US Sex Sells News

A Virginia lawmaker is asking the state legislature to declare pornography a public health hazard 204 a move he hopes will pave the way for limits of some sort.

Delegate Robert G. Marshall has proposed a resolution claiming that pornography leads to many social problems and that the General Assembly, which convenes its annual session on Jan. 11, needs to do something about it. Just what lawmakers should do is unspecified.

The measure does not call for any sort of ban, only a broad recognition of the need for education, prevention, research, and policy change at the community and societal level in order to address the pornography epidemic that is harming the people of the Commonwealth and the nation.

The legislation frames pornography not just as a moral scourge that leads to infidelity, the hypersexualization of teenagers and deviant sexual arousal, but as a weapon against women. The measure blames pornography for low self-esteem and body image disorders and devotes a lot of attention to the objectification of women and girls.

The resolution piqued the interest of state Senator Barbara A. Favola, a women's rights campaigner. She said:

We will talk about it in the women's health caucus, I'm sure of that. He's right; pornography does have a negative impact on public health, and it does lead to lots of other issues. I'm going to look at it.

  Cecil Howard, one of the most respected and talented directors of adult movies' Golden Age, has passed. According to his son, he died in his sleep Friday morning. He was 85 years old.

Howard's XXX career began as a producer for Weston and established directors Henri Pachard and Chuck Vincent. Even then, Howard was very protective of his brand, never licensing the films to any other company, never allowing the scenes to be compiled.

His filmography as director reads:

1992 Dead Boyz Can't Fly (as Howard Winters)
1990 The Last X-rated Movie 2
1990 The Last X-rated Movie 3
1990 The Last X-rated Movie 4
1987 Firestorm II: The Angel Blade
1987 Snake Eyes II
1986 Star Angel
1985 Dangerous Stuff
1985 Snake Eyes
1985 Spitfire
1984 Firestorm
1982 Scoundrels
1982 Foxtrot
1981 Neon Nights
1981 Platinum Paradise
1979 Steam Heat
1977 The Final Sin
1977 Heat Wave (as Umberto Corleone)
1976 Peach Fuzz
1976 Fantasex (as Howard Winters)
1975 Illusion of Love

1990 The Last X-rated Movie (Video)
1989 Dreamwalk (Video)
1989 Firestorm 3 (Video)
1989 Sinners 3 (Video)
1988 Sinners (Video)
1988 Sinners 2 (Video)
1987 Babes in Joyland (Video)
1983 Babylon Gold (Video)

And some of his accolades:

1984 AVN Award 203 Best Director, Film (Scoundrels)
1987 AVN Award 203 Best Director, Film (Star Angel)
XRCO Hall of Fame
AVN Hall of Fame[6]

Usually the Guardian's high priestesses of PC rail against impersonal commercial relationships involving sex as 'objectification', due to the perceived lack of interest in the sex workers offering the service. The US TV show, The Girlfriend Experience , spends its time filling in the details of the back story about the feelings and motivations of the sex workers. Surely the exact opposite of 'objectification'. The Guardian's TV reviewer tries to address this point. I'm none the wiser about the answer but I loved the phrase describing the Guardians feminist output as: "scathing think pieces'. Anyway the reviewer explained:

By humanizing these characters, by providing them with a rich inner life -- and, therefore, a backstory to and a reason for all the fucking -- we can justify watching them fuck. To merely objectify them, to ignore their personhood, would be construed as a form of sex shaming, opening us up as the potential subjects of scathing think pieces. The viewership of these new shows are not allergic to nuance; they possess the ability for complex thought and a desire to treat and investigate their minds as sexual organs.

 

The state of Georgia voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump. At the same time the electorate decided to screw the state's adult businesses. Just over 83% of Georgia's nearly 4 million voters voted to enact the Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Children Fund, which would be bankrolled by placing additional fines on convicted sex offenders, including sex workers engaging in consensual sexual acts--and an annual $5,000 fee on adult book- and video stores, adult nightclubs, and possibly even adult-oriented boutiques that don't carry any hardcore material.

Georgia's ballot question read:

Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow additional penalties for criminal cases in which a person is adjudged guilty of keeping a place of prostitution, pimping, pandering, pandering by compulsion, solicitation of sodomy, masturbation for hire, trafficking of persons for sexual servitude, or sexual exploitation of children and to allow assessments on adult entertainment establishments to fund the Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Children Fund to pay for care and rehabilitative and social services for individuals in this state who have been or may be sexually exploited?

Georgia is a rather miserable state with cities that won't allow anyone to purchase vibrators and other sex toys.

California voters have rejected Proposition 60, which would have required actors to use condoms in porn films.

The measure also created new licensing requirements, as well as testing, vaccinations and medical exams of performers. It also included a nasty provision allowing producers to be sued if they violate the law.

The measure would have created a lawsuit bonanza by allowing anyone, including vindictive anti-porn campaigners to sue people who produce and distribute adult films, even for example, married couples who make videos in their own homes.

With 99.7%of the precincts at least partially reporting, the No's carried the day with 53.9% versus 46.1% of the Yes's.

The measure was sponsored by an anti porn group calling itself the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

The New York State Supreme Court has ruled that it was not unconstitutional for the New York Department of Taxation to tax the admission fees to adult entertainment clubs, even if similar non-adult venues are exempt.

The judges bizarrely claimed that dancing wasn't dancing if it was the primary appeal of the performance. Perhaps hadn't read the simple dictionary definition of the word: move rhythmically to music.

The case stretches back to 2009, when the Department of Taxation audited the Manhattan branch of Larry Flynt's Hustler Club and found that the club had not paid excise taxes on the sale of the club's Beaver Bucks, used to pay for stripping performances in the VIP room, lap dances, and to tip dancers, waitresses and bartenders.

The tax man proceeded to bill the club in 2014 and the club launched an appeal against the decision noting that dancing venues have historically been exempt from excise taxes.

Judge Gardner claimed that dancing only counts as dancing if it is live dramatic, and a choreographed performance ruling that the club:

Provides a service to its patrons that essentially boils down to performers who remove their clothing and create an aura of sexual fantasy. The plain facts of this case have been obfuscated in an attempt to characterize [exotic dancing as] live dramatic, choreographed performances. However, the services provided by the entertainers at the Hustler Club is sexual fantasy, not dance ... The movements, whether dance moves or other choreography, that compromise an entertainer's routine and that appeal to the patron, are ancillary to the ultimate service sold, which is sexual fantasy/

In fact the court judgement continued that it didn't matter anyway as the state can arbitrarily choose what forms of entertainment should be exempted from tax and that there is nothing in tax laws to prevent the state from using tax to moralise and to encourage activities deemed socially desirable.

It's unclear at this time whether the club's attorneys will appeal the state Supreme Court's decision to the federal court system.

The Pentagon pays a board of censors who review pornography for the US military. The board consisting of military and civilian members has to review material and determine whether it's sexually explicit, as it's against the law for hardcore porn to be sold or rented on military bases.

The ludicrous waste of money was revealed in a Freedom of Information Act request at the website Government Attic that offered a few more details on the inner workings of this review process, and what kind of titles the board banned for sale to US troops.

In 2006 the board banned titles including Nasty Housewives and Cheri . The 2006 board banned  magazines such as 30 Something, Raunchy Couples, Young & Stacked, and videos Beach Babes 2, Bikini Traffic School, and Obsessed with Lust.

A few soft titles are allowed, though, most notably Playboy, Maxim, and FHM.

Thankfully military personnel are allowed to buy proper pornography off base or online.

The ban of porn tems from a 1996 law called the Military Honor and Decency Act. The law sought to restrict sales and rentals of sexually explicit material on bases, and though it was challenged on first amendment grounds, it was upheld as constitutional by an appeals court in 1997. The porn censorship board held its first meeting on July 29, 1998.

According to meeting minutes released under FOIA of what is called the Resale Activities Board of Review, it takes about a day or two for the Pentagon to figure out what is and is not porn. In 2006, the board looked at 18 magazines and 6 videos. In 2007 and 2008, they checked out 23 and 24 magazines, respectively.

After they've reviewed the materials, censors vote by secret ballot, the documents show. And once it's deemed sexually explicit, it's supposed to come off the shelves. The board costs the DoD about $5,500 a year.

Several porn websites are alerting their viewers living in California that they could be blocked from the state should Proposition 60 be accepted in a public ballot next month.

Proposition 60 is measure proposed by anti-porn campaigners that would require adult performers to use condoms for all videos made in the state. If they don't, the law would allow any citizen in the state to sue producers and distributors of prophylactic-lacking porn.

In protest, popular sites Vivid, Evil Angel and Kink, among others, have pop-ups urging visitors with California IP addresses to vote no on the proposition come election day. If it passes, some are considering blocking those users entirely to protect themselves from litigation.

Prop 60 is sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and operates much like Los Angeles' Measure B initiative passed in 2012, but would apply to the entire state.

The adult industry is opposed to it as there exists considerable customer resistance to condom protected porn. The existing adult trade policy of continuous testing of performers has kept AIDS infections to extraordinarily low numbers in the last few years and so the new law proposal is only of benefit to anti-porn activists. Performers would be placed in more danger by such a new law as commercial pressures will surely drive sections of the industry underground and outside of the testing regime.

The proposed law also has a nasty requirement for performers to be identified with real world names so exposing studios and actors/actresses to harassment by stalkers, trolls and anti-porn activists.

In 2003 the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Lawrence v. Texas in struck down laws prohibiting anal and oral sex. However this has not prevented the state of Mississippi from disgracefully continuing to persecute those who partake in anal and oral sex.

Although anal and oral sex is no longer illegal, Mississippi still has laws on its books requiring transgressors to register as sex offenders. And f you think that this is just some weird anachronism, that couldn't possibly still be enforced, then think again. Five victims of this law have filed a class action against Mississippi.

They are suing Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood and others in the state's administration and investigatory agencies for:

Continu[ing] to enforce its criminal statute prohibiting sodomy, titled Unnatural Intercourse, Miss. Code Ann. §97-29-59, by requiring people convicted of Unnatural Intercourse to register as sex offenders and follow myriad, onerous prescriptions on their everyday life pursuant to Mississippi's sex offender registry law, Miss. Code Ann. §45-33-21 et seq ... Mississippi also requires individuals convicted of violating sodomy prohibitions in other jurisdictions (whether or not those prohibitions are registerable offenses in the original jurisdiction) to comply with Mississippi's registration law.

The suit goes on to detail the indignities those branded as sodomites must go through to comply with Mississippi's criminal code, including having their photos and personal information displayed on publicly accessible sex offender websites, file changes of address with the state, being forced to disclose all online user names and identities not only to the state but to potential employers, as well as the names and addresses of employers and schools attended--and being barred from certain areas such as campgrounds and beaches where young children may be present.

The reason the five plaintiffs have filed their suit as a class action is, according to the Complaint, that:

The putative class is so numerous as to render joinder impractical. There are dozens of individuals statewise who must register as sex offenders solely or in part because of a conviction for Unnatural Intercourse or a conviction considered to be an out-of-state equivalent.