In order to form a more sanitized society.

From this morning's C|Net:

Some who are at a loose end will find it odd to wake up to a Labor Day weekend and discover that the Adult Section on Craigslist has been removed and that the link to it on the site's home page has been replaced with a black bar reading "censored."

Craigslist has long been the whipping boy for attorneys general seeking to control prostitution within their purview and perhaps also seeking to win the favor of certain members of their constituencies.

However, why the section should suddenly have been removed in such a dramatic way (the censorship is only active in the U.S.) is unclear.

The section was originally entitled Erotic Services. Its name was changed to reflect a new discipline, as, under pressure from attorneys general, Craigslist declared it would manually screen every ad in its newly named Adult Services section.

It is arguable whether the content of this new section truly changed. Some would say it was adult business as usual.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20015629-71.html#ixzz0yaoGONg5

So, once again, it seems that the roving band of nomadic keepers of our morals, who I have not so lovingly portrayed as the "Prude Patrol," have struck another blow for keeping the Internet safe from the tiny tots and those whose thought processes would be violated by any frank discussion about....as the American Family ASSociation would say, "s-x."

Fuckers.

Ever since I discovered the Internet in the early 90's, I have been amazed at how free it was.  It has helped shaped my sexuality so that I am erudite pervert you see before you.  I have been equally amazed at the vigor that many pressure groups like Donald Wildmon's AFA (whose antics I have lovingly chronicled on my various blogs over the years), and the most recent PornHarms, not to mention harpies such as Gail Dines and here Westboro-esque group Stop Porn Culture. 

These people and groups, along with a unlinked network of individuals, who remind me of Esmarelda, the O-lan Jones character from Edward Scissorhands, who sees Satan in just about everything, and lives as a recluse, surrounded by pictures of Jesus, candles, and rosaries. Give Esme an HP desktop and a Road Runner account and she'd be perfect for this.

Now no one is saying that we should start offering, say, Hustler to 8 year-olds (though from what I have seen at the library, the little boogers are pretty able to find it on their own).  But I am finding it increasingly difficult to talk honestly like adults, with adults, about adult things.

Every morning I go to facebook or Yahoo Pulse in fear that a friend of mine had been sucked into the vortex because someone clicked on the "abuse" link. Their crime: being a little bit (or in some cases a lot) more honest about sex than this country's castrated society will allow.

This, of course, is being done under the excuse of protecting the children. If that's the case, they're doing a piss-poor job of it. For instance, the Kaiser Family Foundation, in a study, found that, though there had been a slight decline, 47% of kids grade 9th thru 12 have had some sexual intercourse.  It's worse, considering that, according to a separate CBS news poll,. 78% of parents didn't think their darling 13-17 year-olds were doing it. Beyond denial.

But we are talking about adults, here , are we.  And some of us are tired of being treated like a five year old. You may not want to hear it, but some of us fuck. Many of us come. We have penises and vaginae, breasts and buttocks, and they are just as much a part of us as our noses. eyes, and legs. And we who are grown-up would like to talk about it like grown ups.

Some of us are also very spiritual.  Christian, as a matter of fact...not the Xianity that as been hijacked by hucksters and itinerant ex-morning show jocks, but a true follwer of Him. And if the KJV IS the inspired word of the Lord, then he is, too, a perveyor of porn, for the Song of Solomon is as erotic as anything Anais Nin ever put down.

The problem is that the vermin that scour the net, seeking the filth they say they abhor (and if they did, they would not be seeking it out, now would they), are highly organized, in some cases very sophisticated, and have lots of pull.  Lots. Let's face it...advertisers and social networks trying to link to major corporations do not want the "stigma" of sex.  Ask California Gubernatorial candidate...and former e-bay CEO Meg Whitman.

And what is really maddening is that we who ARE pleasure-positive, we who are grown-ups, we who Do love SEX seem to be powerless.  Or we seem to want to just blow it off  because it is negative energy or some bullshit like that. even as they aim the bulldozers to push you into the ocean.

It is time that the adults start fighting back.  We have to tell the facebooks and twitters that it's WE who power this boat (just ask Friendster and Multiply, whose sex purges have left them floundering as shadows of their former selves...and myspace, who's getting close).  Tell the advertisers that we will only support those who support us.  And remind them that there are more of us than there are of them.

Also, you should support sites like Our Porn, Ourselves, a resource from sex blogger Violet Blue that, according to the site, "aims to create an alternative and constructive conversation on the use of pornography by women, and in turn offer balance to the anti-porn feminist agenda."  OPO had a page on facebook which was removed for content violations, though there was no nudity on the page. Soon after, PornHarms gloated about it removal on ITS facebook page.

We must start having the courage to ask those who run for public office to support policies that are non-erotophobic in nature (keeping abortion legal and supporting true marriage equality are simple ones, but beyond that, equality for polyamorists, legalizing sex work, and a realistic connection between sexuality and teenagers). What we may really need is what is developing in Australia. The Australian Sex Party, or ASP is a political organization dedicated to responsible sex-positivity.

The true bottom line is that the sex positive must no longer be docile.  We must speak up or be muzzled.  We must stand up and be counted. We must be aggressive. For if we are not, we will be forced to exist in a soulless, sexless, sanitized world where everything is forced underground and all of us must live lies.

You know.  The good old days.

Finally!

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Porn=Rape. NOT!

Is pornography a catalyst of sexual violence?
Recent research suggests that the oppose is true

Steve Chapman November 5, 2007

In the 1980s, conservatives and feminists joined to fight a common nemesis: the spread of pornography. Unlike past campaigns to stamp out smut, this one was based not only on morality but also public safety. They argued that hard-core erotica was intolerable because it promoted sexual violence against women."

Pornography is the theory; rape is the practice," wrote feminist author Robin Morgan. In 1986, a federal commission concurred. Some kinds of pornography, it concluded, are bound to lead to "increased sexual violence." Indianapolis passed a law allowing women to sue producers for sexual assaults caused by material depicting women in "positions of servility or submission or display."

The campaign fizzled when the courts said the ordinance was an unconstitutional form of "thought control." Though the Bush administration has put new emphasis on prosecuting obscenity, on the grounds that it fosters violence against women, pornography is more available now than ever.That's due in substantial part to the rise of the Internet, where the United States alone has a staggering 244 million Web pages featuring erotic fare.

One Nielsen survey found that one out of every four users say they visited adult sites in the last month.So in the last two decades, we have conducted a vast experiment on the social consequences of such material. If the supporters of censorship were right, we should be seeing an unparalleled epidemic of sexual assault.

But all the evidence indicates they were wrong.

As raunch has waxed, rape has waned.This is part of a broad decrease in criminal mayhem. Since 1993, violent crime in America has dropped by 58 percent. But the progress in this one realm has been especially dramatic. Rape is down 72 percent and other sexual assaults have fallen by 68 percent. Even in the last two years, when the FBI reported upticks in violent crime, the number of rapes continued to fall.

Nor can the decline be dismissed as the result of underreporting. Many sexual assaults do go unreported, but there is no reason to think there is less reporting today than in the past. In fact, given everything that has been done to educate people about the problem and to prosecute offenders, victims are probably more willing to come forward than they used to be.

No one would say the current level of violence against women is acceptable. But the enormous progress in recent years is one of the most gratifying successes imaginable.How can it be explained? Perhaps the most surprising and controversial account comes from Clemson University economist Todd Kendall, who suggests that adult fare on the Internet may essentially inoculate against sexual assaults.

In a paper presented at Stanford Law School last year, he reported that, after adjusting for other differences, states where Internet access expanded the fastest saw rape decline the most. A 10 percent increase in Internet access, Kendall found, typically meant a 7.3 percent reduction in the number of reported rapes. For other types of crime, he found no correlation with Web use

What this research suggests is that sexual urges play a big role in the incidence of rape -- and that pornographic Web sites provide a harmless way for potential predators to satisfy those desires.That, of course, is only a theory, and the evidence he cites is not conclusive. States that were quicker to adopt the Internet may be different in ways that also serve to prevent rape. It's not hard to think of other explanations why sexual assaults have diminished so rapidly -- such as DNA analysis, which has been an invaluable tool in catching and convicting offenders.

Changing social attitudes doubtless have also played a role. Both young men and young women are more aware today of the boundaries between consensual and coercive sex. Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, thinks the credit for progress against rape should go to federal funding under the Violence Against Women Act and to education efforts stressing that "no means no."But if expanding the availability of hard-core fare doesn't prevent rapes, we can be confident from the experience of recent years that it certainly doesn't cause such crimes. Whether you think porn is a constitutionally protected form of expression or a vile blight that should be eradicated, this discovery should come as very good news.

COPYRIGHT 2007 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.

Porn=Rape. NOT!

Is pornography a catalyst of sexual violence?
Recent research suggests that the oppose is true

Steve Chapman November 5, 2007

In the 1980s, conservatives and feminists joined to fight a common nemesis: the spread of pornography. Unlike past campaigns to stamp out smut, this one was based not only on morality but also public safety. They argued that hard-core erotica was intolerable because it promoted sexual violence against women."

Pornography is the theory; rape is the practice," wrote feminist author Robin Morgan. In 1986, a federal commission concurred. Some kinds of pornography, it concluded, are bound to lead to "increased sexual violence." Indianapolis passed a law allowing women to sue producers for sexual assaults caused by material depicting women in "positions of servility or submission or display."

The campaign fizzled when the courts said the ordinance was an unconstitutional form of "thought control." Though the Bush administration has put new emphasis on prosecuting obscenity, on the grounds that it fosters violence against women, pornography is more available now than ever.That's due in substantial part to the rise of the Internet, where the United States alone has a staggering 244 million Web pages featuring erotic fare.

One Nielsen survey found that one out of every four users say they visited adult sites in the last month.So in the last two decades, we have conducted a vast experiment on the social consequences of such material. If the supporters of censorship were right, we should be seeing an unparalleled epidemic of sexual assault.

But all the evidence indicates they were wrong.

As raunch has waxed, rape has waned.This is part of a broad decrease in criminal mayhem. Since 1993, violent crime in America has dropped by 58 percent. But the progress in this one realm has been especially dramatic. Rape is down 72 percent and other sexual assaults have fallen by 68 percent. Even in the last two years, when the FBI reported upticks in violent crime, the number of rapes continued to fall.

Nor can the decline be dismissed as the result of underreporting. Many sexual assaults do go unreported, but there is no reason to think there is less reporting today than in the past. In fact, given everything that has been done to educate people about the problem and to prosecute offenders, victims are probably more willing to come forward than they used to be.

No one would say the current level of violence against women is acceptable. But the enormous progress in recent years is one of the most gratifying successes imaginable.How can it be explained? Perhaps the most surprising and controversial account comes from Clemson University economist Todd Kendall, who suggests that adult fare on the Internet may essentially inoculate against sexual assaults.

In a paper presented at Stanford Law School last year, he reported that, after adjusting for other differences, states where Internet access expanded the fastest saw rape decline the most. A 10 percent increase in Internet access, Kendall found, typically meant a 7.3 percent reduction in the number of reported rapes. For other types of crime, he found no correlation with Web use

What this research suggests is that sexual urges play a big role in the incidence of rape -- and that pornographic Web sites provide a harmless way for potential predators to satisfy those desires.That, of course, is only a theory, and the evidence he cites is not conclusive. States that were quicker to adopt the Internet may be different in ways that also serve to prevent rape. It's not hard to think of other explanations why sexual assaults have diminished so rapidly -- such as DNA analysis, which has been an invaluable tool in catching and convicting offenders.

Changing social attitudes doubtless have also played a role. Both young men and young women are more aware today of the boundaries between consensual and coercive sex. Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, thinks the credit for progress against rape should go to federal funding under the Violence Against Women Act and to education efforts stressing that "no means no."But if expanding the availability of hard-core fare doesn't prevent rapes, we can be confident from the experience of recent years that it certainly doesn't cause such crimes. Whether you think porn is a constitutionally protected form of expression or a vile blight that should be eradicated, this discovery should come as very good news.

COPYRIGHT 2007 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.