Attn, NYC Reasonoids: Debate Porn in the Age of Instant Access

Porn in the Age of Instant Access:
What are the social effects of fast, cheap & stigma-free viewing?

Featuring Nick Gillespie, Editor, Reason Magazine; Rachel Kramer Bussel, Columnist, Village Voice & Penthouse; Pamela Paul, author, Pornified & The Starter Marriage; and Ben Shapiro, author, Porn Generation

Moderator: Brooke Gladstone, NPR's On The Media

The Internet and digital cable have allowed the purchasing and viewing of pornography to become easier than ever. While porn consumers can now easily keep their interests private, the porn producers has become more public and corporate. The U.S. porn industry now generates $12 billion annually: more than the combined revenues of the major television networks. What are the culture effects of this mainstreaming? Can and should there be a political response to these trends?

Monday, November 21st 2005
6:30 P.M. Prompt
(Free and open to the public - Reception to follow)

The Graduate Center
The City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue, New York
(Corner of 34th Street & 5th Avenue)

Click here to RSVP for this event, which is sponsored by the Donald and Paula Smith Family Foundation.

Comments

[mk]

The NYC topics are always better than the DC ones.
Darn and drat.

[Jack Russell]

Isn't this a tired topic.

Check out the interview with the sex columnists at New York Mag's website. It is grueling and requires a dedication to masochism that bests Delia Day.

Pamela Paul gives good oral to Sarah Silverman at Slate, where they wrote letters about her book. I read that too because I love pain.

Ben Shapiro looks too young to write a book about porn, but he is dead-on about social liberalism.

So it's Gillepsie and The Village Voice columnist against Paul and Shapiro. I am so excited. I hope they talk about the liberalizing effects of Crystal Meth, which hornifies so completely that everyone who takes it is down for everything, SuperAids, and condoms.

[jf]

The lead singer of Great White has spoken!

[mediageek]

If you don't like Sarah Silverman, there's just something wrong with you.

[dhex]

"sex is boring" is the new "sex is evil"

it's a good rhetorical tactic, but everyone knows it's a load of bunky bunk.

[Herrick and his balls]

Will you be talking about homosexual male pornography?

[Jeff P.]

There won't be a dry lap in the house.

[E. Steven]

I'm surprised Reason hasn't done a takedown of Pamela Paul's book since it's not only incredibly specious, but unintentionally hilarious as well.

[Ali G]

Sex. You has probably heard the word out there. And some of you probably know what it means. For those of you who don't, it means boning. But with boning comes responsi-lib-ity.

[B.P.]

"Can and should there be a political response to these trends?"

No. Thanks for attending. Good night, and drive safely.

[Stevo Darkly]

It's rather disappointing that a porn-related thread only has 10 inches -- er, posts.

[Franklin Harris]

Ben Shapiro is proof that the modern conservative movement can make a star of any blithering idiot.

[smacky]

It's rather disappointing that a porn-related thread only has 10 inches -- er, posts.

Sorry to disappoint you, Stevo...I'm trying to be good today and get stuff accomplished at work.

I'll try harder next time.

Get it? Harder?

[bago]

Personally I look forward to the day when a politician can be accused of sexual tomfoolery, and replies with "Yeah, that was fun." instead of some BS about morality or youthful indiscretions.

[Ray Eckhart]

I've been skeptical of that $12B figure ever since I read this Emmanuelle Richard OJR piece from 2002.

[Larry A]

The U.S. porn industry now generates $12 billion annually: more than the combined revenues of the major television networks. What are the culture effects of this mainstreaming? Can and should there be a political response to these trends?

Absolutely. Can the FCC, open up the public airways, and give the American People what they so obviously want.

[David]

I'd never heard of Ben Shapiro befor so maybe I'm just picking on some quack straw man that no one listens to anyway. But honestly I'm still laughing from this line:

"As long as what I do doesn't harm you personally, I have a right to do it. It's a silly view and a view rejected by law enforcement policies all over the country. Were we to truly recognize such a philosophy, we would have to legalize prostitution, drugs and suicide -- as well as the murder of homeless drifters with no family or friends."

Obviously if we legalize drugs and suicide we have to legalize murder. I mean homeless people aren't people. And strippers are allready dead inside anyway.

[mk]

While you guys are talking about skin flicks, can someone get to the bottom of the Black Emmanuelle controversy?
That girl was NOT black.

[Franklin Harris]

Laura "Black Emanuelle" Gemser is Indonesian, and the producers were waiting for a Chinese actress for "Yellow Emanuelle," which came along later but wasn't worth the wait. (By the way, all unofficial "Emmanuelle" movies are spelled with just one "m" to avoid lawsuits.)

[James Feldman]

Shame it has to be so early on a weekday - I don't know a single other libertarian in New York.

[mk]

Holy crap Franklin, I wasn't actually expecting an answer 🙂