• First Reason, CHILDREN ARE BEING HARMED BY IT.

Sex sells. Or is it being sold to us? Are predatory market practices (PMP) being broadcast through the mainstream to promote a pornified culture and infiltrate the minds of our youth while priming some to become long term customers and causing a market driven demand while dangling carrots of wealth and fame at others to fill a supply?

Pornography is proven to be addictive and traps young minds, damaging them extensively. “In a sample of 30 juveniles who had committed sex offenses, exposure to pornographic material at a young age was common. The researchers reported that 29 of the 30 juveniles had been exposed to X-rated magazines or video; the average age at exposure was about 7.5 years”[1]. “Research has also found that sexually reactive behaviors were most apt to be displayed not by children who had been sexually abused but by those who had been exposed to pornography”[2]. “Pornography is greatly influencing American youth. The largest users of porn are the age groups of 12 to 17…Porn producers are targeting adolescents…Porn is the new rock and roll”[3].

If the players in and around the pornography industry are purposely aiming their targets at children who are not aware of the harms that may be caused to them because they are too young to understand the consequences of opening doors beyond their maturity level, or too uniformed to know that pornography is not sex education, if they are grooming them to become long term consumers; then these businesses are engaging in predatory practices.

Children are a vulnerable population and must be protected not only from the horrors of physical slavery in sex trafficking, but also from bondage bought on by hedonistic predators who are promoting the consumption of unhealthy products and attempting to normalize sex as a commodity, not only driving the demand but attempting to fill the supply with young adults who have been deceived into believing that pornography is a viable career choice.

 

Where Did the Boundaries Go?

The FCC was founded to protect the public from being flooded with obscenity. The Communications Act of 1934 was enacted by Congress to regulate communications inside the United States as public convenience, interest or necessity requires[4]. In the past 45 years, and especially the last three decades, the boundaries have been pushed way beyond the limits. Individual freedoms are seeking to eliminate societal boundaries, and this is dangerous.  In “Notes on Mass Culture” (1948), Irving Howe was concerned about the consequences that certain comics were “little more than schematized abstractions of violence and sadism and push children into premature adulthood”[5]. His concerns were not unfounded as we can see a progression of predatory marketing in the media since then.

“Scores of online pornographers have embedded the names of popular children’s toys in their websites so that Internet users are directed to their site when searching for toys. Most children have encountered online porn and one in five has been sexually propositioned by adults or other children forwarding porn to them. Some children’s websites are besieged by pop-up ads for adult sites. It is not uncommon for “children’s” video games to feature pimps, prostitutes and full nudity factor”[6].                                                                                                                                                             

Popular video games allow full frontal nudity, portray sex scenes, and even mimic the violence in porn films[7]. One scene in Heavy Rain entitled “Sleepless Night” features nudity and comes just shy of rape. The narrative could be a duplicate of a porn film except for the unrealistic escape. A God of War, Chains of Olympus sex scene entitled, “Two girls and a Spartan”, depicts a threesome, as two naked girls frolic in bed before the Spartan comes in and takes control. “Let’s Play Dukem Nukem” likes to visit strip clubs and kill the strippers. Grand Theft Auto has many nudity scenes in its’ series. And finally #1 is God of Sparta which sports a full brothel with many naked women luring in their potential prey. These are all rated 17+, but there are other less explicit scenes in 14+ that build the appetite for more, and common sense would tell us that the 17+, barely legal games are getting into the hands of younger children.

The music industry released a video that glamorizes pornography and prostitution and mainstreamed it, knowing that any child can come across it [8]. Ice T’s song “Pimp Anthem” glorifies pimping women, is full of profanity, and gives instructions on how to be a pimp. Afroman’s song entitled “Colt 45” turns the tables by making the man the harlot. The lead singer brags about prostituting himself with various types of women including those from many different ethnic backgrounds, while sex-based profanity and lewd language is relentless throughout the whole tune.

Network television series with a parental rating of TV 14 are named by Cosmopolitan Magazine’s, “10 Hottest Sex Scenes on TV” list for 2015[9]. Do we not have a problem?         Listed as #9 is the series, “How to get away with murder”, The author of the articles writes,     “A groundbreaking show, but a particular accomplishment was the extra jolt of sexual energy it injected into Thursday night’s line up on ABC”. The scene this article portrays is of two homosexual men, one who is HIV positive. It claims to be a positive move toward promoting this kind of relationship with so called, “safe sex”.  The Fox series, “Empire” makes #3 on the list when there is an unexpected hook up with one of the show’s main stars, J Poppa, and a buxom woman named Becky. The author states that this scene demonstrates how “hot” body positive sex scenes are and how we need more on television. Number one on this list is Hannibal for another homosexual scene with two women. It is described as sensual, explicit and artistically hot.

A new series on NetFlix named, “Big Mouth” portrays naked cartoon characters dancing around and strutting their stuff by glorifying their bodies through rhyme with lyrics such “every touche is a snowflake, every nipple is a star…we’re a smorgasbord of gorgeousness, no two of us the same, God created us in “her”image and that girl ain’t got no shame, I love my body, I love it all”. There are more body positive lyrics before and after, but the nakedness and the dancing put the bodies on display like a strip club show with children watching  in the background with awe and bewilderment. It is rated TV MA and is targeted at pre-teens. This is part of an agenda to change the way America sees sex education and to give more power to the media to teach it. I will discuss this further in Chapter Two.

“Watching sex on TV predicts and may hasten adolescent sexual initiation. A diet of TV high in sexual content was strongly related to initiation of intercourse and advancement of non-coital activity levels in the following year. Watching the highest levels of sexual content effectively doubled the next-year likelihood of initiating intercourse”[10].
Are fourteen-year-old children mentally prepared for this kind of so called “entertainment”? Or is there an agenda behind this that is taking away our children’s innocence.  Interestingly, one gay lawyer thinks so. He makes a valid, though somewhat contradictory statement as he voices his opinion on Disney’s new direction in his commentary in the Orlando Sentinel entitled, “Gay attorney to Disney: Mature ‘Beauty and the Beast’ robs kids’ innocence”,

“As a proud member of the LGBT community, I smile when shows I watch — such as “NCIS New Orleans” and “How to Get Away With Murder” — include LGBT characters. But I am an adult, and “How to Get Away With Murder (TV 14)” is light years away from “Stars vs. the Forces of Evil… Somewhere along the line, Disney went off course. No longer did it see itself as a defender of children’s innocence. Instead, it saw itself as a conduit to social change. Walt Disney became Harvey Milk… Prime-time network television is geared for an adult audience; one that understands the world we live in. Adults have long lost their innocence, whether it be sex drugs or violence, many of us have had our eyes open to the hardships of the world. We lost our innocence when we grew out of adolescence, but do we really want our kids to lose theirs in adolescence”[11].

The rest of Cosmopolitan’s top 10 list include TV MA ratings, and soft porn is the norm. It is very likely that a percentage of those fourteen-year-old children who have been primed will continue to feed their hearts and minds with what the industry produces. One of those TV MA rated programs, Showtime’s “Shameless” pulls at the heartstrings of young viewers by showing the plight of neglected children being raised by an alcoholic father yet exploits them at the same time by following them in their sexual escapades and basically making some of them soft porn stars by showing the world the graphic details.

“To children, pornography is instructional in that it provides a visual message about new information. However, that information is not an accurate portrayal of human sexuality. Photographs, videos, magazines, and virtual games which portray rape and the dehumanization of females in sexual scenes are powerful forms of sex education. Unlike learning provided in an educational setting, exposure to pornography is counterproductive to the goal of healthy and appropriate sexual development in children. It teaches without supervision or guidance, inundating children’s minds with graphic messages about their bodies, their own sexuality, and those of adults and children around them”[12].

Damaging the Adolescent Brain

There are various studies that confirm the fact that the brain is vulnerable during childhood and adolescence. An article written by Jay Giedd in Scientific American entitled, “The Amazing Teenage Brain” is based on many studies he has done in his role as Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at University of California, San Diego and his career as Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist.

“The exuberant growth during the pre-puberty years gives the brain enormous potential. The capacity to be skilled in many different areas is building up during those times. … But the pruning-down phase is perhaps even more interesting, because our leading hypothesis for that is the ‘use it or lose it’ principle. Those cells and connections that are used will survive and flourish. Those cells and connections that are not used will wither and die. So if a teen is doing music or sports or academics, those are the cells and connections that will be hard-wired. If they’re lying on the couch or playing video games or MTV, those are the cells and connections that are going [to] survive”[13].

Studies also show a clear case for addiction. “The teen brain’s reward center has a response two to four times more powerful than an adult brain’s, which means teen brains release higher levels of dopamine in response to natural rewards”[14]. “The adolescent brain prunes back neural circuitry by adulthood to make responses more efficient.  This process makes it more difficult for them to choose things other than the patterns they’ve set when they reach full adulthood”[15]. “Researchers believe that pornography’s intense stimulation of the brain brings about significant changes to the brain similar to drug addiction”[16]. “Teens are at a great risk of developing a pornography addiction as their brains are still developing[17]”.

“The immature brain is more vulnerable to addictions of many types. Many pornography addicts speak of becoming addicted during their adolescence. Developing intimacy skills is an important part of adolescent male psycho-sexual development, as it is in this way that sex and love are brought together, allowing successful and satisfying adult relationships. Pornography, however, is about emotional distance, self-gratification often at the expense of another’s pain, and objectification — polar opposites of what a teenage boy needs most to learn. Pornography has the power to leave a young man without the most essential tools he needs to achieve emotional and sexual maturity”[18].

 

Coming in Through the Back Door

All of this subtle preparation is priming young minds and increasing demand, which will inevitably lead to increased sex trafficking and greater danger to our children. It will also lead to a desensitizing of sex and morality, leading more of our young women and men to see pornography as a lucrative career choice, without truly understanding the consequences of their choices.

The pornography industry has a high demand and it is inconceivable to believe that a continuous supply will be available without grooming the minds of future generations to accept the commodification of sex as just another business with people as its’ product. As one porn producer put it, “The next generation of porn consumers and producers alike may break with that puritan mind-set. The teenagers who grew up with cable and the VCR ”’come to the table already saturated with sex,” says Bryn Pryor. ”They’ve never known a time without Calvin Klein ads and MTV. By the time they see porn, they’ve already seen so many naked people they’re pre-jaded[19]. This is the subtle coercion that is taking place through advertising and the entertainment industry. Maybe it is time to coerce them back to truth that will set them free.

“The perils of using organic metaphors to justify the coercion of some men by others in order to raise them to a ‘higher’ level of freedom have often been pointed out. But what gives such plausibility as it has to this kind of language is that we recognize that it is possible, and at times justifiable, to coerce men in the name of some goal (let us say, justice or public health) which they would, if they were more enlightened, themselves pursue, but do not, because they are blind or ignorant or corrupt. … It is one thing to say that I may be coerced for my own good, which I am too blind to see: this may, on occasion, be for my benefit; indeed it may enlarge the scope of my liberty.. Children, although they are coerced, are not slaves, because they obey orders given in their own interests, and that the subject of a true commonwealth is no slave, because the common interests must include his own”[20].

 

Sex Trafficking and Pornography

“Children are not a separate group, but in a phase of life thru which every single human has to pass. Is therefore not justice to a particular distinct portion of humanity but justice to all”[21].

Education is one of the keys to protecting our children and future generations. It is a weapon that can be used to help slow the demand and awaken offenders to see pornography for what it truly is. In this book I will revisit the history of the phenomenon of pornography in America, list the devastating affects it is having in many areas of life, and seek to find ways to use the obscenity clause as a way to bring honesty and sensibility to legislation, protect the safety to women, children, and other disenfranchised victims and offer education and awareness to the users, and finally, to break its’ power over the masses.

 

There is a definite link between pornography and child sex trafficking. Here are just a few statistics:

“Laura  Lederer,  former  Senior  Advisor  on  Trafficking  in  Persons  at  the State Department, spoke on this topic at a briefing for members of Congress in their staff on June 15, 2010. She summarized the “numerous links between sex trafficking and pornography” this way: some types of pornography actually are sex trafficking  because  they  involve  force,  fraud,  or coercion;  some perpetrators  are  trafficking  or  exploiting  women  and  record  the  acts  they perform; pornography “is used in sex trafficking and the sex industry to train women and children what to do”; pornography provides rationalizations for exploiters”[22].

“Child pornography can be used by exploiters to lower children’s inhibitions in order to seduce or encourage them to freely participate either in prostitution or pornography. Pedophiles and child abusers also use pornography to legitimize their actions and to convince themselves that their behavior is not abnormal but is shared by others. Child porn can also be used as a medium of exchange with other exploiters in public and private sex markets. Sexually explicit images of children may be used to blackmail child victims into obedience or silence. There is evidence that child porn is being used as an active tool by homosexuals for the recruitment of young boys”[23].

“Interviews with child pornography consumers have suggested some offenders move through a variety of pornographies, each time accessing more extreme material”[24] as a result of desensitization or appetite satiation, which led to collecting and discovering other forms of deviant pornography”[25].

 

“Child pornography offences have exploded by more than 200 per cent in the last decade, a trend that advocates say is fueled by the easy spread of illicit material over the internet. Incidents of child pornography climbed for the eighth year in a row in 2016. The agency recorded 6,245 incidents last year, up from 4,380 in 2015. That represents a more than 40 per cent rate increase in just one year, and a 233 percent spike from the rate reported in 2006”[26].

“Users of pornography were more likely to engage in illegal behavior. Those who used pornography were more likely to go to prostitutes and engage in domestic violence, stranger rape, date rape and incest. These behaviors should not be surprising since pornographic videos containing all of these themes are readily available”[27].

 

Part 2: Finding Solutions: Tearing up the Roots, Dismantling the Power

Some of the roots of the pornography can be traced back to the so-called, “sexual revolution”, and two men. The first, a narcissistic activist and scientist who distorted truth and got away with it for many years, has since been exposed as a fraud and called a psychopath, yet strangely is still honored by some for his work known as, “The Kinsey Reports”. Alfred Kinsey had a large part in changing the sexual mores of American society because of the respect he gained in the scientific community for his corrupted and deceptive scientific data.

Chapter Five of Kinsey’s famous book, “Sexual Behavior of the Human Male”[28], which was released in 1953 and embraced for its’ liberal stance on sexuality, describes the abuse of children for scientific research in horrifying detail, yet for years no one paid any attention to this chapter as he traveled the world proclaiming himself as a sex expert. The following words are taken directly from a pedophiles diary who abused 317-1000 children. Kinsey never reported this abuse, instead he used it and protected it in the name of science. The pedophile describes what he believed to be orgasm in children after adult stimulation, “Extreme tension with convulsions often involving sudden heaving and jerking of the whole body; groaning, sobbing, or more violent cries, sometimes with an abundance of tears especially among young children”[29].

According to Kinseys’s collegues at Indiana University, Kinsey’s attitude toward doing scientific research on children was that it was necessary and good and that ignorance about childhood sexual behavior was more of a crime than pedophilia was. He felt that children needed to be guided in their sexuality by adult stimulation and that it was only a paranoid generation that would hold back a child from experiencing orgasm from the age of infancy. This attitude probably stemmed from growing up in a repressive puritanical household where sex was considered “dirty”. His colleagues felt that his anger toward his childhood fueled his desire to do any, and all kinds of research and experimentation[30].

Judith Reisner PhD, attorney and historian, also a staunch critic of Kinsey’s work played a large part in unraveling the deception in his so-called science. Fortunately, his work is no longer as credible as it once was, although his Alma Mata, Indiana University still celebrates it and defends his unscrupulous data as confidential. Judith Reisman summarizes some of the inside information on Kinsey and his research team from a book written by Indiana University scholar and Kinsey Institute grantee, James H. Jones[31], “Kinsey only hired sexual deviants on whom he could rely to keep his secrets-including his fraud, his uncommon desires, and the child molesters he used to conduct child sex experiments. Jones also reported that Kinsey coerced his wife into participating in acts of adultery and sodomy with his staff and co-authors (which were filmed), seduced male student at Indiana University and bullied their wives into participating”.

“Suppressing, falsifying, or inventing findings to reach a researcher’s or audience’s needs constitutes scientific misconduct”[32].

Astoundingly, Kinsey’s work still affects small segments of society, groups who promote liberal sex education, condone experimentation and even use pornography as a teaching tool. “Kinsey was the most often cited sex expert in the Science Citation Index and the Social Science Citation Index (as of 1997). He was cited more often and more favorably than Maslow, Freud, Mead, Tofler, Paiget or Skinner [33]. His work influenced American Universities where some of his disciples, some being members of pedophilia societies, taught from his perspective and used pornography as mandated course work. Some students from California State University, Northridge (CSUN) and the Institute for the Advanced Study of human sexuality in San Francisco have engaged in public speaking and even appeared as expert witnesses in court cases defending crimes against women and children citing Kinsey’s work[34].

 

From Science to The Market

The second man is, Hugh Hefner of Playboy Enterprises, brilliant marketeer, and protégé of Alfred Kinsey, who referred to Kinsey as the “father of the sexual revolution” and appointed himself to market his ideas. He once stated, “If Kinsey was the researcher, I became his pamphleteer” [35].’Hard to think of anything that’s any more important than to change the social sexual values of our time. And that is what I take great pride in”[36].

In 2000 Playboy magazine filed a lawsuit challenging the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which states all channels that provide primarily sexual orientated programming be scrambled between the hours of 10 pm and 5am[37]. This was to protect children from unknowingly coming across it. The court ruled for Playboy saying that cable channels are not subject to the same laws as regular programming and that there were other ways that were less restrictive to protect children, like individual responsibility between the customer and cable provider[38]. Hefner even went as far as to set up a foundation to further the cause of releasing obscenity into the public square under the guise of free speech. “The primary purpose of the foundation is to support organizations that advocate for and defend civil rights and civil liberties with special emphasis on First amendment rights and “rational” sex and drug policies”[39].

 

Soft Core to Hard Core

“The very notion that a Playmate image, this innocent erotic image, should be perceived as somehow harassment or poor taste is a bizarre attitude, and the fact that such attitudes are embraced by any portion of the thinking part of society, should be an embarrassment… I don’t know that it is possible to ever imagine Playboy magazine to be more relevant than it was in the 50’s and 60’s when it literally changed the sexual climate of the country and of the world[40]”.

I know that some factions of society like to try and keep morality out of obscenity, but the above statement clearly shows how influential actors have an agenda that is bigger than economic gain or bringing pleasure to the consumer. The success of Playboy led to other magazines which became more hardcore and offensive. Larry Flynt of Hustler was known to push the envelope and fight for First Amendment Rights to bypass the obscenity clause also. He is known to be unscrupulous, serving six months jail time for desecration of the US flag and showing complete disrespect for appointed court officials[41]. In another case he was given a sentence of 7 to 25 years in prison on obscenity and organized crime charges, yet he served only six days in jail. “the sentence was overturned on appeal following allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, as well as judicial and jury bias”[42].Finally, in April 1998, Flynt was charged with a number of obscenity-related offenses concerning the sale of sex videos to a youth in a Cincinnati adult store he owned. In a plea agreement in 1999, LFP, Inc. (Flynt’s corporate holdings  group) pleaded guilty to two counts of pandering obscenity and agreed to stop selling adult videos in Cincinnati”[43]. He has also offered money several times to dig up dirt on Republican candidates and government representatives.

 

Narcissistic Activists

Narcissists are like parasites, and parasites require hosts. Parasites suck the life out of the host with an insatiable hunger that is all consuming, unless they are detected and removed. What if a narcissist becomes an activist for a cause? A narcissistic activist would require multiple hosts, in order to continue to feed. A much larger path of devastation would be left along the way.

These types of narcissists are not liberals or conservatives, they are people with hardened hearts and roots of bitterness who are driven by ideological rationalizations that they must penetrate into society in order to ease the burdens in their own souls. “Kinsey expressed hope that his research would spare young people in the future the same kind of, as he saw it, pointless and really crippling guilt that he had experienced as a youth”[44]. Hefner worried that masculinity was in crisis and feared the “womanization” of America, calling his own mother a prude[45].

One person might release a form of activism by using law as a tool for control, enforcing constraints that do not allow for freedom of moral stance; while another might manifest his activism in a deceptive way as to seem as though he/she is allowing for a moral stance, but truly trying to enforce relativism for his/her own benefit. Narcissistic activists lead in causes that make them comfortable in their own skin and sympathetic toward others like them. Rejection fuels their lust for approval and they may appear to have good intentions, yet secretly (maybe even to themselves) are addicted to the hosts and seek self-satisfaction over anything else[46]. Narcissists do not bond, instead they attach.  If the host seeks to bond, the narcissist repels and moves to another host who is open to attachment in the moment and a shallow connection[47].

”Those who fear censorship of pornography conjure up the slippery slope argument that if we give in to this we will have to lose our other freedoms.. The liberals from a hedonistic utilitarian point view that censorship harms our way of life. Further to them, the harm is not really that clear and well defined based on scientific research”[48].

Narcissistic leaders can blind the eyes of their prey. What if that prey is an entire society? Relativism cannot be enforced. Relativism says that everyone has a right to their own way of living, there is no right or wrong, and some supporters of relativism believe that everyone should agree on that. That is contradictory because every person has an individual sense of right and wrong based on various factors including upbringing, societal culture, temperament and many other influences. Therefore, each society must place some sort of boundaries to maintain a peaceful and productive place to live.

“Men are largely interdependent, and no man’s activity is so completely private as never to obstruct the lives of others in any way. ‘Freedom for the pike is death for the minnows’; the liberty of some must depend on the restraint of others”…To avoid glaring inequality or widespread misery I am ready to sacrifice some, or all, of my freedom: I may do so willingly and freely; but it is freedom that I am giving up for the sake of justice or equality or the love of my fellow men”[49].

A parasite needs an unaware victim who does not have the ability to remove it, nor does it understand it’s power. The utopian idea of a relativistic society is flawed because individual actions always affect others. Pure relativism in the sense of expecting others to allow one complete freedom to live one’s own way with no conflict would require isolation and ironically promotes separatism. If one so chooses to live that type of life, that is his or her choice, but it is not the role of society to make them comfortable. And when that way of living is pushed on others, it becomes unhealthy and even abusive.  “It is not the role of society to make people feel included. The role of society is to maintain a modicum of peace between people”[50]. “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone”[51](Romans 12:18, NIV).

Balancing Regulation with Freedom

Laws should only be made to force agreement in areas that are clearly detrimental to society. For instance, stop signs and red lights are essential to safe traffic flow. In a large society with many travelers a lack of traffic laws would cause major devastation. Even if people tried to avoid collisions, they would happen. There would also be mass confusion making it hard to be at peace and to be productive. Signs, lights, and other devices provide clear markings to enable people to make safe choices.

In America, the English language and the US Constitution were meant to provide clear language as to how to guide the laws of the nation. The first amendment allowed the freedom to have differences of opinions and the ability to share them, but it also had boundaries to ensure the safety of society. It was not a fully relativistic document. It protected the people against totalitarianism yet took authority over anarchy. It allowed for the democratic motto of “We the People”, but guarded against “I the ideology”. The English language also had boundaries which allowed laws to be written in a clear and concise manor that would not leave much room for interpretation. Relativistic society seeks to change the English Language to suit every individual’s desires instead of providing a safe place to find truth and consistency. Not only is this an impossible task, it is a sure road to anarchy.

It is my contention that justice and love should guide the authority of the first amendment and sex should not be a product to be consumed. A narcissistic movement may promote lifestyles that claim to be a shift for the bettering of humanity, yet they are experimental, not proven to be healthy. Some may call it evolution, but truly it is nothing new, it is just another wrapping on an old destructive philosophy. The hosts become the weak and disenfranchised in society, such as children, wounded, uneducated and poor people, as well as other victims of circumstance.  The parasite attached to these people through propaganda and other hosts who have been infected by the parasite. The victims are unable to remove the parasite because of lack of knowledge, lack of healing, or lack of discernment.

 

 

The Power of Deception

“What is the most resilient parasite? A bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm?
An idea. Resilient, highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed, fully understood. That sticks, right in there somewhere”[52].

The power of the parasite is distributed through many hosts and the synergy blinds the entire movement and demands all of the hosts attention and energy. The followers are brain washed into believing a lie and the infectious tide of the masses become hard to swim against. Pornography is an epidemic that has infected many and continues to grow at a rapid pace across the spectrum of social status, age, and ethnicity.

Irving Howe argued in, “Notes on Mass Culture”(1948), that mass culture was an agency of vast psychological control, “perpetuating passivity and shredding personality, it’s only aims being to provide relief from work monotony without making the return to work too unbearable, it must provide amusement without insight, pleasure without disturbance”[53].

Ironically an example of this became evident in another predatory marketing practice that devastated many people in America, the sub-prime mortgage crisis. While the watchdogs for American corporations were busy at play, the foxes got away!

“A report obtained by ABC News, says senior employees of the SEC spent hours on the commission’s computers looking at sites like naughty.com, skankwire, youporn, and others..This report found 31 serious offenders were senior officers with salaries ranging from $100,000 to $222,000 per year. Some of the offenses included one senior attorney spending up to eight hours a day watching porn, two SEC accountants attempting to access porn websites, one 1,800 times in a 2 week period, the other 16,000 times in a month, and other employees bypassing and deliberately disabling filters”[54] .

 

“Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said it was “nothing short of disturbing that high-ranking officials within the SEC were spending more time looking at pornography than taking action to help stave off the events that brought our nation’s economy to the brink of collapse…This stunning report should make everyone question the wisdom of moving forward with plans to give regulators like the SEC even more widespread authority[55]”.

 

Government Intervention 

“The government is intended to be watchdog for the corporation. However, too much government stifles business and enforcement of laws is not always easily administered. “Law is forced to locate a victim, and also prove the victim has suffered harm before the state can intervene, yet it is impossible to take account the harm of pollution, the public atmosphere that is at stake, not just an individual made ill by the air that we all have no choice but to breathe”[56].

Although big government is not the answer, there are times when intervention is necessary to move the pendulum back in the right direction. The government has stepped in on more than one occasion. President Nixon took a stand during his term of office.

           “Nixon went on the offensive soon after taking office, pressuring Congress to enact legislation that would stem the flow of “offensive sex materials,” prodding Attorney General John Mitchell to “seek strong measures to curb pornography,” and urging Postmaster General Winton Blount to “Put the Smut Merchants Out of Business…Nixon stated that,“So long as I am in the White House, there will be no relaxation of the effort to control and eliminate smut from our national life.”[57].

 

The Reagan Administration also acted by appointing a committee to do new research. Here is a statement from three of the appointed members of the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography:

“We are three women, who have, in varied ways, devoted our lives to the welfare of children and families: one as a specialist in the treatment of those who sexually abuse women and children, another as a journalist covering the diverse issues facing contemporary American women and the third as a specialist in the prevention and treatment of child abuse, neglect and molestation. We share a deep concern about the effects of pornography on American women…We wish to express our strong personal objections to the offensive and totally inaccurate materials that portray women as eager victims of abuse or as beings of less competence or value to society than men. We disapprove equally of media depictions that discriminate unfairly against men, or against specific races, cultures or those with physical or mental disabilities…We abhor the exploitation of vulnerable people and condemn those who profit from it”[58].

It was during The Clinton Administration that pornographers saw an open door to spread the plague of pornography to an almost uncontrollable fire.

“The trade publication of the porn industry, Adult Video News, frequently praised the Clinton Justice Department for not enforcing federal obscenity laws. The March 2000 issue asked, “How likely is it, would you say, that we are going to enjoy the same benevolent neglect that the industry has enjoyed under Janet Reno? Regardless of who is elected, our fortunes are going to change”[59].

Larry Flynt and his followers, saw the Clinton Administration as a brief open window that it was important to go through with a “Carpe Diem” attitude. Mark Croner, Ivy league graduate and director of the Hustler series, Jail Babes, which played on the idea that porn consumers would love the mixture of illegal behavior and illicit sex, made this statement. “The Clinton Administration opened up an era of “Blue skies, green lights, and fat bank accounts for the pornography industry”[60].

During Obama’s reign as president he signed the H.R. 159 which clarified any child under 18 who was subjected to sex trafficking, a victim and H.R. 285 which clarifies that punishment also extends to those who advertise children for sex, but he failed to continue the fight against pornography. “As great as these bills are, however, they fail to properly address the most important part of sex trafficking: reducing demand before men use, abuse, and torture women, girls and boys for sadistic personal pleasure. And according to one of the nation’s leading academics studying the effect of pornography — a self-described “radical feminist” — pornography is a key ingredient in that demand[61]”.

In July of 2016, Donald Trump signed a pledge drafted by activist group, “Enough is enough, “In signing, the group says Trump promised to steer more resources toward prosecutions and to appoint an attorney general who would make enforcement of federal obscenity laws – along with laws against child abuse and child pornography – “a top priority”[62].

It specifically addresses obscenity laws and possible societal harms, and it mainly focuses on child exploitation. President and CEO of the group Donna Rice Hughes is hopeful for change. Ms. Hughes understands the problem with pornography and business ethics and sees Donald Trump as a strong opponent, “The pornographers have been laughing their way to the bank for years,” Hughes says. “They’re huge and it’s getting worse. … What you need is someone who’s strong and is going to put their foot down”[63].

I will continue to clarify the government’s role in obscenity in the latter part of Chapter Two as we explore how pornography promotes prostitution and objectification. Theories that endorse the legalization of prostitution, sex as a commodity or sex as a viable career choice have not been prominent in American government or American business ethics.  The FCC was founded to protect children and a large segment of the population from becoming contaminated with theories that are attached to agendas promoted by a small segment of society. The first amendment has an obscenity clause that has been vigorously debated but does require that community standards are adhered to. Although the lines for community standards are blurry, all legislation has paid special attention to protecting children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Dr. Mary Anne Layden, testimony at the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space hearing on The Science Behind Pornography Addiction, 2004, 18 November

[2]  Orrin G. Hatch, “Fighting the Pornification of America by Enforcing Obscenity Laws”. Stanford Law & Policy Review, (2013) 23(1), 1-18.

[3] Chris Hedges, Empire of Illusion: The end of literacy and the triumph of spectacle. (New York, NY: Nation Books, 2009),  p. 58.

[4] Levi, L. (2008). The FCC’s Regulation of Indecency. First Reports.

First Amendment Center, Vol. 7, No.1

 

[5] Rachelle Gurstein, The Repeal to Reticence. (New York, NY: Hill & Wang, 1996) p. 237.

[6] Dennis Durband, “The Harms Of Pornography Guide to Family Issues: The Harms of Pornography”. United Families. (2008), Retrieved from: http://unitedfamilies.org/issues-and-answers/guides-to-family-issues/the-harms-of-pornography/

 

[7] K. Bertucci, “17 video games with full frontal nudity”. Gadget Review. (2016, February 8), Retrieved from: http://www.gadgetreview.com/17-video-games-with-full-frontal-nudity

 

[8] “Hip Hop Songs About Prostitution”. Mademen, November 11, 2010

Sianghio, Victorino. Retrieved from: http://www.mademan.com/mm/hip-hop-songs-about-prostitution.html

[9]“The 10 Hottest Sex Scenes on TV in 2015”, Cosmopolitan, December 15, 2015

Hoffman, Lauren. Retrieved from: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/tv/a50802/hottest-tv-sex-scenes-of-2015/

[10] Rebecca Collins, Marc Elliott, Sandra Berry, David Kanouse, Dale Kunkel, Sarah Hunter and Angela Miu, “Watching Sex on Television Predicts Adolescent Initiation of Sexual Behavior”, Pediatrics 114 (2004), e280, e284, e287.

[11] Murray, “Gay attorney to Disney: Mature ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Robs Kids’ Innocence” Orlando Sentinel, March 6, 2017, Editorial. Retrieved from: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/os-ed-disney-gay-themes-not-for-kids-20170306-story.html

[12] Dr. Gary Brooks, The Centerfold Syndrome, (San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass, 1995)

[13] Giedd, Jay (2016, May) The Amazing Teen Brain. Scientific American, pp. 34-37

[14] Ibid, p. 34-37

[15]Doremus-Fitzwater, T., Varlinskaya, E.& Spear, L., “Motivational Systems in Adolescence: Possible Implications for Age Differences in Substance Abuse and Other RiskTaking Behaviors,” Brain and Cognition 72, no. 1 (2010): 114–23. 2, Sisk, C.L & Zehr, J.L (2005) “Pubertal Hormones Organize the Adolescent Brain and Behavior,” Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology 26, nos. 3–4 (2005): 163–74

[16] Simone Kühn, Jürgen Gallinat, “Brain Structure and Functional Connectivity Associated With Pornography Consumption: The Brain on Porn,” JAMA Psychiatry 71 (July 2014): 827-834

[17] Riemersma J. & Sytsma M. “A New Generation of Sexual Addiction.” Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity, 2013 Oct; 20(4): 306-322

[18] Secor, Sharon (2004, October) A Growing Trend: Teen Pornography, Obscenity Crimes. Retrieved from: http://unitedfamilies.org/issues-and-answers/guides-to-family-issues/the-harms-of-pornography/

 

[19] Rich, Frank, “Naked capitalists: There’s No Business Like Porn Business”, New York Times Magazine, May 20, 2001. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/20/magazine/naked-capitalists.html

[20] Berlin, I. “Two Concepts of Liberty: Four Essays on Liberty”. London: Oxford University Press (1969)

[21] Boner, H. “Children and Theories of Social Justice”. Feminist Economics, (2000), 6(2), pp. 23-29.

[22] Hatch, O.G. “Fighting the Pornification of America by Enforcing Obscenity Laws”, (2012) Stanford Law & Policy Review, 23(1), 1-18.

[23] Ofelia Calcetas-Santos, Child Pornography on the Internet, Child Abuse on the Internet: Ending the Silence, Carlos Arnoldo (ed.) (New York: Bergahn Books, 2001), 56

[24] Quayle, E. & Taylor, M. “Child Pornography and the Internet: Perpetuating a Cycle of Abuse”, Deviant Behavior: An Interdisciplinary Journal, (2002), 23, 331-361.

 

[25] Quayle, E. & Taylor, M. “Model of Problematic Internet Use in People With a Sexual Interest in Children. Cyberpsychology and Behavior, (2003), 6(1), 93-106.

 

[26] Harris, Cathleen, “Reports of Child Pornography, Sexual Crimes Against Minors on the Rise”. CBC News, July 24, 2017, Retrieved from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/sexual-offences-children-increase-statscan-1.4218870

[27] Dr. Mary Anne Layden, testimony at the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space hearing on, “The Science Behind Pornography Addiction”, November 18, 2004

[28] Alfred Charles Kinsey. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. (Philadelphia, PA: W.B. Saunders Co., 1948)

[29] Ibid, 5, p.

[30] Alfred Kinsey’s Pedophiles (How a Liberal Atheist Tried to Normalize Pedophilia, Theology, Philosophy, and Science, 14 Nov. 2017, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kG0iiZLVgYY

[31] Judith Reisman, “Implications of the Kinsey Reports on Child Custody Cases: How Junk Science Created a Paradigm Shift in Society, Legislation and the Judiciary”. The Liz Library. (2013), p. 3                                      Retrieved from: www.thelizlibrary.org/liz/ImplicationsOfKinseyReports.doc

[32] John W. Creswell, Research design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (4th ed.). (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Books, 1995), p. 99

 

[33] Judith Reisman, “Implications of the Kinsey Reports on Child Custody Cases: How Junk Science Created a Paradigm Shift in Society, Legislation and the Judiciary”. The Liz Library. (2013), p. 7,  Retrieved from: www.thelizlibrary.org/liz/ImplicationsOfKinseyReports.doc

 

[34] Ibid, p. 5-6

 

[35] Ibid, p.7

[36] S. Donaton, “Playboy Interview: Hefner on Branding” (Cover Story). Advertising Age, (1997), 68(44), 1-

[37] L. Levi, “The FCC’s Regulation of Indecency”, First Reports (2008), First Amendment Center, Vol. 7, No.1

 

 

[38] Raju Chebium, “Supreme Court says Adult Programming Restrictions on Cable

are Unconstitutional”, CNN.com, Law Center (2000).

[39] Hugh M. Hefner, F., Hugh M. Hefner Foundation Now Accepting Nominations for the 2013 First Ammendment Awards. Business Wire (2013), (English).(11).

[40] S. Donaton, “Playboy Interview: Hefner on Branding” (Cover Story). Advertising Age, (1997), 68(44), 1-

 

[41] United States v. Larry Flynt , 756 F.2d 1352 ( 1985 ). Elaws.com. Retrieved from: http://ecases.us/case/ca9/449263/united-states-v-larry-flynt

[42] United States Supreme Court FLYNT v. OHIO, (1981) No. 80-420. Findlaw.com. Retrieved from: http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/451/619.html

 

[43] Larry Flynt Biography. IMDB. Retrieved from: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0283658/bio.

[44] The First Measured Century Series: James H. Jones interview with New River Media. Ben Wattenburg, PBS.org, (2000), http://www.pbs.org/fmc/interviews/jones.htm

[45] Irin Carmon, “Hugh Hefner’s World Wasn’t Just Bad for Women, It Hurt Men Too”, Washington Post, September 29, 2017.

[46] L. Firestone, “Self Esteem vs. Narcissism: The Value of Self-esteem and the Dangers of Narcissism”. Psychology Today, (2012, June 6)

[47] Preston Ni, M.S.B.A, “10 Signs That You’re in a Relationship With a Narcissist”. Psychology Today. (September 14, 2014)

[48] Mohammad Hozien, “Pornography and Ethics: Free Speech or Civil rights”. William Patterson University, (1999) Retrieved from: http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/mih/ethics/e5.html

 

[49] Isaiah Berlin, “Two Concepts of Liberty: Four essays on Liberty”. London: Oxford University Press, (1969).

[50] Carol Off, “I’m Not a Bigot. Meet the UT Professor Who Refuses to use Genderless Pronouns”, CBC radio, (October 3, 2016)

[51] The Holy Bible. New International Version.

[52] Inception, Quotes, IMDB,(2010). Retrieved from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/quotes

[53] Rachelle Gurstein, The Repeal to Reticence. (New York, NY: Hill & Wang, 1996) p. 236-237

 

[54] Jonathan Karl “SEC and Pornography: Workers Spent Hours on Porn Sites Instead of Stopping Fraud”,

ABC News, (April 22, 2010) http://abcnews.go.com

 

[55] CNN News, “SEC Staffers Watched Porn as Economy Collapsed”, CNN News, (April 23, 2010)  http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/23/sec.porn/index.html

[56] Rachelle Gurstein, The Repeal to Reticence. (New York, NY: Hill & Wang, 1996) p. 236-237

 

[57] Carl Lee McKinney, ”SexEd : Pedagogy, Pornography, Precocity, and Adolescent Sexual Subjectivity”, UC San Diego: Communication. b8201289 (2014)

 

[58] Meese Report (1986, July) “Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography: Final Report. US Department of Justice”, http://porn-report.com/

[59] Janet LaRue, “The Porn Ring Around Corporate White Collars: Getting Filthy Rich”, Concerned Women of America. (Dec 12, 2002)  http://concernedwomen.org/images/content/wcp-report.pdf

 

[60] Michael Kirk, “American Porn”, Frontline, (2002, February 2) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/showsporn/

[61] John-Henry Westen, “Want to Stop Sex Trafficking? Look at America’s Porn Addiction, Huffington Post, (January 28, 2015)

[62] Steven Nelson, “Trump Gets Hard Time From Pornographers Over Anti-Obscenity Pledge”, US News. (August 1, 2016)

 

[63] Steven Nelson, “Trump Gets Hard Time From Pornographers Over Anti-Obscenity Pledge”, US News. (August 1, 2016)