Your Saturday night probably consists of watching porn and reading by North by Northwestern, but that may change if Rick Santorum is elected. Don't worry, you'll still be able to read NBN, but porn might be a problem. Santorum recently announced in a statement on his campaign website that he has, in the words of Forbes writer Josh Barro, “a clear intent to use the levers of government to stop adults from making and watching porn.”
Stop right there, Rick. You’re going to put a hold on porn using “the levers of government”? Are we talking about the same government that gives us our First Amendment rights? The same government that ruled Americans have the right to watch what they want in the privacy of their own homes?
“For many decades, the American public has actively petitioned the United States Congress for laws prohibiting distribution of hard-core adult pornography," the statement reads.Has the American public been actively campaigning against porn or actively consuming it? Because to me, it seems like the industry is alive and well. Sex still sells. Or streams for free online. In fact, eight of the 10 states that had the highest per capita consumption of online porn when evaluated in 2009 were states that Republican John McCain won in 2008’s presidential election. People like their pornography. And while many feel that pornography goes against traditional family values, viewing and producing pornography still remain legal rights for adults.
Santorum isn’t the first conservative to wage war on the protected commercial industry. During his presidency, Ronald Reagan appointed a commission to investigate how “the spread of pornography could be contained.” The George H.W. Bush era saw numerous prosecutions and hearings regarding obscenity.
Obscenity is illegal, but not all pornography is necessarily considered obscene. Let’s consider pornography in its blooming years. Just as the porn industry was taking off thanks to the brand-new VHS tape, the Supreme Court made the landmark 1973 decision in Miller v. California that obscenity is anything that an “average person, applying contemporary community standards” finds to be offensive.
The definitions of “average person” and “contemporary community standards” are fluid and ever-changing. In my small, suburban Indiana hometown, the word "pornography" itself might be considered obscene. In California, a middle school teacher was recently put on administrative leave after it came to light that she was working as an adult film star on the side. At the other end of the spectrum, Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash. has hosted an outdoor “Pornfest” in the past. For the government to instill a nationwide ban on pornography, it would have to force socially liberal communities like these to conform to socially conservative community standards and effectively sacrifice their rights to consume pornographic content that they don’t find obscene.
"America is suffering a pandemic of harm from pornography," the statement continues. "It contributes to misogyny and violence against women. It is a contributing factor to prostitution and sex trafficking."
Americans are also suffering from the aftermath of a devastating economic recession. Shutting down the multibillion-dollar porn industry doesn’t seem like it would help. Think about the cameramen on the sets of adult film sets and the presses that print Playboy.
Santorum’s statement also ties pornography to misogyny and violence against women using unspecified research, but data suggests otherwise. As pornography grew over the last decade, occurrences of rape decreased by an average of 7.5 percent per year, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
If Santorum was elected and pornography was banned, would it make a difference in the heartland values Santorum aims to protect? Probably not. More often than not, we want what we can't have. Wouldn't a ban on porn simply add fuel to the flame?
I’m not writing this as some sort of sex fiend, fearful of losing all of that porn I watch regularly. I’m writing this as a citizen and legal adult concerned with maintaining the right to consume the material that I want to. So please, Rick, focus your attention on something less futile and unconstitutional. Your war on porn is getting a little too hardcore for me.