An essay by Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University and editorial board member of Public Discourse

This essay, published 17 October 2011,  is adapted from remarks he delivered earlier this month at a conference honoring John Finnis at the University of Notre Dame.

Copyright 2011 The Witherspoon Institute – PUBLIC DISCOURSE – Ethics, Law and the Common Good.

Quote:

“….the familiar depiction of the debate over pornography regulation as pitting the “rights of individuals,” on the one side, against some amorphous “majority’s dislike of smut,” on the other, is false to the facts. The public interest in a cultural structure—in which, as Dworkin says, “sexual experience has dignity and beauty”—is the concrete interest of individuals and families who constitute “the public.” The obligations of others to respect their interests, and of governments to respect and protect them, is a matter of justice.”

For fulll essaygo to: http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/10/3958

http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/12004926/porn-study-grant-worth-790-000/

Comment: One of the objects for which the Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc., (“SPCS”) was established was to focus public attention on the harmful nature of pornography. For the purposes of section 3 of the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 (“the Act”), “a publication is objectionable if it descibes, depicts, expresses, or otherwise deals with matters of sex, horror, crime, cruelty, or violence in such a manner that the availabliity of the publication is likely to be injurious to the public good.”

The Act recognises that children and young persons, in particular, are vulnerable to the harmful effects of exposure to pornography – hence age restrictions are imposed by the censors on poronographic publications and others are banned. The “extent and degree to which, and the manner in which the publication depicts…  sexual conduct of a degrading or dehumanising or demeaning sexual conduct” is one criterion used to determine whether or not it is to be classified objectionable.

Family First NZ, a charity registered with the Charities Commission, has also been at the forefront of highlighting the offensive nature of hardcore pornograhy and documenting how it is injurious to the public good.

Denise Richie, director of Stop the Demand Foundation, another charity registered with the Charities Commission, put it this way, in her submission to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) , as part of  her complaint against a “mobile billboard” displayed prominently in a public place – promoting the Erotica Lifestyles Expo:

“The image is designed to simulate a woman with her fingers in her [******] It is standard Steve Crow fare, with its focus on dehumanising women and reducing them to their genitalia”. (ASA decision dated 14/09/2010 concerning complaint 10/448).

(Eden Digital Ltd, directed up until recently by John Malcolm Carr, which owned the license for Erotica Lifestyles Expo, was put into liquidation on 22 November 2011).

The Society (SPCS), as part of its objects, seeks “to support freedom of expression which does not injure the public good by degrading, dehumanising or demeaning individuals or classes of people.” Hardcore pornography has the effect degrading, dehumanising and demeaning women. Its negative impact on viewers of such material has been well-documented in the literature.

The majority of its $434,000 debt is owed to the NZ Inland Revenue Department and Trade creditors are owed $119,000 according to the Liquidator’s first report published today on the Companies Office website (www.companies.govt.nz). The report records the reasons provided by the director Mr Carr for Eden Digital being put into into liquidation and they include:

(1) the company was in default with its financiers and demand was made on the company due to that default, (2) the company has been supported financially by related entities [directed by John M Carr] and recently their financial support was withdrawn (3) the business was recently sold and such proceeds were applied to the security holder(s) [listed below], (4) with no remaining assets the company was unable to trade and as a result its only shareholder [CVC Group Ltd, directed by John M Carr] had no option but to place the company into receivership, (5) Eden Digital Ltd that held the licence for Erotica Lifestyles Expo, cancelled the license which meant that this aspect of its business could not continue.

The Waikato Times reported on 18 November 2011 that the Hamilton City Council “had been approached by Eden Digital Media [sic] to book Claudelands [event venue] for the [Erotica Lifestyles] expo in March [2012]“.

Fortunately for the Council, its councillors voted yesterday against allowing this hardcore porn fest using council facilities, given the fact that Eden Digital must have been insolvent throughout much of the period of time that its officers entered into negotiations with the Hamilton City Council. The Liquidator will be examining such matters to determine whether or not the company director John M Carr may have committed offences under the Companies Act 1993 (eg. trading whie insolvent)..

The majority of councillors (9 to 1) took the view that it was “inappropriate” to use the Claudelands venue for the staging of porn related activities as proposed by David Crow. They voted against the Arena being used for this proposed event.

David Bruce Crow, has been reported as acting as “spokesperson” for Esprit Events Ltd (Co. No. 3648912), another company directed by John M Carr and only recently incorporated on 10 November 2011. David Crow made an approach to the Hamilton City Council seeking the use of the Claudelands event venue for the sexpo, but without success. Concerned over the moral welfare of the community, councillors voted against the proposed use of the events venue to stage and promote porn 9 to 1.

Secured creditors of Eden Digital Ltd include its shareholder, CVC Group Ltd, directed by John M Carr, Vision rentals Ltd, Solutions Group Receivables, Konica Minolta Business Solutions and Harper Collins Publishers.

Unsecured creditors include Inland Revenue, Ezisoft Computer Systems Ltd directed by David Bruce Crow and owned by his wife Carolyn Rose Crow; PJ Digital Ltd and San Antonio-US -based Better Business Services both owned and directed by John Malcolm Carr and the ASB Showgrounds, Epsom, Auckland – the former longtime venue for Erotica Lifestyles Expo.

They are all unlikely to receive anything according to the Liquidator, Grant Bruce Reynolds of Reynolds & Associates Ltd, Insolvency Practitioners of Penrose,  Auckland.

Update: Liquidatation Notice – NZ Herald Thursday 24 November 2011. The failed company was put into liquidation puruant to section 241(2)(a) of the Companies Act 1993.

The Strategy and Policy Committee yesterday rejected the proposal, viewing the event to be held at the Council-run Claudelands events venue as unsuitable for the city. [The expo promotes hardcore pornography].

The Committee agreed that a report into the need for a policy on appropriate events to be held at Council premises, including Claudelands, and in public places was required. This report will return to the Committee early next year.

Committee chair Maria Westphal said: “We had a full discussion around the proposal to host this event, but our view was that it was not appropriate to hold it at Council’s Claudelands venue.

‘The view of most councillors was that the adult lifestyles aspect of the Expo, and the likely promotion of it with the ‘Boobs on Bikes’ parade was not a good fit with the family friendly values of our city.”

http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/11941317/thumbs-down-for-erotica-lifestyles-expo/

Note: Esprit Events Ltd (Co. No. 3648912) was incorporated on 10 November 2011.  Its spokesperson in media reports on the expo has been David Bruce Crow. Its registered office is at 2b/18 Triton Drive, Albany, NSC 0632.

That’s despite the facility facing a loss of up to $1.7 million in its first year, and the recent formation of a working group to pare down its budgets and muster custom.

Expo promoters Esprit Events’ spokesman David Crow said there were misconceptions about the expo, which featured “everything from luxury cars through spa pools, candy, liquor, tattooists [and] holidays to adult products. Of course we also provide a range of entertainment, including adult, for both genders,” he said. [Espirit Events Ltd was incorporated on 10 November 2011 and is directed by John Malcolm Carr, business partner of Steve Crow, David Crow's brother. It is owned by CVC Group Ltd which is also directed by John M Carr].

He [David Crow] expected up to 10,000 visitors at the R18 show and said the exhibition would also draw on local accommodation providers and suppliers during the course of a likely three day event.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/5996228/Erotica-expo-unlikely-for-Claudelands

Waikato Times readers prepared to venture an opinion online were largely unimpressed at the possibility of councillors turning down potential business on moral grounds.

Councillor Ewan Wilson was the only politician prepared to go on record who wasn’t either undecided, or most likely to vote against the event’s request to hire the arena.

“If the event is not breaking any law I don’t know if it’s our role to play `moral policeman’. We have a facility, and we shouldn’t be pre-determining what our ratepayers may or may not attend, if it’s within the legal bounds,” said Mr Wilson.

“Ultimately the consumer is the one who should choose whether they attend.”

Margaret Forsyth said the issue was a difficult one given Claudelands’ “business difficulties”, but she could support the event if it was more general in appeal than its name suggested, and the council could have some say over the way it was branded.

Maria Westphal said the issue had highlighted the lack of a policy guiding the types of events council wished to allow in the city’s venues, and councillors had to consider all the impacts – financial, moral and ethical – in deciding what sorts of events to allow.

Martin Gallagher said he didn’t support the event, but agreed that asking whether the city should be turning business away from Claudelands was a fair question.

Gordon Chesterman and Peter Bos weren’t prepared to comment before the council met.

Dave Macpherson is strongly opposed while Angela O’Leary and Mayor Julie Hardaker expressed significant reservations about the “fit” of the event with the image of the city

According to Statistics New Zealand, 273 Kiwi couples legalised their relationship in a civil union, of which 73 per cent [199] were same-sex. A further 65 civil unions were registeted to overseas residents.

The 199 same-sex civil unions entered into by Kiwi couples resident in New Zealand in 2010 constitutes 0.9% of the total unions (marriages + civil unions) entered into by NZ resident Kiwi couples in 2010.

Since the Civil Union Act came into force six years ago, and taking account of the growth in New Zealand population each year, the number of civil unions has progressively dropped each year from a high of 430 in 2006.

At the current rate of decline of civil unions entered into each year and the rate of dissolution of such relations, one wonders how long this ‘institution’ will go the way of the dinosaurs – a mysterious extinction that will catch us all by surprise.

The “two mums” Pauline Moreno and Debra Lobel live in California. They adopted Tommy at age 2, and say he declared he was a girl when he was 3. He now calls himself “Tammy”. His adoptive mums are giving him hormones to delay puberty so he has more time to think about changing his gender (Herald Sun, 18/10/11).

However critics say 11-year-olds are not old enough to make life-altering decisions about gender, and parents should not encourage them. “This is child abuse. It’s like performing liposuction on an anorexic child,” said Dr Paul McHugh, professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University.

“It is a disorder of the mind, not a disorder of the body. Dealing with it in this way is not dealing with the problem that truly exists. We shouldn’t be mucking around with nature. We can’t assume what the outcome will be.”

Dr Sotirios Sarantakos of Charles Stuart University studied children brought up in same-sex couple families, comparing them with children raised by two natural unmarried parents. The parents were carefully matched for education and socio-economic status. [see ref. 1.]

Dr Sarantakos found that children raised by their natural married parents did better than the others on almost every measure. Children raised by same-sex couples generally did worse.

Teachers noted that sexual identity was a problem area for some children raised in same-sex couple families. They were more effeminate and “more confused about their gender” than other children.

“Transgenderism, like homosexuality, is caused by life experiences rather than genes,” said Family Voice research officer Roslyn Phillips, auther of 2009 VoxBrief, The Transgender Problem.

“Young children like Tommy need a psychologist, not hormones or surgery. Tommy’s lesbian adoptive parents cannot be a father to Tommy, and could be adding to his gender confusion. It is another reason why, for the sake of the children, marriage should remain a man-woman union,” Mrs Phillips said.

Reference

1. Sarantakos, S, “Children in Three Contexts”, Children Australia, Vol 21, No 3, 1996.

Note: Source: VoxPoint, November 2011. p. 6. Reprinted from VoxPoint by permission of Family Voice Australia, 4th Floor, 68 Grenfell Street, Adelaide SA 5000.

Family First NZ Media Release 18 November:

Hamilton Councillors Should Reject Sex Expo

Family First NZ is calling on Hamilton Councillors to reject the application for the Erotica Expo to be held in the council-owned Claudelands Arena.

 “Council buildings should only be available for family-friendly events which are beneficial to the community. The Erotica Expo is simply an attempt to normalise the hard core pornography industry,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.

 “Pornography has a damaging effect on intimacy, love, and respect and at its worst, leads to sex role stereotyping, viewing persons as sexual objects, and family breakdown.”

 Research at Australia’s La Trobe University recently concluded “This is not about couples going to the porn store to spice up their sex lives. Men in growing numbers are using porn in ways that are secret, shameful and damaging. It is having a damaging impact on intimacy and sexuality.”

Research has also shown that children who are exposed to pornography develop skewed ideas about sex and sexuality, which lead to negative stereotypes of women, sexual activity at a young age, and increased aggression in boys.

A meta-analysis of research by the National Foundation for Family Research and Education (NFFRE) at the University of Calgary found that viewing pornography leads to perceptions of sexual dominance, sex role stereotyping, viewing persons as sexual objects, sexual aggressiveness, and sexually hostility and violent behaviours.

“We are asking the Hamilton City Council to exercise moral leadership and act in the best interests of families by rejecting this application. The Council should not be associated in any way with the promotion of the pornography industry which harms our families,” says Mr McCoskrie

ENDS

(John M Carr remains sole director of CVC Group Ltd which owns Eden Digital Ltd and he is a “business partner” of Stephen (Steve) Peter Crow. Carr directs and owns Payroll Solution Services Ltd, which was put into liquidation on the petition of the Inland Revenue Department on 2 September 2011 by the High Court of Auckland pursuant to s. 241(2)(c) of the Companies Act 1993, as well as about 30 other NZ companies. As at liquidation, Carr has advised the liquidators that Payroll Solution Services “held no realisable assets” It “provided services exclusively to companies related to the director” and “ceased to trade in April 2011″).

Ray Smith was Production Manager for the hardcore porn film directed by Steve Crow entitled “RIPE” – featuring 22-year old “Nikki” (not her real name), a three-and-a-half pregnant “wannabe porn star”.  The making of this video was dealt with in graphic detail on the 43 minute TV documentary “Naked Ambition” (recorded on 30 January 2003 and screened on TVNZ Channel One in May 2003);  produced by Creme Media (now owned by Greenstone Pictures, Auckland).

It featured Steve Crow – referred to as “Porn King” and owner at that time of Vixen Direct – a hardcore porn distribution company. It included several scenes with Raymond Simpson together with Steve Crow involved in the filming of the pregnant “Nikki” having sex with two men – co-stars “William a “stripper” aged 24 years and “Andy” a self-declared “exhibitionist” and printer by occupation aged 39 years. Both men were recruited by Crow to take part in his film project. The programme noted that both co-stars were filmed having sex a number of times with ”Nikki” over several days, commencing 10 minutes after meeting her “co-stars”.

There was considerable controversy in 2002 when Crow’s plan to use public hospital facilities to film “Nikki” giving birth – in order to include the footage in his porn film, became public knowledge via the media. Critics were incensed by the intended exploitation of the soon-to-be-born child who they claimed would forever be dubbed “the porn baby”. Crow argued that “Nikki” had a right to have the birth filmed and have it included in the film featuring her. It was all about “freedom of expression” he argued.

As soon as the Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc. learnt of Crow’s plans, its secretary wrote on behalf of the executive to the Chairperson of the Waikato Hospital Board, expressing concern over the moral and spiritual welfare oNikki’s child.  The chairperson, soon afterwards, wrote to “Nikki” banning the filming of her labour and birth in its delivery suite for “unlawful purposes”. Crow was cery angry over the Board’s banning order.

Then the Society wrote to the Minister of Heath. Hon. Annette King, expressing concern over the moral and spiritual welfare of Nikki’s baby and pointing out that the exploitation of the baby’s birth to make porn, was being done for pecuniary gain by “Porn King” Steve Crow.

Crow stated on the Naked Ambition documentary that there is an “insatiable demand” for hardcore porn and that in Europe porn featuring pregnant women having sex was “popular” – referred to in media as “pregnancy fetish porn flicks”).

About an hour after receiving the Society’s letter, the Minister made a decision and issued a Ministerial Order blocking Steve Crow (nd his production manager Ray Smith) from using any public hospital facility in New Zealand to film ”Nikki” giving birth to her child – for use in a porn film.

Child, Youth and Family Services made application to the the High Court for an order banning Crow from filming the birth of Nikki’s baby for the purposes of using this footage in a porn film.

In October 2002 a High Court Judge – Justice Paul Heath- issued an order banning Vixen Direct owner Steve Crow from using footage of Nikki’s baby in his porn film

In his 45-page ruling Justice Heath wrote:

“I find myself in total agreement with the chief social worker’s conclusion that Nikki’s desire to be a ‘star’ has, in fact, over-ridden her judgment about what is in the best interests of the unborn child.”

He allowed the recording of the birth, but only if an assurance was given the footage would not be used in the film. He adjourned the case until 18 December 2002 to “ascertain what steps have been taken since the making of these orders.”

He said if undertakings were filed and deliberately breached he would consider it “a very serious breach of court for which likely punishment would be imprisonment.”

References

King seeks advice over birth ‘porn’

14 October 2002 NZ Herald

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=2999028

Revelations that a New York artist is about to give birth in front of a live audience as part of her new installation The Birth of Baby X makes you wonder.

The New York Post has dubbed Marni Kotak “the Preggo Performer”, but the performance artist hopes life itself will be the star of her latest work………………

In 2002, ”Nikki”, a porn actor, wanted to film the birth of her child [in the neonatal unit of Waikato Public Hospital], which was to be shown in a pornographic movie [directed by pornographer Steve Crow] with the planned title Ripe.

No-one considered that birth to be the highest form of art.

There was outrage and CYF even applied to the High Court for guardianship of the unborn child.

In his 45-page written judgment Justice Heath said he was satisfied that a demand for pornographic material focusing on aspects of pregnancy and birth existed.

The name given to this particular sexual fetish is maiesophilia.

His decision meant Waikato Hospital had to back down on a decision to ban filming on its premises, but then Health Minister Annette King stepped in, using her statutory powers to ban the filming.

“It just offends me,” she said.

“It is not appropriate for a public hospital to be used to make pornography. I’ve had absolutely 100 percent support in this one.”

One such supporter was Waikato University psychology professor Jane Ritchie, who described the prospect of filming the birth for a porn movie as repugnant.

“It is not like she is doing it in New York,” she said, clearly unaware that nearly 10 years later, someone would do it in New York, albeit not for a porn movie, but still for a public performance.” 

Whatever the merits or otherwise of porn movies being considered art, the story does present an interesting view of the different approaches in the two countries to what is considered art.

Film maker Steve Crow said the movie idea was “just something that evolved”.

“The idea for a film from conception right through to birth.”

If that was said by anyone other than a porn movie maker, it would likely be considered an entirely valid proposition.

If Crow had said the movie would “recontextualise the everyday act of giving birth to a child into a work of performance art” he might have got away with it.

In the end, the filming never took place and Nikki and her “porn baby” – as critics dubbed the child – got on with their lives in a way that Kotek would likely consider to be a continuing performance.

“Real life is the best performance art,” she said.

Kotak has no fear for her or her baby’s safety, despite the unusual birth environment, confident the gallery is as safe as a hospital. She’s already planned her next work, the inevitable Raising Baby X, in which she will “re-contextualise the everyday act of raising a child into a work of performance art”.

It’s unlikely you’d get away with that in this country.

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/life-style/arts/5777681/Art-and-porn-divide