Porn in the USA

[TheMercenary]

Silly politicians. Don't they know the surest way to drum up interest in a porn movie on campus is to ban it? When a state senator threatened to strip funding from the University of Maryland over its plans to show a XXX-rated film in the student center, school officials nixed the event. But fired-up students responded on Monday by holding a free-speech demonstration that drew media coverage from as far away as Thailand and Australia.

The brouhaha is the result of a marketing strategy by porn company Digital Playground, which last summer started offering complimentary copies of Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge (a hardcore homage to Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean, animated skeleton pirates and all) to students on 100 college campuses. Many schools have already screened the film in venues ranging from a dorm room at Southern Connecticut State University to an 850-student audience in December at UCLA, where the film's stars responded to questions and criticism about the porn industry. (Read about porn and the iPhone.)

The University of Maryland's College Park campus scheduled a screening in its student center for April 4, and some 150 students purchasing advance tickets at $5 a pop. The student union also invited a Planned Parenthood representative to speak about safe sex, which is presumably not a central plot point in the swashbuckling film. After news broke of the event, administrators said in a statement that they initially viewed the showing as "an opportunity to engage students in a discussion about the national dialogue revolving around pornography."

Not everyone on campus shared that noble perspective, with 23% of students saying porn should never be screened publicly on campus, according to a poll by the student newspaper, The Diamondback. But before undergraduates could settle the debate, State Senator Andrew Harris threatened on April 2 to get the legislature to strip all $400 million in state funding from the campus if Pirates were screened in a non-academic setting. Administrators cancelled the showing that day.

Undeterred, a group of students and rogue professors held a "Pirates Screening/Teach In" Monday night, drawing some 200 attendees. Before a 30-minute excerpt — which included two threesomes and copious shots of corset-clad blondes — students, professors, lawyers and ACLU representatives stood up to defend porn on principle. English professor Martha Nell Smith, who noted that literature from Shakespeare to Dickinson includes pornographic elements, said that it's a student's choice whether to study erotica and "it's our job together to contextualize it."

The event, which was held in a lecture hall and probably won't endanger the university's funding because of its educational components, helped earn the screening's co-organizer, sophomore Malcolm Harris, an endorsement for student body president in The Diamondback. Administrators at College Park called the rebel screening "characteristic of a vibrant educational community." Meanwhile, another University of Maryland campus, in Baltimore County, has scheduled a screening in solidarity.

For now, Senator Harris has withdrawn his amendment, but says he may push for it again in coming weeks if the university doesn't devise a clear policy on when and where it will allow porn. Could tenured positions for porn chaperones be far behind?

http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...889921,00.html

[Sheldonrs]

I remember when the student union at my college showed "The Devils" with Vanessa Redgrave, at the student center. It was an x-rated movie when it was released. Lot's of naked people that REALLY should have kept their clothes on.
There were a few complaints about showing the movie but not much.
And this was back around 1981-2.

[Clodfobble]

I had a Radio-TV-Film professor who was writing a book on pornography. So whenever we were taking a test, she would sit quietly at her desk reading a variety of research materials. It was really funny.

[wolf]

My college showed Emmanuelle as part of the Friday Night Film Series.

It did not raise a stir. This was during the Reagan Years.

Funny thing ... if you don't want to see it, don't pay for a ticket.

[piercehawkeye45]

This is stupid, no one is being forced to go to this. I understand how issues may come up since it is a university sponsored event, but the logic that they are promoting pornography is a vast over exaggeration.

[DanaC]

Our English teacher showed us the 70s video production of Equus, with full frontal nudity and lots of other goodies. It only showed nudity. And obviously there was clear sexuality in the central character's rituals. But I suspect there would be more of a problem showing it now, to a class of 15 year olds than there was then. Despite the fact that youngsters see much more now than they ever did then, attitudes to what they encounter in school seem have become more prudish, if anything.

[DanaC]

English professor Martha Nell Smith, who noted that literature from Shakespeare to Dickinson includes pornographic elements, said that it's a student's choice whether to study erotica and "it's our job together to contextualize it."

I really liked that.

I just read the piece fully. I hadnt when I commented before. This is a college campus, these aren't children, they're adults. What if they want to study the history of pornography? (a student in last year's cohort at my history school did just that for her dissertation: 18th and 19th century erotica) Are they banned from watching it on campus?

[Pico and ME]

result of a marketing strategy by porn company Digital Playground

Ta duh.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Put a stop to it. Those kids shouldn't be seeing it, they should be back in their co-ed dorms doing it.

[Pie]

No, no, Bruce! First, teach them how to do it. Then they can practice it.

I can see it now: first, the lecture, then the lab.
But how do you grade it?

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by Pie

No, no, Bruce! First, teach them how to do it. Then they can practice it.

I can see it now: first, the lecture, then the lab.
But how do you grade it?

I volunteer to proctor.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Pie

No, no, Bruce! First, teach them how to do it. Then they can practice it.

I can see it now: first, the lecture, then the lab.
But how do you grade it?

Hey, we're talking college here, not kindergarten. They know how to do it.

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Put a stop to it. Those kids shouldn't be seeing it, they should be back in their co-ed dorms doing it.

The funny thing is many guys actually think they should replicate a porn star's actions...no surprise some girls are never satisfied.

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by piercehawkeye45

The funny thing is many guys actually think they should replicate a porn star's actions...no surprise some girls are never satisfied.

lol...yeah, those guys totally creep me out.

[sugarpop]

I have really mixed feelings about porn. On the one hand, I think people (adults) should be able to watch it if they want to. On the other hand, I think it has some really insidious effects on society, and it has creeped into the mainstream.

Erotica and porn, not even close to the same thing.