What is "pornography?'' The definition of that word has always been elusive. What is pornographic to one person is not pornographic to another person. Since the definition of pornography is vague, attempts to define it often overlap into art is, or in some cases, what is educational.
The 2024 presidential campaign is opening new battlefronts in the crusade of the moral right (which is neither) to protect the children. However, most of these attempts to protect the children - as noble as that cause is - infringe on everyone else’s freedom of speech.
Louisiana's new anti-porn law has been pushed by state Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Jeff Landry. Landry has been named in a lawsuit challenging the state's new anti-porn law as unconstitutional. The Free Speech Coalition is the plaintiff group challenging the new law's vague definition of what is considered "harmful material."
Do we want right-wing radicals - not conservatives or Republicans - but right-wing radicals making the decisions about what is pornographic? I think not. The extremely skewed views of the extreme right would easily sacrifice respect for the Constitution in the name of declaring something they believe to be pornographic.
In 1986, President Reagan's Attorney General Ed Meese established the Meese Commission to study pornography and its impact on American society. But the commission was not seeking an objective view - the commission set out to declare pornography threat to the American way of life as a political payback to evangelical Christians for helping Reagan get re-elected in 1984. This was the report that maliciously labeled Playboy and Penthouse "pornographic," and as a result both mags were removed from all 7/11 stores in America.
Subsequent to the declaration that Playboy and Penthouse were pornographic, a judge reprimanded the Meese Commission's motives and conclusions, and ruled that Playboy and Penthouse were not pornographic.
This is America and people can independently consider Playboy and Penthouse pornographic - but legally they are not.
At the direction of right-wing radicals, art and legitimate scientific education could be considered pornographic and unfairly banned. Teenagers could be robbed of their right to learn more about the changes their bodies are going through, and basic, fundamental sex education could be threatened.
I am not promoting pornography to teens and pornography has never been a regular part of my private life - but when attempts to define pornography are left to the whim of a self-serving group of right-wing activists in the name of morality, I can't help but fear that an onslaught of puritan values in our public life threatens our precious First Amendment rights.
It's true that many parents do not do their jobs as parents - but more frightening than negligent parents is a government that decides what you can and cannot see.
