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Oct 01, 1999 Symposium asks: 'Pornography or free expression?' By MEL ASH Middletown Press Staff MIDDLETOWN -- "A book worth banning is a book worth reading" read one button worn to "Censorship: The Naked Truth," a symposium held Thursday at Wesleyan University. The symposium, billed as a "discussion to mark Banned Books Week," drew a sold-out crowd of more than 400 people to the Center for the Fine Arts auditorium. The symposium focused tightly on censorship battles over what some call pornography and what others call free expression. Hope Weissman drew the longest applause from the hometown crowd who gathered to hear her comments on the controversial pornography class she taught last year at Wesleyan. The class kicked up a firestorm of negative national attention and came under administrative review at Wesleyan, even though, Weissman said, no students or parents ever complained about the course or its contents. Weissman, professor at the College of Letters, has been on sabbatical but broke her silence as one of the panel's featured speakers. "I am the perpetrator of the seminar on pornography," she announced to laughter and applause. "It was this course, or rather a caricature of this course, that brought down the wrath of Dr. Laura and Rush Limbaugh," Weissman said, referring to nationally syndicated radio talk show hosts who attacked Weissman on their shows with what she felt was a "distorted image." Weissman said the new forms of censorship aren't as obvious or heavy-handed as before. "It's a kinder, gentler censorship," she smiled. "A collusion of media, government and commercial interests will create a climate of intimidation. It leads to the inhibition of free speech even about free speech." Weissman bemoaned the lack of a public meeting place or "sphere" for the free exchange of ideas. "The freedom to learn is at stake," she said, warning of "the centrifugal force of our believer culture." Weissman said she wasn't encouraged by Wesleyan's administration to battle public and media misperceptions of her class, but prescribed ways to do so in the future. "We need to circulate counter-image to the caricatures in the media. The media looks for sound bites that are easily translated into words and then into images," she said. Daniel Silver, a lawyer who specializes in adult entertainment law in New Britain, was another panelist. "The whole issue of pornography is really an issue of fear," Silver said. "The issue is usually used to raise political aspirations, especially around election time. At least six or seven Connecticut communities are currently talking about regulations dealing with local censorship." Silver said people are afraid of the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech, even unpopular or offensive speech. "Whether we like it or not, porn is a significant part of American society," Silver said. The third member of the panel, Nadine Strossen, is the youngest president of the American Civil Liberties Union in its history and author of "Defending Pornography." "The United States has a schizoid attitude about sex and sexual expression," Strossen said. "I must have given 2,000 speeches so far. There have been only three attempts to stop me from speaking and all those times were during speeches about freedom of sexual expression." The definition of pornography is what most concerned Strossen. "There's that old saying that 'What turns me on is erotica, but what turns you on is pornography.' The word 'porn' is most often used in attacks on sexual expression that are usually linked with attacks on women, feminism or other minority groups such as gays and lesbians," she said. Strossen read one of many national editorials about Weissman and her course, this one from a Bismarck, N.D., paper: "The feminist professor is drawn to pornography because she is on a level of development with animals. Hasn't she ever heard of God?" Strossen said sexual expression challenges the most "established orthodoxies" and is what concerns the forces of repression more than actual "pornography." "Sexual expression challenges every aspect of conformity. It's not only about sexual expression, though, it's about human freedom. Freedom of expression promotes diversity and non-conformist behavior. "It's no accident that after the fall of repressive regimes in Russia and other countries, the first thing that happened was an explosion of erotica." Strossen said the explosion in use of the Internet has also raised many censorship issues. "Every time there's a new medium of communication, there will be battles. The Internet links the public's fear of sex with its fear of technology," Strossen said. Weissman, who had earlier criticized the media for only seeking sound bites, seemed to have mastered the art of concise verbal self-defense and closed her comments forcefully, after calling for better academic review procedures. "We need to transform the ideological marketplace into a meeting place, the climate of intimidation into a climate of attention. We have to change the politics of suppression into the ethics of accommodation," she said. "Perhaps it's just the idealism of a 'pornologist', but as I see it, it's the naked truth. Before we judge, we need to understand," she said. |
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