SEXIS WRONG

1. Except for materials that involve minors or are sold to them,
most pornography is legal in this country. Obscenity is not
legal, but the difficulty of deciding what is obscene, a slippery
concept (involving assessments laid out in Miller v. California
[413 U.S. 15 (1973)] and subsequent iterations) that changes
over time, and one that preoccupied the judicial system during
the last century, makes the issue largely moot, at least
where adults are concerned. In fact, criminalizing child pornography
is part of the cultural dynamic I wish to discuss,
since its effect has been to reinforce the legality of representations
of, by, and for adults. It has also globalized markets.
When the European Parliament passed guidelines for dealing
with child pornography, including prison terms
for those convicted of sexually exploiting children,
it did so partly to protect minors, but just
as obviously to permit European countries to
compete against American pornography.
2. Pornography comes in many genres, and the cultural emphasis
we give those genres—the hierarchies we rank them
in—also varies over time. Constant shifts in such scales are
also part of the margins-to-mainstream dynamic. For many
Americans, pornography refers to hard-core videotapes or
DVDs, which constitute one of the most visible and familiar
sectors. Depending on the individual, pornography can also
refer to peep shows, striptease, live sex acts, adult cable programming,
sexual aids and devices, explicit telephone and
computer messages, erotic websites, explicit comic books,
adult magazines, nude photographs, and raunchy fiction. The
less discriminating add late-night television broadcasts, soap
operas, rap and rock music, romance novels, fashion magazines,
and R-rated movies. In any case, pornography is not
monolithic: The genres target audiences diverse in their age,
gender, and ethnicity, and their content can vary sharply in
degrees of textual and graphic detail.
3. What determines the market for any pornographic genre is
demand, which in turn rests on the desire for pleasure, which
in its turn derives from individual tastes, sexual orientations,
and psychic histories. Most consumers of pornography are
average and normal, merely looking for materials to gratify
erotic tastes. At one extreme, taste is simply a programmed
or learned preference for certain kinds of sexual fantasies.
Sexual orientation tends to fix desire across a heterosexual,
gay, lesbian, or transgendered spectrum whose fluid eroticism
we are gradually learning to appreciate. Where pornography
is concerned, we often fail to notice that moral standards
frequently reduce to taste. As Al Goldstein, former publisher
of Screw magazine, has observed: “Eroticism is what
turns me on; pornography is what turns you on.” De gustibus
non disputandem est, the Romans used to say: There is no
arguing with taste.
At the other extreme, taste rigidifies into fetish—a term nowadays
loosely defined as an element that must be present for
an individual to become aroused: women with large breasts,
men with large penises, say, or blonde hair, high heels, leather
costumes, or specific scenarios. But, as Pierre Bourdieu
has observed, a taste is always also a distaste. Those who do
not share specific fetishes often condemn them as immoral
or deviant or simply dopey. Some tastes become notorious
when celebrities embrace them. President Clinton mistook
a cigar for a penis; Attorney General Ashcroft apparently
thought the breasts on a Department of Justice statute were
political statements. We despise or cherish political leaders
Pornography seems to be refreshing
a culture that continuously mines its
own edges in search of novelty.
for their odd sexual notions, for they add idiosyncrasy to personalities.
They also keep our collective erotic expectations a
little off-balance.
Few countries are more conflicted about pornography than
the United States, and few countries so relentlessly package
and recycle it. According to architects, pornography has eroticized
and gendered our public and private spaces. 1 Where
once sex configured the red-light districts of urban areas,
now it shapes the experience of average citizens. The Playboy
mansion still serves as the model for bachelor pads, but
seductive lighting, hot tubs, and flexible furniture also appear
in family homes. Suburban apartment complexes enclose
“clothing-optional” swimming pools. Lesbians and gays rehab
slums in Atlantic City and other towns to create gendered
communities. Hooters restaurants are no longer remarkable
features of the American landscape, and Victoria’s Secret
stores can be found in every upscale mall. Department stores
stock fur-lined handcuffs and jeweled whips next to plastic
party plates.
The girl next door has become a sexual icon, transformed
by Playboy and its imitators, not to mention amateur videotapes
and popular series such as “Girls Gone Wild.” Young
feminists have adopted the terms slut and bitch as markers
of empowerment. The word pimp seems incredibly cool.
Women throw stag parties for soon-to-be married friends;
their mothers scream at Chippendales dancers. In imitation
of porn performers, college girls are depilating their pubic
regions, piercing their nipples, and getting their buttocks tattooed.
Cosmetic firms are selling nipple blush. Going Calvin
Klein one better, Abercrombie and Fitch fills its catalogs with
nude models. The great pornographic photographer Araki
shot a layout for the New York Times Fashion Supplement;
the same issue ran an article on the influence on style of the
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