Pornography

“I realized porn culture and I were in a death match for my daughter’s soul.”  So says English professor (and father of a little girl) Kevin Scott explaining why he co-authored the new book, The Porning of America.

Scott and his co-author, English professor Carmine Sarracine, think that it’s not prudish to sound an alarm about the spread of porn.  The two are certainly not conservative alarmists.  In fact, they are eager to defend themselves as “pro-sex,” not passing judgment on porn as long as it’s just for adults.  But when as many as 90 percent of boys and 70 percent of girls aged 13 to 14 have accessed sexually-explicit content at least once, the authors believe society has reason to be concerned.

Newsweek highlights the book in a recent article titled, “The Pornification of a Generation.”  The magazine comments, “All it takes is one look at MySpace photos of teen sto see [that] … if they aren’t imitating porn they’ve actually seen, they’re imitating the porn-inspired images and poses they’ve absorbed elsewhere.”

Newsweek cites a recent case in which a defense attorney in Florida argued that his client, the operator of a porn site, was not guilty of violating obscenity laws.  Porn has become so commonplace, the attorney said, that his client was well within the U.S. norm.  (Newsweek, 10/07/08)