The Porn Wars (Strategy Page)

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The Porn Wars
November 7, 2007: As if fighting the Global War on Terror was not difficult enough, the troops are now facing a loss of freedom in their choice of reading material. This censorship effort is coming from a number of anti-pornography groups who are not happy with the results of a Pentagon policy that banned hard core porn, but allowed magazines like Playboy and Penthouse to stay in military exchanges.

This is not the first time such a problem has arisen. In 2004, an effort by an Oregon porn shop to send porn to troops was shot down. The military does restrict porn in some areas, but often for cultural and political reasons. This is particularly true in the Middle East.

Iraq and other Moslem nations are much more socially conservative than the United States. In fact, Saudi Arabia's religious police make the Religious Right seem like social liberals. Over in Bahrain, the rules are looser – as long as what happens in Bahrain stays in Bahrain. Many Saudis head over there to indulge in vice. It keeps the clergy in Saudi Arabia happy, and it keeps the Saudis who can get to Bahrain happy. It also is a matter of order and discipline – vital things needed in a combat zone.

But for areas where such things are not a problem, the DOD has allowed Playboy to remain on the shelves. Part of this is because of the fact that some rules are harder to enforce. Some troops will attempt to sneak stuff in (at least one soldier quoted in Al Santoli's oral history "Leading the Way" brought a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue into Saudi Arabia and used it to calm down Iraqi prisoners). There is also the Internet – and Internet access for the troops means that they can surf the web and get porn (as many Americans do at home).

This of course, did not sit well with religious groups at home. They have launched an e-mail and letter-writing campaign to get Playboy tossed (as the State Department did in 2005). And so the troops find themselves fighting to protect the right of people to try to deny them the right to choose their own reading material (my emphasis - mh). – Harold C. Hutchison (haroldc.hutchison@gmail.com)

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"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[Lefty 0]

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The Porn Wars
November 7, 2007: As if fighting the Global War on Terror was not difficult enough, the troops are now facing a loss of freedom in their choice of reading material. This censorship effort is coming from a number of anti-pornography groups who are not happy with the results of a Pentagon policy that banned hard core porn, but allowed magazines like Playboy and Penthouse to stay in military exchanges.

This is not the first time such a problem has arisen. In 2004, an effort by an Oregon porn shop to send porn to troops was shot down. The military does restrict porn in some areas, but often for cultural and political reasons. This is particularly true in the Middle East.

Iraq and other Moslem nations are much more socially conservative than the United States. In fact, Saudi Arabia's religious police make the Religious Right seem like social liberals. Over in Bahrain, the rules are looser – as long as what happens in Bahrain stays in Bahrain. Many Saudis head over there to indulge in vice. It keeps the clergy in Saudi Arabia happy, and it keeps the Saudis who can get to Bahrain happy. It also is a matter of order and discipline – vital things needed in a combat zone.

But for areas where such things are not a problem, the DOD has allowed Playboy to remain on the shelves. Part of this is because of the fact that some rules are harder to enforce. Some troops will attempt to sneak stuff in (at least one soldier quoted in Al Santoli's oral history "Leading the Way" brought a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue into Saudi Arabia and used it to calm down Iraqi prisoners). There is also the Internet – and Internet access for the troops means that they can surf the web and get porn (as many Americans do at home).

This of course, did not sit well with religious groups at home. They have launched an e-mail and letter-writing campaign to get Playboy tossed (as the State Department did in 2005). And so the troops find themselves fighting to protect the right of people to try to deny them the right to choose their own reading material (my emphasis - mh). – Harold C. Hutchison (haroldc.hutchison@gmail.com)

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"From my cold, dead hands."

Provoking a reaction isn't the same thing as saying something meaningful.
-Calvin

[nerdgirl 0]

Uh guys … before you get all excited about a letter-writing effort (backed by Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md.), you may want to investigate a little further. According to the one of the articles I cite below, there are 156 different print or video options available for you to get your porn on base. Additionally, “The [1996] law does not affect troops’ ability to buy adult material in stores outside installations or to purchase subscriptions.”

The ACLU is defending soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines "First Amendment rights to choose what they read."

VR/Marg

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Another article, which one might argue took a more balanced and statute-focused view: “Military's porn ban questioned”

Excerpts:

“Dozens of religious and anti-pornography groups have complained to Congress and Defense Secretary Robert Gates that a Pentagon board set up to review magazines and films is allowing sales of material that Congress intended to ban.

“"They're saying 'we're not selling stuff that's sexually explicit' … and we say it's pornography," says Donald Wildmon, head of the American Family Association, a Christian anti-pornography group. A letter-writing campaign launched Friday by opponents of the policy aims to convince Congress to "get the Pentagon to obey the law," he adds.

“The Military Honor and Decency Act of 1996 bars stores on military bases from selling "sexually explicit material." It defines that as film or printed matter "the dominant theme of which depicts or describes nudity" or sexual activities "in a lascivious way."

“Challenged as a First Amendment violation, the law was upheld by a U.S. appeals court in 2002.

“ “About 67% of the 473 "titles" reviewed have been barred, the Pentagon says.

“Defense officials "don't want to take porn away from soldiers," says Patrick Trueman, a former federal prosecutor who now works with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group. "They say, 'well, 40% of this magazine is sexually explicit pictures, but 60% is writing or advertising, so the totality is not sexually explicit.' That's ridiculous."

“Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., who sponsored the law, says the military is skirting Congress' intent. He notes the material also could contribute to a hostile environment for female military personnel. "If soldiers want to read that stuff, they can walk down the street and buy it somewhere else," Bartlett says. "I don't want (the military) to help."

“Nadine Strossen, a New York Law School professor who heads the American Civil Liberties Union, says the law effectively censors what troops get to read in remote areas or combat zones. "We're asking these people to risk their lives to defend our Constitution's principles … and they're being denied their own First Amendment rights to choose what they read," she said.”

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Similarly, from Military Times Online “Anti-porn groups decry exchange sale policy”

““The question of selling pornography in military exchanges has been decided by Congress, and the Department of Defense cannot change the law,” said Patrick Trueman, special counsel to the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian public interest law firm that is one of the signatories to a May 4 letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Army and Air Force Exchange Service officials said concerns about “adult sophisticate” materials represent a small portion of complaints to AAFES.

“Last year, 27 comments — less than 0.2 percent of the 16,344 comments AAFES received — expressed dissatisfaction with the adult sophisticate assortment, spokesman Judd Anstey said. One customer asked for an expanded assortment.

“Following a Pentagon rule in late 2006 that allows banned material to be reviewed every five years, Penthouse was reviewed this spring and was reinstated, along with Playgirl and Ultra for Men. Hustler was reviewed again, along with 14 other publications that were deemed to still be sexually explicit and will remain banned from exchanges.
But there has been no change in the law or the Pentagon board’s definitions of “sexually explicit.”

“Rather, the change was in the magazine, Penthouse publisher Diane Silberstein said. New owners who took over in 2004 have worked to recreate Penthouse based on the magazine’s “original DNA” when it was launched in 1969, she said.

“They hired two research firms, which collected data showing that while men do want to see young women in their entirety, they want more glamour shots, Penthouse representatives said.

“The law does not affect troops’ ability to buy adult material in stores outside installations or to purchase subscriptions.

“In response to the groups’ complaints, Leslye Arsht, deputy undersecretary of defense for military community and family policy, wrote that the board reviewed Celebrity Skin, Penthouse, Perfect 10, Playboy, Playboy’s College Girls, Playboy’s Lingerie, Nude, Nude Playmates and Playmates in Bed — “and determined that, based solely on the totality of each magazine’s content, they were not sexually explicit.”

“As such, their sale in exchanges “is permissible,” Arsht wrote in a letter to the groups last month.

“At press time, defense officials had no comment on how many magazines and other materials have been reviewed since defense officials decided late last year that publishers could request a new review once they had been banned for five years.

“Army wife MaryAnn Gramig, who lives at Fort Knox, Ky., and is the research and policy director for the nonprofit organization Rock: Building Stronger Communities and Families, said she surveyed a number of exchanges by phone, including those at the academies, after some complaints were raised.

““I happened to be a military spouse working for a pro-family group,” she said.
But she’s long been aware of adult materials sold in the exchange at her own base, she said.

““I have three children, and we shop at the exchange. I don’t let them go to the periodical section without me,” she said. “There’s enough stress on the military and families. This doesn’t help.””

Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters.
Tibetan Buddhist saying

[ryoder 1,590]

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Uh guys … before you get all excited...

Hey! We're guys, and we're talking about porn; How can we not get excited???

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.