The Exciting Conflict: The Rhetoric of Pornography and Anti-pornography

Abstract

Pornography is, once again, something of a hot item. The legal battles recently fought in Minneapolis, Indianapolis, and elsewhere have renewed interest in the issue, even a sense of pressing urgency. A presidential commission, with Attorney General Meese's blessing, continues to sound the alarm. For a while, The Village Voice seemed to have appointed itself propagandist for the anti-censorship crusade, while such national publications as The New Republic, Harper's, and Newsweek have offered cover articles in the past few years that take a less definite stance.' Debates over pornography-and, more generally, female sexuality-are as heated as ever in feminist circles, academic and otherwise. And the public's fascination was aroused, in the summer of 1984, by the story of Vanessa Williams's fall from beauty-queen grace: with the publication of pictures of a naked Williams in the September 1984 issue of Penthouse (pictures which predated her ascension to the throne), the Miss America Pageant officials felt compelled to protect the good name of their venerable institution by stripping Williams of her title.