Two Commissions in the United States
Pornography Legal Status United States The Two Commissions
Introduction to Two Commissions
Two national commissions appointed to study the effects of pornography in the United States show how tolerance of such material ebbs and flows. In 1970 the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, created by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968, found no evidence that pornography caused crime or delinquency among adults and youths. Although the commission supported laws prohibiting sales of pornographic materials to children, it recommended eliminating all legal restrictions on the use by consenting adults of sexually explicit books, magazines, pictures, and films. This position was consistent with the dominant liberal view of the time and with much of the social science and psychological literature that was then available. Although the commission’s findings were widely reported, politicians rejected them.
In 1985 Attorney General Edwin Meese III formed another national commission to study the effects of pornography. By this time, society had changed in several ways. Pornography had become even more available; a new generation of social science studies suggested a link between exposure to violent or degrading pornography and male aggression against women in laboratory settings; and new conservative and feminist movements were joining hands to attack pornography. In addition, the membership of the new commission was decidedly more conservative than that of the 1970 commission. Not surprisingly, the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography, also known as the Meese Commission, reached strikingly different conclusions than did its predecessor. In its 1986 report, the commission concluded that violent pornography and degrading pornography (pornography showing the “degradation, domination, or humiliation” of women) cause violence and discrimination against women and an erosion of sexual morality. The Meese Commission’s report suffered the same fate as that of the 1970 commission, being largely ignored.” (1)
Resources
Notes and References
- Information about Two Commissions in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia