“FAIR-TRADE PORNOGRAPHY’’ could have been written as a promotion piece for the pornography industry. The Feb. 9 op-ed panders to the ill-advised concept that porn is a fact of life, so we should just get used to it. Rape is a fact of life - should I just get used to it? Pedophilia is a fact of life too - should innocent children just get used to it?
Politically correct labels be darned, porn communicates that women are objects or, worse, simply pleasure-giving machines to be discarded after they are exploited. Porn destroys intimate relationships and families. It permanently corrupts the minds of children, and teaches some to molest younger children. Porn promotes the so-called rape myth that when women say no, they really mean yes, thereby resulting in greater incidence of rape. FBI statistics show that 80 percent of serial murderers are addicted to pornography.
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The only way to slow the spread of this vile cancer is active enforcement of obscenity laws, with officials cooperating at the national, state, and local levels. Let it begin with the Justice Department prosecuting major commercial distributors of hard-core adult pornography.
Maureen Vacca
Director of public policy
Massachusetts Family Institute
Woburn