines have a particular social function of making sure that women <v Andrea Dworkin>don't get out of line and accept all the basic dogma of femininity <v Andrea Dworkin>and conform to it. <v Andrea Dworkin>And certainly magazines like Cosmopolitan are involved in making certain <v Andrea Dworkin>that women conform to the dominant sexual ethos of our time. <v Andrea Dworkin>And women are going to find their sense of identification and pleasure <v Andrea Dworkin>and self-worth in essentially being consumed as a sex <v Andrea Dworkin>object by men. <v Gloria Leonard>I think most women harbor a certain fantasy to dress up in a garter belt and high <v Gloria Leonard>heels and maybe not necessarily be in an X-rated film, but perhaps <v Gloria Leonard>be a centerfold. The boudoir photography business, for example, is booming <v Gloria Leonard>where Jane average pays somebody to dress her up in <v Gloria Leonard>some frilly lingerie in soft focus lighting either <v Gloria Leonard>nude or not nude, depending on what she feels most comfortable with. <v Gloria Leonard>I mean, that's a thriving business now and they present these photographs to their-to

<v Gloria Leonard>their lovers or their husbands and perhaps even to their families I don't know what's <v Gloria Leonard>going on out there. <v Photographer>What did you have in mind on this shot? <v Photographer>What did you see in your-in your mind of yourself? <v Man>Well, you know, the um the soloflex ad. <v Man>I was a little concerned about taking off my clothes in front of him at first, but when <v Man>it actually came time to doing it, it wasn't that big of a deal. <v Man>Once you settle in, you become very comfortable. <v Man>He was a professional. He makes a point of making you feel at ease, and <v Man>after a while, it's no different than being in a locker room. <v Photographer>Men read sexually explict materials at home, and women realize <v Photographer>that men appreciate those so often they want to document <v Photographer>themselves to have something personal to give to their loved one. <v Man>This particular picture and these pictures were done for a certain person, and with that <v Man>in mind and in a way, it was like a love letter, if you <v Man>will, a photographic love letter to her.

<v Man>And I'm not sure that I would be comfortable having my love letters <v Man>splattered all over for public consumption, if you will. <v Man>It's not a matter of being prudish. It's a matter of, this was a communication between <v Man>her and I. <v Morgan Cowin>There is a relationship, I suppose, between boudoir photography and commercial <v Morgan Cowin>pornography in that it can be used to arouse. <v Morgan Cowin>Pornography is generally a uh maybe the same subject <v Morgan Cowin>matter and may even be the same kinds of poses maybe, <v Morgan Cowin>but it's for a wider audience, for an unknown anonymous audience. <v Morgan Cowin>Whereas the boudoir photography is for a single person generally. <v Narrator>The newest genre of adult entertainment is amateur video. <v Narrator>Partners turn camcorders on themselves and become the stars of their own sexual <v Narrator>interludes. The videos enhance their sex lives. <v Narrator>Through special interest magazines, couples can exchange videos with others in <v Narrator>an informal network, and the mainstream consumer of X-rated materials

<v Narrator>has discovered their products. <v Laird Sutton>There is a level of intimacy and honesty and reality in that, that <v Laird Sutton>I believe people really, really want. <v Laird Sutton>And I think that that's one of the big reasons that amateur video <v Laird Sutton>is so important and such a large growing segment of the <v Laird Sutton>media today. <v Bystander> You tell me why America's so obessed with sex. <v Bystander>Pornography is gonna become more violent, more-more subjugating of women <v Bystander>because um the country is less and less permissive and <v Bystander>so there's more of a need for that outlet I guess. <v Bystander>Yes, it's here to stay. It's big business. <v Bystander>It's big business worldwide, whether in America or in Europe or even in Asia, of course, <v Bystander>of a ?sort? as well. So, of course, it's going to be here and it's going to get bigger.