Realwomen of BC - Briefs - Regulation of Pornography

Realistic Equal Active For Life

Regarding the Regulation of Pornography

Here you will find two briefs to your city/town/municipal council regarding the regulation of pornographic materials within their jurisdiction. If you''ve never attended a council meeting, you might feel more comfortable if you go to one first, before speaking, just to get the feel of what goes on.

If you are not wanting to speak formally in front of council, you can submit both briefs, separately, (two or three weeks apart), addressed to "Mayor and Council". They will make enough copies. Then you can follow up with a letter requesting a response to your concerns. You could also phone to speak personally to each member of council.

To reserve as a "delegation", (to speak at a council meeting), you must write or type a letter to the "Municipal Clerk" at city hall requesting to speak to council on such and such a date. Send in the first document (the one with the Table of Contents) along with your request. They will make copies for everyone who needs one. The mayor and councillors are required to read this before the meeting, so they will be somewhat prepared for the second, oral presentation.

As a courtesy, you may want to warn any parents with children or young teenagers in the audience about the contents of your brief before the meeting starts.

You probably will only have 10 minutes to speak. Don''t try to say it all. Plan on having copies for everyone of the second document. Perhaps your church or a church will allow you to make copies. If you can''t get them made, have at least one extra to give to the clerk, so that copies can be made for everyone later. It is better for you to keep your copy so that you can better respond to questions, if there are any.

Plan to have several different people phone in during the weeks following to give support to the regulation of pornographic materials. This will be the key to galvanizing elected officials to move on this matter.

Best of luck, and please let us know what transpires. You are part of a nation-wide movement towards strengthening moral values in our communities and in our nation.

Submission on Pornography

TYPES OF PORNOGRAPHY

As background information I will explain the difference between the two basic kinds of pornography: hard core material and soft core (or sexually explicit) material. Hard core pornography includes depictions of sexual acts with children, extreme sexual violence, including impairment of the body and affliction of physical pain, and sexually degrading acts such as bondage and sado-masochism. It also includes bestiality, incest and necrophilia (sexual relations with dead bodies). There are some people who believe that this material should be available and that it is undue censorship to prohibit it. However, the vast majority of Canadians are in agreement that this material is objectionable and should be banned.

Soft Core porngraphy includes depictions of sexual intercourse whether vaginal, anal or oral. It also includes explicit depictions of human genitalia. Mass circulation magazines such as

Playboy, Hustler and Penthouse contain this type of pornography.

FACTS ABOUT PORNOGRAPHY

Research now available clearly indicates that even a single exposure to portayals of explicit sex (soft core pornography) leads to a desensitization towards anti-social acts such as rape and sexual contact with children.¹ Multiple exposures exacerbate the effects. It also changes perceptions and attitudes about the role of the family, marriage and promiscuity.² A study published in 1987³ indicates that there is a direct causal relationship between viewing sexually explicit material and the development of a loss of respect for and the demeaning of women -- the viewers believing, after being exposed to this material, that women are more sexually permissive or promiscuous than they had previously thought.

In addition, the viewing of sexually explicit material leads to an addiction for such material and an increased desire for even stronger material.⁴ Finally, according to recent Canadian studies⁵, explicit-sex material is used by some sex offenders in the "ritual preparation" before committing an offence. In effect, it incites sexual fantasies which frequently play a direct role in the committing of sexual offenses.

According to a 1986 Canadian study⁶, the greatest consumers of pornographic material in Canada are teenage males between the ages of 12 and 17 years. This material becomes a significant source of their sex education and greatly contributes to their attitudes towards sexuality and towards women. This, of course, has very serious long-range, detrimental implications for Canadian society.

LEGAL PRECEDENTS

Censorship, which is a limitation of the principle of freedom of expression in a free society, is acceptable, according to the Supreme Court of Canada in the case of Regina v. Butler.⁷ The provinces, which delegate their power to the local municipalities, have the authority to restrict and regulate such materials as magazines, newspapers, films, videos, etc. within their jurisdiction in order, for example, to protect the welfare of children.⁸ Mr. Justice Robins of the Supreme Court of Ontario stated in a case which dealt with a by-law regulating the sale and display of certain books and magazines:

"...The fact that the business which may be regulated involves the sale of sex-oriented goods does not itself render the legislation unconstitutional.

Whether the power delegated by s. 222 will be exercised is a matter left to the municipalities. Should they choose to act, the measures they adopt will no doubt reflect local concerns and may take a variety of forms ranging, for instance, from by-laws relating to hours of operation, to health and safety, to the protection or the welfare of children...

The principal intent of this restriction as it was expressed in the municipality''s guidelines relating to the enforcement of the by-law to which I referred earlier, is "to restrict physical and visual access by children to certain publications, particularly what are known as "adult" or "skin" magazines, on sale in stores in Metropolitan Toronto". The municipality''s good faith is not in issue and on the material in evidence I see no basis upon which it can be concluded that the by-law was not enacted for the stated purpose of protecting the welfare of children in the community; whether it will prove effective is not for the Court to consider.

I think it well-established that the presence of a moral element in the purpose does not of itself render the by-law invalid as an improper exercise of federal criminal law jurisdiction. This was settled by the Supreme Court of Canada in the Nova Scotia Board of Censors case, (supra), where the morality issue was central to the determination of the validity of statutory provisions authorizing the provincial censor board to regulate and control the province''s film industry. Notwithstanding the prohibition "on moral grounds" of the public viewing of the film "Last Tango in Paris", the majority found the pith and substance of the challenged legislation to consist of so regulating a business within the province as to prevent the exhibition in its theatres of performances which do not comply with the standards for propriety established by the Board". ⁹

In Re: Adult Video Plus Ltd. and McCausland et. al. [1991] (81 D.L.R. 436), 4th Edition, British Columbia Supreme Court, a British Columbia company claimed that the B.C. Motion Picture Act, S.B.C. 1986, c. 16, was invalid insofar as it purported to regulate the distribution of motion pictures in the province.

The court held that its restriction was valid since its purpose was to suppress conditions calculated to give rise to crime, to establish production and quality controls for an industry in the province, and to protect residents of the province, especially children, from surreptitious distribution of prohibited materials. All of these purposes support the provincial authority to enact the legislation.

In short, a municipal government does, in fact, have the authority to regulate and control the distribution of materials deemed to be harmful to members of society.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Please consider regulating the number of video rental outlets which proliferate the effects of pornography with an adult section, however large or small under their roof by ^a enacting market specific zoning restrictions and bylaws which would, for example, not permit such an adult section in an establishment within a one mile radius from schools or churches in order to acquire permits or licenses, as was done in Kelowna; and ^b restructuring business licenses so that stores catering to this segment of the video-watching population must pay a separate licensing fee based on cubic footage of the adult section--inluding all storage areas where this material is kept.

I ask also that council approve by-laws restricting display, packaging and placement of hard and soft core pornographic magazines, newspapers and books in cornerstores, and wherever else they may be found. Stores or other outlets which market or distribute these products causing or encouraging harm to members of our community should be penalized by heavier licensing fees than others which do not.

Another possible supplementary action would be to enact and enforce "harm to minors" regulations with stiff fines and penalties for displaying, renting or selling age-restricted materials indiscriminately.

CONCLUSION

Apathy, fear and ignorance are some of the tools pornographers make use of to proliferate their market influence in our nation. On behalf of my children and the thousands of other children who live in our community, I ask you tonight to help make it a safer place to grow up in by curbing access to this addictive, desensitizing and potentially dangerous form of entertainment.

ENDNOTES

¹ Check, James, "The Effects of Violent and Nonviolent Pornography", (Ottawa: Department of Jus\tice for Canada,Department of Supply and Services Contract 05SV.19200-3-0899. Submitted June 1984). These findings were replicated by Dr. James Weaver, University of Kentucky. See Testimony before the Senate Subcommittee of the House Select Committee on Children, Youth and Family, September 1987, Washington, D.C.

² Dolf Zillmann, and Jennings Bryant, "Effects of Pornography Consumption on Family Values," 1986, Journal of Family and Marriage, page 7.

³ Dolf Zillman, and Jennings Bryant, "Pornography''s Impact on Sexual Satisfaction," Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 1984, page 15.

⁴ Supra 2.

⁵ W. Marshall, "Report on the Use of Pornography by Sexual Offenders", prepared for the Federal Department of Just (Ottawa, Canada, 1983).

Marshall, W., & Barbaree, H. Disorders of personality, impuse and adjustment, In S. Turner & M. Herson (Eds.), Adult Psycholpathology: A Behavioral Perspective. New York: Academic Press. (1984)

Marshall, W., and Christie, M. Pedophilia and aggression. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 8, 145-148. (1981)

Marshall, W., Earls, C., Segal, Z., & Darke, J., A behavioral program for the assessment and treatment of sexual aggressors. In K. Craig and R. McMahon (Eds.), Advances in clinical behavior therapy. New York: Brunner/Mazel. (1983) See also, testimony by Wm. Marshall submitted to the U.S. Attorney-General''s Commission on Pornography. Houston, Texas, 12 September, 1985.

⁶ James Check, paper presented to the Canadian Psychology Association, June 1986.

⁷ Regina v. Butler, [1992], 89 D.L.R. (4th) 449.

⁸ Information Retailers Association of Metropolitan Toronto Inc. v. Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto; Canadian Periodical Publishers Association v. Municipality of Metropolita Toronto, 32 M.P.L.R. 49, (the Ontario Court of Appeal, 1985). This case dealt with a City of Toronto by-law which reglated the sale and display of books and magazines of which a principle feature was a portrayal or depiction of specified body areas which appeal to or are designed to appeal to erotic appetites or inclinations.

⁹ Supra, 8. pages 63 and 64.

SECOND SUBMISSION

Regarding the Regulation of Pornography

Much of the following information comes from a study entitled "Children, Crime and Violence in the Pictorial Imagery of Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler" done by Judith Reisman, Ph.D., principal investigator, who testified on the findings before the United States Attorney General''s Commission of Pornography on November 21, 1985. A summary of this report was also presented later to the executives controlling the Seven Eleven Stores in North America.

These stores no longer carry those three magazines.

Visual images of children in sexual and violent contexts were analyzed in 683 issues of the three adult magazines beginning with Playboy''s initial December 1953 issue through Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler issues of December 1984. Researchers counted children in cartoons or photographs, and references to children in cartoon/photograph captions.

Each cartoon or photograph was examined for characteristics of the child or adult depicted, the activities in which the child was involved, the nature of the activity, and the state of dress or undress of the child. Pseudo-children (adults dressed and posed as children) and any discrepant body features, such as oversized breasts on a small child''s frame, were also noted.

The study identified three basic themes: nonsexual, nonviolent activities such as simple memories; violent activities such as murder, maiming or surgical procedures; and sexual activities such as intercourse or a child appearing nude.

In the visuals, Hustler, was the most apt to present a child as partially or fully nude (37 percent of its Principal Children). It also was the most likely to depict the children with genital or full nudity (21 percent). However, Penthouse also was likely to present a sexually exposed child (27 percent of its Principal Children), and Playboy was coded with 10 percent of its Principal Children as sexually exposed to some degree in its photographs and illustrations.

A total of 6,004 photographs, illustrations and cartoons depicting children only, not including pseudo children appeared in the 683 magazines. Hustler depicted children most often, an average of 14.1 times per issue, followed by Playboy (8.2 times per issue) and

Penthouse (6.4 times per issue).

From 1954 to 1984, these 6,004 images of children were interspersed with 15,000 images of crime and violence, 35,000 female breasts, 9,000 female genitalia and 3,000 gynecological images, as well as thousands of images of adultery, non-violent and violent female homosexuality and a broad spectrum of other confusing and arousing adult and juvenile sexual stimuli.

As the only mainstream newsstand publication of its genre from 1954 to 1968, Playboy averaged 17 monthly depictions of children, crime and violence. Since 1975, the addition of Penthouse and Hustler increased the newsstands available aggregate to 111 monthly depictions. In sum, these magazines have paired adult female nudity with images of children, crime and violence, for millions of juvenile and adult readers for over three decades.

What is the effect of such mixed forms of stimuli upon readers, both juvenile and adult?

Dr. Marianne Wamboldt, a child psychiatrist, and Dr. Janet Negley, a child psychologist stated for the study by Judith Reisman that "Parents who diaper and soothe a baby, deal with a tempestuous toddler and teach a youngster to ride a bicycle have established a parental relationship with that child, and this activates instinctual, biological drives and unconscious archetypes of parenting. These drives also proscribe sexual relationships with children and reinforce taboos against incest.

"One possible dangerous effect of these pictures is that they disinhibit the prohibition, making less secure people more aware of inappropriate sexual feelings and more confused about what to do about them. Repeated exposure to sexual scenes with adolescent (or younger) girls could stimulate hidden sexual feelings towards young girls which a man had been keeping at bay...

"The magazine editors will surely say they are only interested in stimulating fantasy, not illegal acts. But to a person who has difficulty separating fantasy from reality, the magazine gives tremendously confusing messages..."

Contrary to popular belief, the depiction of sexual and nonsexual child abuse has not been limited to "hardcore" pornography. It is surprising to many people as early as 1954 Playboy delivered 170 images of crime and/or violence to the public. Total newsstand depictions increased 650 percent (to 1005) across all three magazines by 1984.

Besides which, most of the children in Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler did not belong to the high school age group. Nearly half of the Principal Children -- 51% depicted in cartoons and 46% depicted in visuals -- were between 3 and 11 years of age.¹

According to Ann Burgess, noted clinical researcher and author, in testimony to the U.S. Attorney General''s Commission of Pornography, 1985:

"1. There is increasing evidence that adult pornography is used in the sexual abuse of children to normalize sexual violence, desensitize trauma and injury to the victim, and justify sexual aggression to children and females.

"2. There is increasing evidence that adult pornography educates for sexual deviancy (paraphilias) and plays a major role in maintaining a psychological dependence on the imagery."

Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler are the three top-selling erotic/pornographic sociosexual magazines in the U. S. today, according to Folio (1984), a magazine market research firm. But there are approximately 500 different titles to choose from in the 1990''s in comparison to only 30 different titles in 1963.

In a survey for the U.S. Attorney General''s Commission onPornography, in 1985 done by Jennings Bryant, Ph.D., "the average age at which male respondents saw their first issue of Playboy or a similar magazine was 11 years. All of the high school males surveyed reported having read or looked at Playboy or Playgirl, or some other soft-core magazine."

Experts who have studied the use of erotica/pornography by young people have concluded that it serves an educational function. The educative role of these magazines is acknowledged by such publishers as hugh Hefner of Playboy and is exemplified by the comments by boys and girls in Hass'' study, Teenage Sexuality, (1979, pp. 153-160):

"I used to just look at the pictures. Now I like to read the articles to see what other people are doing sexually -- so I know if I''m right ... Also, the articles about what girls enjoy from guys help me ..." and "these magazines gave me something to go by ... on where things are, how they''re done, and how it feels ... (they) interest me and I enjoy reading and learning new things about sex ... I also got in the mood where I felt like doing something I wouldn''t normally do ..."

Also from an educative point of view it is disturbing to note that much of the visual data in Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler is not only available to children, but often marketed to children. Approximately 4,000 additional cartoons were found to contain images of special appeal to the child: space ships, cowboys and Indians, dolls, brides, Mickey Mouse figures and the like. When viewed from this child''s perspective, approximately 30% of Playboy, 40% of Penthouse and 50% of Hustler cartoons have unique appeal for the child.²

Since the May 1954 issue of Playboy, in which a boy scout troop solicits sex from adult women, children have appeared in sexual contexts with adults: soliciting, observing, or receiving sexual contacts. By November 1954, Playboy had a toddler of about one or two years offering money to a woman -- perhaps his mother -- for sex. Fully 75% of all cartoons in which a child was initiating some activity, something identified that activity to have some sexual or violent component.³

Both the fairy tale cartoon theme and this type of magazine''s increase in perverse violence and sexuality may best be seen by noting the one decade change in the Dorothy character from the Wizard of Oz. In Playboy (November, 1968) Dorothy was a flat-chested younster in a small black and white implied sex scene with the scarecrow. In March, 1978, Dorothy was in a full page, color, gang-rape scene as a full-breasted child-women. By November, 1982, Dorothy was seen as a Hustler pseudo-child soliciting bestiality and orgy activities from her three friends.⁴

It is also disturbing to note that of 330 advertisements, cartoons, photos and illustrations of Santa Claus from 1957 to 1985 in these three magazines, 324 identified the aged, benevolent figure in sexual or violent, drug- or alcohol-using scenarios.⁵

In Hustler, a "Chester the Molester" cartoon by Dwaine Tinsley depicted an adolesent girl who is sexually assaulted in a park commode. Such an actual incident was reported in 1985 by a law enforcement officer. In a public campground, park rangers were called to remove a man from the interior of the women''s toilet cistern. Another "Chester the Molester" cartoon showed a man underwater, wearing goggles and approaching a young girl in a pool. In the Silver Spring public pool a man similarly adopted goggles for the purpose of underwater child molestation.⁶

Larry Flynt, the publisher of Hustler, testified on September 20, 1977, to the American House Subcommittee on Crime that "Pornography is my business. And I have over 10 million readers of my magazine, it is a combined readership, over 50 million. The majority of the letters that come into my magazine are from people that would like to see photographs of shaved genitalia. What they are really asking for is photgraphs of children, but they can''t come out and say it. There are millions of those dirty old men out there, and legislation is not going to help it, it is going to make it worse.

"Gentlemen, in all due respect, I submit that there are millions, not a handful, millions of people out there that are turned on by children and want to see them sexually exploited." (p.262)

Adolescents have been the primary target of sexual abuse, but there is a recent sharp increase in oral veneral disease among children under five years of age, who have been infected by their fathers, older brothers, or boyfriends of the mother. (UCLA Monthly Alumni Magazine, May/June 1977)

A Newsweek Poll by Gallup (March 18, 1985) found 73 percent of respondents believed explicit sexual magazines, movies and books lead some people to commit rape or other sexual violence while 93 percent called for stricter control of magazines displaying sexual visual violence.

Every area that has lessened the restrictions on pornography has found an increase in sexual crimes. (See Appendix A) In 60 American Cities where hard-core pornography (like the materials found in the "Adults-Only Video" store) became tightly controlled and regulated, the number of sexual assaults has decreased. In Oklahoma County the rape rate has decreased by 27% since 1984 During the same period rapes increased in the rest of the State by 20.8%. (Uniform Crime Report, 1989) A study of video pornography (Restricted Sexual Content) for the Legislative Assembly of Ontario (November 21, 1991) found 71.5% of all scenes involved sexual violence, including rape, sexual harassment, sadomasochism and sexual mutilations. Dr. Wm. Marshall of Queen''s University in Kingston, Ontario found that eighty-seven percent of molesters of female children and seventy-seven percent of molesters of male children admitted to regular use of hard-core pornography.⁷

The Toronto Sun reported on May 29, 1991 that 27,000 sexual assaults were reported to police across Canada in 1990, an amount nearly double the number in 1984, according to Statistics Canada.

It is not true that people who support legislation against pornography think that sex is dirty. On the contrary, we think so highly of sex as the intimate expression of the loving bond between a man and a woman that we feel it deserves far better treatment.

This evening I would like to ask you on behalf of the children, and women of our city to enact market specific zoning restrictions so that stores wishing to market these pornographic magazines and/or videos could be controlled regarding their placement in the community. (ie: 1km from schools of churches.)

I would also like you to restructure business license fees so that stores catering to this segment of the population must pay a separate licensing fee based on cubic footage of display and storage areas for these materials, be they soft core pornographic magazines or hard core magazines, books, and videos. Revenues from this surcharge or extra fee could be set aside to pay for community ervices to families who have been destroyed by the effects of pornography, or set aside to defray the extra policing costs which are associated with the distribution of pornography. Do not look at this as exhorbitant taxation of some small businesses in our community; rather see it as it is -- inadequate local taxation of a multibillion dollar unregulated industry in North America. The small business owners are not forced to carry these materials; probably for all the businesses inour community, these materials are an extra product, not related to their bread-and-butter market niche.

I would also ask that you restrict the display, packaging and placement of hard and soft core pornographic magazines, newspapers and books in cornerstores, and wherever else they may be found. If the business owner is willing to pay the surcharge to peddle or distribute these materials, the materials must be kept out of sight behind the counter, where they must be asked for. Establishments carrying these materials should be visibly labeled so patrons would know that they are supporting purveyors of pornography.

Pornography is an abuse of free speech. The choice is not between pornography and censorship. The choice is between civil rights and civil responsibility.

The true test of a civilized society is measured by the provisions it makes for its least empowered -- the children. In this time of changing interpretation and enforcement of pornography statutes, renewed commitment for the well-being of our children is critical.

Apathy, fear and ignorance are some of the tools pornographers make use of to proliferate their market influence in our nation. On behalf of my children and the thousands of other children who live in our community, I ask you tonight to help make it a safer place to grow up in by curbing access to this addictive, desensitizing and potentially dangerous form of entertainment.

ENDNOTES

¹ "A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF PLAYBOY, PENTHOUSE, AND HUSTLER MAGAZINES WITH SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE PORTRAYAL OF CHILDREN, CRIME AND VIOLENCE, Judith A. Reisman, Ph.D., The Institute for Media Education, January, 1986.

² Supra, 1.

³ Supra, 1.

⁴ Supra, 1.

⁵ Supra, 1.

⁶ Supra, 1.

⁷ Marshall, S., "Pornography and Sex Offenders." In Zillmann, D. and Bryant, J. (Eds.), Pornography: Research Advances and Policy Considerations. (Academic Press, New York, 1989)