Some may argue that a college newspaper would report on pornography and the marketing of sex simply because it can.
Today's special edition of Weekend, etc. Magazine takes on these contoversial issues because we believe that a college newspaper should.
Sex is everywhere and affects everyone, which makes it a good thing to market.
It comes into our homes via neatly packaged television shows that play with the issue and hard-core pay-per-view pornography that does anything but play; it lines the shelves of bookstores and peers out from behind thousands of convenience store counters around the country. Sex parades itself on stage infront of cheering crowds and slinks along the darkest alleys of the inner city.
But sex and pornography are ominously missing from newspaper headlines. It has been whispered about behind closed doors and has been treated as a taboo subject not fit for public consumption. It makes us nervous and evokes intense emotion. Sex takes sides and it takes no prisoners; the Puritanical roots of American society have pushed sex into a dark corner that we all seem to have to feel out on our own.
One manifestation of such ideals is the pornography industry. While criticized for its victimization of women and its "seedy" culture, porn in America draws an immense audience - According to Adult Video News, Americans spent more than $3.9 billion on adult video rentals and sales in 1996. That is no drop in the bucket, and the figure does not include pronographic magazine sales or mail-order statistics.
Pornography means many different things to many different people; porn is often seen as an oppressing, degrading part of society that victimizes women. Noted anti-pornography activist Catherine MacKinnon, a University Law professor, has portrayed pornography as violence, something that objectifies and dehumanizes women.
In today's coverage, The Michigan Daily presents pornography as an industry, and presents the marketing of sex as a business. Weekend etc.'s coverage neither condones nor condemns pornography; it rather brings a controversial issue out of obscurity and into the open.
In a rare insight into the real people who make porn films, Brian Gnatt discusses the porn film industry with two porn stars, one man and one woman. Josh Rich presents a history of the porn industry in America, showing that society may be more tied to pornography than most will commonly acknowledge. Other articles address sex and porn on the Internet, in local stores and two columnists look at personal accounts of visiting strip clubs in Ypsilanti and Windsor, Ontario.
Perhaps the promotional photo of the young woman on the cover of this issue explains pornographic marketing best: The industry truly does objectify women. The fact that this topic evokes such emotion is exactly the reason it needs to be discussed. Whether pornography should be eliminated or embraced is a societal problem; there is no question that our community needs to address such issues. Here it is laid out objectively.