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From: dmcanzi@watdcsu.UUCP (David Canzi)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.politics
Subject: Re: A suggestion for a ground rule in any pornography debate
Message-ID: <1653@watdcsu.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 6-Sep-85 01:26:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: watdcsu.1653
Posted: Fri Sep  6 01:26:37 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 6-Sep-85 05:54:08 EDT
References: <5660@tekecs.UUCP> <1873@reed.UUCP>
Reply-To: dmcanzi@watdcsu.UUCP (David Canzi)
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Summary: 

The basic idea behind freedom of the press and freedom of speech (as I
understand it) is to prevent the suppression of ideas.  People are
supposed to be able to hear all kinds of opinions, examine them
critically and choose among them.  And if they disagree with an idea
that is being expressed, they can argue against it.

If the government has the power to decide that certain ideas are not to
be expressed, and to prevent them from being expressed, there is the
danger that the government will choose to suppress truths that would be
inconvenient to the government if widely known.  After all, the people
who make up the government are only people, and honesty is not the
strongest of our natural instincts.

Many people claim that the censorship of pornography does not involve
the suppression of ideas.  Yet, pretty frequently, the reasons given
for censoring pornography are like these (from tektronix!reed!ellen):

>                                       ...the "Playboy" women, gazing
> wetly at the camera in soft focus, seem to me to be the reason
> behind men's rationalization of "You know you really want it."
> How can any man NOT get that impression when all the images he is
> exposed to have that message?

>                      ...it presents a subtler and more
> insidious encouragement of violence against women: the violence
> of date rape or forced seduction.  With "Playboy"'s message that
> all women want sex all the time goes the idea that it is all
> right to give it to her.  

> Pornography never presents an image of a woman saying 'no' and
> meaning it.  Thus the idea that women never do mean 'no' is
> encouraged.

Now, it sure looks as if it's *ideas* that she's objecting to.  To
be fair, I don't recall Ellen explicitly saying that she wants the
government to step on Playboy magazine, but since she said these in
an article about censorship, it's a strong likelihood.

-- 
David Canzi

This has been a test of the emergency broadcasting system.  It was only a test.
Repeat: only a test.  If this had been a real emergency, you would be dead.