Word: censorship
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...issue squarely revolves around what the vast majority of the public (civil libertarians included) would label "pornography," according to Webster's. Out of court, no longer are we asking "is it pornography?" but "why not pornography?" The courtroom is another story, however, since legal precedent supports the censorship of pornography in principle (Roth v. U.S., 1957). In the past, in court, the battle assumed absurdist dimensions: was Deep Throat "educational" in nature? Or did it have "redeeming social value?" The civil libertarians were put (perhaps too willingly) in the virtually ridiculous position of finding social excuses for the pornography...
...conscious act of choice must be made to gain access: a viewer must go to a theatre and pay admission. Well-made films are too expensive to allow for individual purchase and ownership on a mass basis--hence, the ongoing necessity of "public exhibition." For all these reasons, the censorship of pornography has found its ultimate challenge in the arena of the movie house--a challenge which therefore must concern me not only as a citizen, but as a film critic...
...case. Somewhere between the extremes of Last Tango in Paris and The Devil in Miss Jones lies a vast, as yet untapped potential for quality erotic cinema. However, it is not because of this that I am vigorously on the side of the civil libertarians. Intrinsic to most censorship arguments is the supposition that the putative censors are morally superior to pornography's patrons. It is a form of elitism, as dogmatic and offensive as a religious sect which insists that it alone possesses the sole pathway to the Godhead...
...behave in ways inimical to the majority--providing such expression does not curtail the freedom of others. This is my version of democracy's Scylla and Charybdis: to determine if and when the freedom of one becomes the oppression of another. For example, I would not oppose the censorship of cinema clearly promoting and advocating rape (I expect civil libertarian purists would take issue with me on this.). But cinema depicting sex practices which do not involve coercion belongs, in my viewpoint, in the category of expression of a minority view which does not curtail the freedom of others...
...only argument for censorship which I feel deserves consideration is that uncensored sexual material may lead to a higher incidence of sex-related crimes. However, the bulk of available evidence says this is not the case. The recent Presidential Commission's Report on Pornography concluded that exposure to pornography probably had little or no adverse affects on individuals (some have refused to accept these findings). But more convincing is the fact that in Denmark, where all censorship has been abolished, a remarkable and extensive drop in sexual crimes has been reported. If anything, it would seem therefore that the best...