roundtable: Re: Censorship and pornography

roundtable: Re: Censorship and pornography

Re: Censorship and pornography

Jeff Briggs (jbriggs@capital.edu)
Mon, 27 Mar 1995 03:03:16 +0500 

Date: Mon, 27 Mar 1995 03:03:16 +0500
From: jbriggs@capital.edu (Jeff Briggs)
Message-Id: <9503270803.AA26813@athena.capital.edu>
To: roundtable@cni.org
Subject: Re: Censorship and pornography


Curt -

     The thought behind my rather crudely expressed line about "what
if your kid downloads pornography" is that attitudes towards sexuality,
and adolescent sexuality vary greatly throughout the world - and our
own - judging from the incessant capitalist instrumental use of sex-
uality in advertisements, including videos, is truly pornographic,
but omnipresent.

     I guess I jumped on pornography as a buzzword - one of those 
unexamined evils that draws invariable censorship pressure, but what
on closer look is not so simple to define,nor necessarally so harmful
to anyone. While the "sex object" point is valid, there is also a
strong prejudice against eroticism and eros in general in our culture,
including academe, some feminists, and liberals.

     That's why I don't believe in any censorship *except* what
parents decide for their own children.

     This is relevant to our discussion because the pornography
issue - especially as it relates to the potential for children to see
it - is the hot button that is already being used (see Richard Moore's 
Cyberrights list) to justify censorship of the Internet by 
"conservatives" (what are they trying to conserve?) and those afraid 
of sexuality who want to surpress it in the name of Christianity so it 
won't make them so hot and bothered.

Jeff Briggs
<jbriggs@capital.edu>

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