For a contentious debate, that is.
A week ago, while I was at student health, the physician’s assistant asked what I thought about pornography being shown at the student center. “Excuse me?” I hadn’t heard it was happening. I guess that goes to show the box that grad students shove themselves into – according to a local news article, there were posters advertising the XXX movie for a couple weeks prior. I guess I need to pay more attention.
Anyway, it’s been sort of a hot topic for the past couple weeks here on campus, culminating with an email from the Student Body President this morning announcing a forum to discuss the issue and come to some conclusion about whether or not pornography can be shown on campus.
So let’s be clear about a few facts before we get into the issue of public showings of pornography. The campus Activities Board shows a variety of movies Thursday through Sunday evenings throughout the school year for $1. There are generally 3 showings each night, and student activity fees are used for some basic needs (security, screening fees, food, etc). On this particular night, the Activities Board was showing the movie The Pirates (you can click the link without being offended). They sold out each of the 3 showings and netted a profit.
Would I have gone to watch this movie? Probably not, despite the fact that it is apparently the biggest budget pornographic film ever. But am I curious what the biggest budget porn movie ever looks like? A little bit. Would I rather see it for $1 than pay $70 to buy it? You bet.
I can understand that people have objections to showing XXX movies on campus, with support from an organization that is supported by our Activities Fee (even if the amount of Activities Fees applied is nominal at best). And if this were happening every week, or even every month, just for the virtue of showing a pornographic film, I’d probably be up in arms too.
But in general, it seems that the films selected by the Activities Board are not arbitrarily pornographic. Last year, for example, there was a showing of The Dreamers, an NC-17 film that had quite a bit of sexual content in it. Did I know it was NC-17 before I went? No… so I was little surprised at the content when I got there. But the reviews linked to above all say that it’s more artistic than pornographic, and I agree with that assessment.
If we start to regulate these showings, a line will have to be drawn, and it’s highly unlikely that we will be able to differentiate between pornography and artistic movies with pornographic content. While I probably wouldn’t miss these once-a-year showings, shouldn’t we just err on the side of caution? In the end, if you don’t want to see a movie… don’t go. That’s the decision I make for practically any movie anyway.
People see a movie by choice. If you don’t like something, don’t watch it. Yet at the same time, we are apalled by media that support hate groups. What about that? Should it be allowed?
I think there’s a difference, although people who are offended by porn would probably disagree. While I think media that support hate groups and porn can be construed as equally offensive, I think porn is less likely to encourage people to inflict harm or other negative states on other people (unless its like S&M… but… (a) it wasn’t, and (b) I don’t think the Activities Board would ever show something that racey).
The exception for Free Speech tends to be any speech that would cause harms to other (unnecessarily yelling “Fire!” in a crowded movie theater, etc.). I think Jenn’s example falls under that group. I don’t think porn does.
This is mostly irrelevant but I think I’ve never been as frightened as I was during our showing of “Rocky Horror” when Vince decided to wear lingerie. Now *that’s* a little bit out there.