opinion_
What’s all this fuss
about pornography?
What is it about obscenity, pornography and erotica that
excites the humble citizens of sedate and kind-of-romantic
towns like Springfield Oregon to mass protest? They raise
such a disproportionate ruckus one would think the impetus
was more than unclothed human beings engaged in sexual
union with other (equally unclothed, and not always in a
group greater than two) human beings.
Is skin all that alarming? Does the sight of an embrace, a
kiss, a touch, damn the participant through all time? What of
an observer — are they also damned? It's a strange price to
pay tor images that have not only been exploited in
magazines, but have inspired works of art
Perhaps that's it — the extremes of Botticelli s Venus and
a picture of a woman in tattered spandex need to be defined
with the middleground being the form and expression of
American Gothic
i nen again mere are tnose wno snoui uoa is against it
if a person is depicted undraped Others cry ‘thou shalt not
commit adultery” and claim a photograph of coitus de
scribes adultery. The cheap newspapers in supermarkets
have headlines that scream “Hollywood adultery” to young
and old That's all right — the Hollywood adulterers are
clothed and in composite photographs
The Oxford English Dictionary — the first and last
reference — defines obscenity as foul acts and dirty work.
Pornography is defined as the expression or suggestion of
obscene or unchaste subjects in literature or art By these
definitions of obscenity and pornography Remargue's All
Quiet on the Western Front and Golding's Lord of the Flies,
as well as Picasso's Guernica and Robert Capa's Death in
the Making, are extremely pornographic
Pornography is derived from the Greek word porno
which means harlot The OED goes on to define pornocracy
as rule by harlots, specifically the government of Rome
during the first half of the tenth century A member of the
pornocracy was a pornocrat — bear that in mind the next time
a Congressman's paramour publishes a hardbound or
softback confessional
It seems fitting for there to be a corner pornography
shoppe in small towns all across America Isn’t this the land
of the hypocritical Puritans? But let us take a moment to
lament the passing of the days when grizzly bearded old men
wearing long black coats would sidle up to boys in the
schoolyard, lick their hairy fingers and pull open many
pocketed coats saying so like Gabby Hayes — Say,
Sonny wanna buy some dirty pictures?” The prices were
outrageous even then
Lenny Bruce said he'd rather take his child to what were
at the time called “stag films” than to a Hollywood western
“I’ve never seen anyone killed in a stag film,” he said And
that is still true in nearly all cases except the deviate snuff
films” coming out of Brazil and many of the specialty” films
designated for particular peccadillos
But these films are not erotic in nature — they are violent
and aimed to trigger sadistic impulses Such aberrant
behavior is more detrimental to society and less justifiable
tnan mainstream pornograpny it s naraiy tne HDerai s cup or
tea to admit that such extreme examples make a strong case
to not completely decriminalize pornography, as the restric
tions imposed provide viable perimeters of who to allow
access, and community standards If some aspect of porno
graphy needs restriction it is in the cases of violence being
depicted as sexual Although, how often has the mainstream,
so-called aboveground media, used a situation of rape as
plot or set-up for a sexual sequence in a book, movie, or a
play?
The arguments that pornography tends to depict women
as willfully servile and somehow enjoying of sexual humilia
tion are valid in much of the sleazier pornography Porno
graphy is male dominated in production and orientation
Pornography, obscenity and erotica raises such ticklish
questions Why do people react so vigorously against it7 Is it
because it runs counter to all they were taught (regardless of
consent) in church and their homes7 Is it because it depicts
by word or image an act of sexual congress between two
people? Do people still believe the fallacy that reading or
watching pornography causes scortatorial madness and
sets the reader off on a rampage of masturbation and rape?
Pornography and such has been with us since the times
people scrawled a phallus on the wall of their cave above the
couch Every culture has its own type of pornography — in
fact, dirty pictures on pots are now cherished as art works
from antiquity The question remains unanswered — if all
those people are damned, why hasn’t the seventh circle of
hell overflowed7
He's k l/ar t
Hfs Mug ibr
ML F/Mt-Kr
Little me!
“ y
FlPEUNES
letters
Propaganda
"Think like we do or else!” is
implied by (1) University Profes
sor Carl Hosticka, Lane County
Democratic Campaign Chair
man and (2) Oregon's news
reporters
Hosticka intends to label
"mainstream' democratic can
didates by issuing pre-primary
endorsements and political
reporters will cover only ser
ious' candidates'
The U S Constitution s First
Amendment goal of freedom of
speech is to achieve "the widest
possible dissemination of infor
mation from diverse and an
tagonistic sources ” 436 US
775
Jefferson said Truth is great
and will prevail if left to herself
that she is the proper and suf
ficient antagonist to error, and
has nothing to fear from the
conflict unless by human inter
position disarmed of her natural
weapons, tree argument and
debate errors ceasing to be
dangerous when it is permitted
freely to contradict them ”
Cal! it what you will. Fascism
or Communism every totalitar
ian movement has controlling
political party and public
thought as its hallmark It has
meant the establishment of
government by decree by bur
eaucratic planning by concen
trated and irresponsible power
Indeed who has the right to
say what a party stands for until
a candidate s issues are ac
cepted or rejected by an in
formed public's primary vote7
And what news reporter has the
right to judge one candidate s
issues serious' and another s
not7
John M. Reed
B Street
Springfield
sally hodgkinson
editor’s note
"We re not going to let them forget Viet
nam ”
Ron Phillips sat in the dim EMU Fishbowl
two years ago, vowing with a soft, emotional
voice and strong words to fight for recogni
tion of Vietnam veterans and against war He
said he felt like he was finally "at home" in
Eugene and with the University Veterans
Association
"We re going to keep fucking screaming
about Vietnam until they hear it," muttered
fellow veteran Russ Linebarger, a tense, lean
man who went to Vietnam as a patriotic
17-year-old aching to fight like John Wayne
and returned as an angry young man with
emotions bunched inside him like a clenched
fist
And there was John Lawrence, the veteran
who spent time in Vietnam as a medic
There were other veterans as well Charlie
Jesse And Dave Isenberg, the one who
spent hours reading government documents
trying to second guess military moves toward
the draft and war
Members of the UVA were a small tight
group that, for two years, was one of the
most active on campus They arranged ral
lies against the draft and war, scheduled
speeches, memorials, rap groups, marches
and hosted — for two years — a regional
conference on the problems of Vietnam
veterans
"There's a sense of community and sup
port in the UVA,” an outside observer com
mented "They're willing to scrap through
and take a chance That takes a lot of cour
age ”
That was also two years ago Since then,
jobs, school, the new downtown vet center
and disagreements with the direction of
Dave's current one-man UVA have sucked
the organization dry
Ron still spends time in the now-bright
Fishbowl, but he's mostly alone Russ moved
to Portland, then Hawaii John is working full
time in Eugene Jesse is working for the city
of Coos Bay Charlie is busy with school and
other things
Ron — who is back in town after a six
month leave — doesn't know how long he will
hang around He is left with the shell of a
house he once called home ''I've given
myself six weeks before I make a decision "
Dave has asked the Incidental Fee Com
mittee not to fund the UVA next year, saying
the group is at the end of it's usefulness He
has asked the ASUO to give the UVA office
space — still cluttered with two-year-old
posters, stickers and leaflets — to Students
for a Nuclear Free Future
Maybe Dave, as some have charged,
scared off other veterans with his command
of the UVA Maybe the veterans just got tired
of fighting the past and trying to predict the
future Maybe economic concerns over
shadow anti-war rallies Maybe they're tired
of talking about a war nobody wants to
remember
So, the UVA crumbles Memories fade
Friends see less of each other War wounds
scab over, leaving scars But John, Russ,
Ron, Charlie and other vets will never forget
Vietnam
Neither should we