The Danger of Protecting Our Children: Government Porn Regulation Threatens Alternative Representations and Doesn't Save Kids

Abstract

In 1999, I wanted to make a video based on my book, The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women. I liked the idea of making a how-to video, but while most of the instructional videos I'd seen were informative, they were, well, pretty boring. I wanted to make an educational anal sex video that not only taught viewers how to have safe and pleasurable anal sex, but also inspired them to do it because what they were watching was sexy and hot. Instead of discussing and demonstrating tips and techniques in a clinical way, I wanted to show heat and excitement, but I knew that as soon as I included explicit, hardcore sex, I was in the land of pornography. That was okay, though. My first exposure to porn was seeing feminist porn like On Our Backs, Debi Sundahl's How to Female Ejaculate, and videos from Fatale Video. I knew pornography had the potential to be feminist. I want porn to be more sex-positive, and I want more sex-positive porn. There is one great force which could stop me and others from making a different kind of porn: the government. Right now, its greatest weapon is title 18, section 2257 of the United States Code (which I'll call "2257" for short).